As one of the world's top high school investment challenges, the Wharton Global High School Investment Competition (WGHS) often leaves novice teams confused by its strict rules and in-depth assessment requirements. To help preparatory teams avoid common pitfalls, this guide provides a comprehensive overview of frequently asked questions regarding team formation rules, role division, core assessment dimensions, and trading report requirements.
I. Official WGHS Hard Team Formation Rules & Common Questions
1. Must team members be from the same school?
Yes. The WGHS requires that all team members must be current students from the same high school. If a high school has multiple campuses or branches, all team members and the official advisor must be affiliated with the same campus. Additionally, participants must not have received a high school or secondary school diploma before the start of the competition.
2. Can team members be replaced during the competition?
Yes, but within a strict time window. Teams may modify their member roster before the interim report submission deadline. Once the interim report is submitted, the team roster is permanently locked and cannot be changed thereafter.
3. Special identity restrictions
Children of University of Pennsylvania faculty and staff are eligible to participate, provided that the parent or guardian responsible for evaluating that team is not a member of the competition's judging committee.
II. Golden Team Configuration: 5 Core Roles
An efficient participating team typically needs to cover 4–5 core roles. Clearly defining each position's detailed responsibilities, required capabilities, and performance metrics is the foundation for smooth team operation:
1. Team Leader (Overall Coordinator / Official Liaison / CEO)
Positioning: Project controller, official external contact, team progress manager.
Detailed Responsibilities: Handle administrative coordination (receiving official emails, syncing rule updates, submitting registration information and qualification documents); develop a weekly preparation schedule, dividing the three major phases of research, trading, and reporting into clear deadlines, and lead task allocation and review sessions.
2. Macro & Industry Analyst (Research Core / Data Brain)
Positioning: Builder of the complete top-down investment research framework, the source of all stock selection logic (if the team has sufficient members, this role can be split into two, with one focusing on "macro + technology/consumer" and the other on "cyclical/healthcare/financial" sectors).
Detailed Responsibilities: Continuously track macro indicators such as GDP, CPI, and geopolitical policies, producing macro assessment memos; use PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces, and other models for industry screening and comparison; thoroughly dissect the three major financial statements and build valuation models such as DCF and CAPM; identify policy and supply chain risks for individual stocks and provide hedging strategies.
3. Dedicated Trader (WInS Execution + Risk Controller)
Positioning: Core strategy executor, real-time position risk monitor.
Detailed Responsibilities: Execute compliant trades on the WInS platform strictly according to research conclusions; strictly adhere to risk control red lines, recording daily position weights in real time; track breaking news and sector movements, proposing portfolio adjustment plans promptly; maintain a complete trading ledger (recording trade time, price, position size, and rationale) as core material for reports; calculate weekly portfolio returns, beta coefficients, Sharpe ratio, and maximum drawdown, producing weekly risk-return reports.
4. Professional Writer (Report Lead)
Positioning: Translator of data and logic into academic documents that meet Wharton's judging standards.
Detailed Responsibilities: Structure the interim report and articulate preliminary logic; in the final report, cohesively connect investment philosophy, client matching analysis, macro-industry assessments, full-cycle trading reviews, and portfolio performance attribution; transform raw data into professional visual charts such as bar charts, pie charts, and line charts to enhance report readability.
5. Presentation & Defense Specialist (Semifinal / Final Presenter)
Positioning: The ultimate presenter of the team's strategy.
Detailed Responsibilities: Create PPTs, rehearse full-English presentations, and handle the judge Q&A session.
III. Core Assessment Dimensions & Stock Selection / Report Requirements
1. What does the WGHS mainly assess?
The competition evaluates teams across five main dimensions: Investment Strategy, Client Knowledge and Objectives, Portfolio Analysis, Articulation of the Competition Experience, and Creativity and Presentation.
Special Reminder: Reports should clearly and truthfully present the team's investment approach and strategy; there is no need to overuse obscure investment terminology.
2. What are the hard requirements for stock selection?
Teams may only trade stocks and ETFs from the official approved list of U.S. and international exchanges. They must not recommend stocks or ETFs outside this list to clients, nor should they be included as part of the investment strategy or traded on WInS.
3. What are the special requirements for the interim and final reports?
Diversification Requirement: At the time of submitting the interim report, the portfolio must be diversified. The number of industry sectors invested in must be at least equal to the number of team members, and the portfolio must include at least one ETF.
Asset Class Restriction: In the final report, apart from cash, stocks, ETFs from the approved list, and U.S. Treasury bills, notes, bonds, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), no other investment recommendations may be included. Otherwise, the team will be directly disqualified from advancing to the semifinals or finals.
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