{"id":35098,"date":"2021-02-05T10:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T15:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=35098"},"modified":"2021-02-05T16:10:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T21:10:50","slug":"35098","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/35098\/","title":{"rendered":"SMILE Fund students chosen as top-notch financial analysts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Learn more about the annual competition:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.channelchek.com\/college-contest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You could say Melissa Mueller and Ben Trussel are good at the kind of stock analysis portfolio managers rely on for making investment decisions. If you\u2019re the national Equity Research Report Challenge, you say Mueller and Trussel are among the best worldwide.<\/p>\n

Mueller and Trussel won the 2020 competition\u2014sponsored by NASDAQ, Channelchek and Noble Financial Capital Markets\u2014for their research into CanWel, a Canadian lumber producer and wholesaler. The pair recommended that investors buy shares.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Melissa Mueller<\/p><\/div>\n

In the competition, students research companies listed on www.channelchek.com<\/a>, a web-based source of data on small-capital or micro-capital, publicly held companies. First prize is $7,500 in cash for tuition or college-related expenses for students and $5,000 for the college.<\/p>\n

Winning students also earn paid internships in the equity research department of Noble Capital Markets and a video of the award presentation will run on the NASDAQ Tower in New York City\u2019s Times Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning this challenge was evidence to the mentality the top students at UTC (especially those in the SMILE Fund program) have towards education and pursuit of success,\u201d said Trussel, a double major in finance and accounting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you look at the students pursuing these officer positions and research team spots, the more you see students who refuse to stop chasing success and refuse to do anything halfway. I firmly believe that is why we have seen such great success out of the finance department and why we will continue to see success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ben Trussel<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWinning this award was a great way to kick off my final semester here at UTC,\u201d said Mueller, who plans to graduate in May. \u201cMy time here has taught me so much<\/p>\n

and created so many great relationships both with other students and with our great faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray Ryan of Patten & Patten Inc. has been the mentor for Mueller and Trussel on the competition and said they both worked \u201cvery hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CFA Research Challenge demands that students go well beyond their undergraduate course work, and our teams have competed against teams of MBA candidates from other school,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Mueller was the president of the SMILE Fund in 2020 and Trussel was the vice president of market analysis for the SMILE Fund in 2019.<\/p>\n

Trussel has taken a position in the investments department with Volkswagen of America. Mueller has a position in Financial Services at TVA waiting for her after she graduates.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Equity Research Report College Challenge was won by UTC seniors Stephen Zurlo and Casey Szatkowski, who did research on SmartBank, which opened its first branch in 2007 in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. It now has 29 branches across Tennessee, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, including four locations in Chattanooga.<\/p>\n

Zurlo was president of the SMILE Fund in 2019, and Szatkowski was vice president in the fund\u2019s fundamental analysis. They graduated in 2020, both with degrees in finance. Patten and Patten\u2019s Ryan also mentored them. Zurlo now is in Nashville at the AllianceBernstein investment firm, while Szatkowski works in Chattanooga on Unum\u2019s investment team.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National competition says Melissa Mueller and Ben Trussel are among the best stock analysts worldwide.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":35338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122498,3,57,8244,64,48007,661],"tags":[99353,99352,70452],"class_list":{"0":"post-35098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-finance","8":"category-community","9":"category-college-of-business","10":"category-honors-and-awards","11":"category-news","12":"category-research-academics","13":"category-students","14":"tag-ben-trussel","15":"tag-melissa-mueller","16":"tag-smile-fund","17":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nSMILE Fund students chosen as top-notch financial analysts | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"National competition says Melissa Mueller and Ben Trussel are among the best stock analysts worldwide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SMILE Fund students chosen as top-notch financial analysts | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National competition says Melissa Mueller and Ben Trussel are among the best stock analysts worldwide.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/35098\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UTChattanooga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T15:30:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T21:10:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/02\/content.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shawn Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UTChattanooga\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UTChattanooga\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shawn Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/35098\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/35098\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shawn Ryan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7c7532013925b3412f8142e378b04942\"},\"headline\":\"SMILE Fund students chosen as top-notch financial analysts\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-05T15:30:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T21:10:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/35098\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":537,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/35098\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogarchive.utc.edu\\\/news\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/02\\\/content.png\",\"keywords\":[\"ben trussel\",\"melissa mueller\",\"SMILE Fund\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business Finance\",\"Community\",\"Gary W. 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