The 2025 UTC SMILE Fund team (from left): Daniel Goodman, Caden Christenson, Breonna Gandhi, Justice Cardenas and Kyle Leivas. Photo courtesy of Dr. Hunter Holzhauer.
For the ninth straight year, a team of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga SMILE Fund students emerged victorious in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Greater Tennessee Research Challenge.
Competing against UT Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State University, Southern Adventist University and a trio of institutions from Nashville—Vanderbilt University, Belmont University and Lipscomb University—the SMILE Fund (Student Managed Investment Learning Experience) group of Gary W. Rollins College of Business undergraduates Justice Cardenas, Caden Christenson, Breonna Gandhi, Daniel Goodman and Kyle Leivas demonstrated financial acumen and research expertise in winning the CFA event held on Feb. 26 in Nashville.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that challenges university teams to conduct in-depth equity analysis on a publicly traded company. Participants produce a detailed research report and present their findings to a panel of industry experts.
The SMILE Fund students are now preparing for the mid-March Southeastern sub-regionals. Teams advancing from the sub-regionals to the regional semifinals—which take place April 8-9—will be announced at the end of March.
The team’s faculty advisor is Robert L. Maclellan and UC Foundation Associate Professor of Finance Hunter Holzhauer.
“I don’t know of any other school that has won their local challenge nine times in a row. We are definitely on a hot streak,” Holzhauer said. “Last year, we said eight times is not enough. Nine is not enough. What we are really aiming to do is to win the entire global competition.
“This competition has become a source of pride for the SMILE Fund. It’s our way to tell the world that we mean business. We believe that we have the best student-managed investment fund in the world right here at UTC. The CFA Research Challenge is just one of the ways we can highlight how many wonderful students we have in the SMILE Fund and the Rollins College of Business.”
For this year’s competition, Holzhauer explained that teams were tasked with analyzing Dollar General (DG), “and our team has a sell recommendation”—an approach that required deeper research than a typical buy recommendation.
He said the judges were particularly impressed with UTC’s analysis of DG’s debt, inventory turnover and use of capital—as well as macroeconomic concerns over inflation, recent changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and governance issues.
“I think the team did a great job of explaining just how Walmart has stolen market share from DG,” he said. “DG is not going anywhere, but we do think they will face far stiffer competition going forward.”
As for the presentation, Holzhauer said UTC’s team delivered across the board.
“They wrote an amazing report. They gave an even better presentation and they aced the Q&A portion of the contest,” he explained. “The Q&A section is supposed to last 10 minutes. However, this year the judges ran out of questions for the team at the eight-minute mark. That has only happened once before and that team went on to the final round of the Americas competition. I felt confident at that moment that our team had won.”
Cardenas, a senior finance major who transferred to UTC in 2023 after receiving an associate degree in business administration and management from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, has been a vice president of risk management, chief analyst and portfolio manager with the SMILE Fund.
Christenson, a junior finance major, currently serves as the SMILE Fund president. He has been a portfolio manager and vice president of market analysis—overseeing an exchange-traded fund-specific portfolio.
Gandhi, a junior accounting major from Manchester, Tennessee, is pursuing a bachelor of business administration degree. She recently gave a presentation about the SMILE Fund to more than 100 high school students at an Empower Your Future forum held on the UTC campus.
Goodman, a sophomore Rollins Scholar pursuing dual degrees in accounting and finance, is chief analyst of the technology sector.
Leivas, a finance major targeting a 2026 graduation, brings leadership experience from his time in the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.
“This may be my most talented team,” Holzhauer said. “When they are all working together, they are a sight to behold. The analysis they did as undergraduates was about as good as it gets. It’s an honor to be their professor and mentor.”
Holzhauer also praised the SMILE Fund’s industry mentor, Ray Ryan—the president, CEO and portfolio manager at Patten & Patten—for his contributions to the team’s sustained success.
“Ray has been the industry mentor during this entire winning streak,” Holzhauer said. “He has incredible market insights and advice for the students.
“Ray challenges them each year to do all of the work on their own, but he is a talented mentor. I have watched him guide countless students into becoming better analysts and he has helped me mold each team into champions.”
To Holzhauer, who created the SMILE Fund in 2015 shortly after joining the UTC faculty, the CFA Research Challenge is unlike any other.
“In my opinion, the CFA Research Challenge is the nerd Olympics for business students,” he said. “I don’t know of any other undergraduate or graduate competition for business school students that is taken as seriously or has more participants.
“Last year, over 6,700 students from more than 1,300 universities participated in the challenge. The best schools from around the world send their best students. It gets pretty intense.”
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