Undergrad Ranks Among Nation's Best Analysts

Finance senior Alex Bossert now ranks among the top 14 buyside analysts in the United States. He placed in a competition administered by SumZero, an invite-only social network for the best buyside analysts (investment professionals employed at hedge funds, mutual funds, and private-equity firms) in the world.

The site selected the winners by judging its 8,000 users’ best investing ideas during an 18-month period. The rankings were based on the ideas’ returns and peer rankings. Bossert’s overall returns averaged 52 percent over an 18-month window. He placed in the rigorous competition by identifying businesses that are trading for less than they’re worth.

“When I research a company, I’m focused on four main things: understanding the business, understanding the industry, understanding how management thinks, and figuring out what the company’s worth,” he says.

The burgeoning investor worked last year for Milestone Capital Management, a Wayzata, Minn., hedge fund and real estate firm. He joined the fund the day after graduating from high school. He won the job based on a resume that dated back to his early high school years, when he worked for Dardashti Capital, based in New York City.

This summer, Bossert interned at Fidelity Investments in Boston and worked under some of the country’s best mutual fund managers. He’s excited to graduate this winter and hopes to one day open his own hedge fund.