Skip to main content

Investment Competition 2026

Economic History Investment Competition Weekend

Open to all Economic History students

13 November, 4pm, Graham Wallas Room (5th floor, Old Building) and 14 and 15 November 2026, Marshall Building (various rooms)

Can you convince a hardened city professional to part with their money? Can you make the case for an investment or show how a sector is about to grow – or collapse? Can you uncover the long-run trends and developments that justify serious investment?

The goal over the weekend is to write a recommendation for an investment using your economic history skills and economic/financial abilities. Over one weekend you will be working in groups to develop an investment plan and present it in front of a panel of finance executives who will select the winners, runners-up and third placed group. The winning group will receive an opportunity to shadow analysts at a leading asset management and investment firm, Tikehau Capital, for a day.

Making an investment plan and giving a brief presentation about it in front of executives is a task those of you who’d like to make a career in finance will almost inevitably encounter in your first year. Those doing internships in financial companies, including investment banks and private equity, are also likely to participate in investment competitions, and their performance may affect their chances of being offered a full-time position. Having already had a dry run will help you with this, and being placed in the top 3 is something that will be noticed on your CV by hiring executives.

Please register in advance, using this link: Investment Weekend Registration Link

Places are limited, so please book now to be sure of a place.

Please join the information meeting at 4pm, Tuesday 13 October in MAR 2.06 where Dr Gerben Bakker of the Economic History Department will provide more information and answer any questions.

Brief overview

The weekend will start on the afternoon of Friday 13th November at 3pm, where you will be divided randomly into groups in order to simulate the real business environment as closely as possible. The groups will then be given several parameters, based on which they will each develop an investment plan that they will present to the panel of judges on Sunday afternoon. While the groups are working on their plans, they each also get a feedback session with an industry executive on Saturday (late morning) to help them stay on course.

On Friday afternoon the groups will receive detailed instructions for the plan. Below we give some general information of what an investment plan involves. On Friday afternoon more specific parameters might be added to the plan, such as, for example, on the type of investment, investment goals or type of industry.

What does an investment memorandum include? It should recommend an investment in a stock, bond, commodity, company, sector, currency, real estate, index or other financial instrument. You may also choose a more macro perspective by investing in particular markets, for example through indices or currencies.

Draw on your skills and knowledge of economic history to inform and motivate your analysis and recommendation: the judges will be looking at how well you use your skills and knowledge as economic historians, as well as your abilities as an analyst. Show us how understanding long-term developments and precedents helps us anticipate opportunities and challenges in the future. Your memorandum should include the following:

(i) The investment recommendation

(ii) The long term development of the sector or other relevant context

(iii) An analysis of the historical performance of the investment you propose against that background

(iv) Prospects for growth with a base case for expected return.

The judges

  • Canberk Benning

    Canberk Benning is an Equity Analyst at Citi, where he works in the financials team covering banks across Europe. He holds a BSc in Economic History from LSE and an MPhil in Economic History from the University of Cambridge.

  • Steve Mobbs

    Steve Mobbs is a Founder Partner of Oxford Asset Management. He holds a BA in Maths from the University of Cambridge, and MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford. He has formerly been Director of Bond Research, and later Director of Trading, both at Credit Suisse First Boston, and Managing Director of Property Trading at Deutsche Bank.

  • Greg Salter

    Greg Salter is a former Principle Advisor at KPMG, specialising in traded market risk and capital regulation. Prior to that he worked in the trading functio at BP and spent 12 years as an Assistant Director at Deutsche Bank. He is now working towards a PhD at LSE that uses his risk management experience to develop insights into the behaviour of medieval economies.

The small print

  • This competition is open to students on any Economic History degree programme at undergraduate or postgraduate level at LSE, including General Course students, hosted by the Economic History Department.
  • Places are limited. Please register asap to increase the likelihood of getting a place.
  • Please register here, stating your degree programme. You must provide an LSE email address.
  • The decision by the panel of judges is final.

Second and third prizes will be announced soon.