Barron's Challenge won't be over until April, but the contest's leading competitor received an unexpected bonus a little early.
Wharton junior Felix Wang, already in line to win $1,500 if he maintains his first-place position in the stock-picking competition, was visited yesterday by two business executives interested in his work.
Peter Yip, chief executive officer of CDC Corporation - which includes companies that focus on enterprise software and services, mobile applications and on online games - and Raymond Ch'ien, the company's chairman, paid Wang a visit after they discovered not only that a significant portion of his mock investment is in their company but also that Wang is a student at their alma mater.
Yip received his MBA from Wharton in 1976, and Ch'ien received a Ph.D. in Economics from Penn in 1978.
At the meeting, they discussed travel plans, business strategies and food around Penn's campus.
Wang said he was honored to receive the attention.
"I'd never actually met a CEO in person," he said.
Competitors in Barron's Challenge, a free contest open to students and teachers, choose stocks based on their performances in real life.
The contest was created by Barron's, a business newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company that boasts a circulation of over 300,000 readers.
Wang, a music minor who aspires to be a portfolio manager or an orchestra conductor when he graduates, said that the keys to his success thus far with Barron's are diligence and planning.
"You have to have a clear mind of what you want to achieve when you invest," he said.
Wang has held down the top spot since the contest began in October and is in good position to win when it ends in April - his stocks' performance has nearly doubled that of the closest competitor.
Wang said CDC - formerly called Chinadotcom - was the first security he chose.
"I really liked its positioning in the enterprise industry in China, which I still think is growing," he said.
And though CDC is up almost 60 percent since he bought it, the company is actually performing below Felix's average return on investment of nearly 70 percent.
Both executives are based in Shanghai, and they described their overlapping visits to Philadelphia as coincidental. Yip is passing through on his way to Aruba, while Ch'ien is here as a member of the University Board of Trustees.
"It's always good to come back on campus," Ch'ien said. "It's really much nicer."
