An investment program for undergraduate students

Live portfolio · Faculty oversight · Industry engagement

Students lead the research and recommendation process for a live investment portfolio, subject to the fund's investment policy and to TMIA's governance, oversight, and investment-decision authority.

The Program

The Texas Undergraduate Fund is an investment program for undergraduate students in which selected members conduct research, develop investment theses, debate portfolio actions, and produce investment recommendations that inform decisions on a live investment portfolio.

Members gain experience performing analyst- and portfolio-management-style work, from research and idea generation to portfolio construction. They build toward roles on both sides of the market: on the sell side, equity and credit research, sales and trading, and structuring; on the buy side, asset managers and hedge funds. In class, members present and defend their recommendations to faculty and peers. Separately, members receive educational feedback from investment counselors on process and analytical rigor.

Where TUF Comes From

The Texas Undergraduate Fund is the newest program in a lineage of investment programs for students at McCombs, founded in 1994 by Dr. George Gau and Dr. Keith Brown as the MBA Investment Fund. That program is today known as the Texas MBA Fund and operates alongside TUF under Texas McCombs Investment Advisers LLC (TMIA). Students in both programs participate directly, under supervision, in TMIA's investment-management process.

How TUF Fits Together

TUF is one of the academic investment programs supported by Texas McCombs Investment Advisers LLC, alongside the Texas MBA Fund. TMIA provides the legal, governance, and operational structure through which participating students gain supervised experience in investment research, portfolio management, risk oversight, and professional communication.

Student Responsibility

Members of the Texas Undergraduate Fund lead the investment research and recommendation process for a live investment portfolio. Investment decisions, including security selection, are made by TMIA acting through its faculty managers, based on student recommendations and subject to the mandate and risk constraints set by the fund's investment policy. Members present and defend their recommendations to faculty and peers in class. Investment counselors are volunteer industry professionals who provide educational feedback on process and analytical rigor; they do not participate in investment decisions.

Leadership

Joshua Kocher

Joshua Kocher is an assistant professor of instruction at McCombs and CEO of Texas McCombs Investment Advisers with 20 years of investment management experience spanning buy-side and sell-side roles in equity and fixed income. A multiple teaching award recipient, he teaches portfolio construction, decision-making under uncertainty, and live fund management to both undergraduate and MBA students.

Dr. Sara Lundqvist

Dr. Sara Lundqvist is an assistant professor of instruction at McCombs and VP of Texas McCombs Investment Advisers. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Finance from Lund University and a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Gothenburg, with teaching focused on bridging rigorous financial theory with applied decision-making.

Program Governance

The Texas Undergraduate Fund is an educational investment program for undergraduate students, supported by Texas McCombs Investment Advisers LLC. Students lead the investment research and recommendation process within established investment-policy guidelines. TMIA, acting through its faculty managers, holds investment-decision authority and remains responsible for compliance with the applicable client mandate and legal and regulatory requirements. TMIA provides investment advisory services only to its institutional clients; the program does not offer investment-advisory services or investment interests to the public, and this website is not a solicitation.

How the Two Semesters Work

Semester 1

Members build conviction individually before learning to coordinate as a group. Coursework covers portfolio fundamentals, and the semester closes with an integrated capstone: a three-statement model and DCF memo, built in class, no AI, no internet.

Semester 2

With a semester of experience behind them, members move into deeper portfolio analysis, attribution, risk decomposition, and sizing. The capstone steps up accordingly: a portfolio-fit and LBO cross-check, plus an investment-committee-style memo defending a position.

2026

Launch year

Students selected annually

Semester sequence

What You'll Learn

Business Analysis

Members conduct company and industry research, build financial models, and develop investment theses, then pressure-test that thinking through scenario analysis before ever bringing an idea to the group.

Portfolio Thinking

Members learn to evaluate an idea not in isolation, but in the context of a fund's broader objectives, risk profile, and diversification, the same lens used in professional portfolio management.

Communication

Members build the ability to articulate an investment idea clearly and defend it under scrutiny, through written memos, oral presentations, and structured debate with faculty and peers. Investment counselors provide additional educational feedback on process and analytical rigor.