“High returns alone aren’t enough” ... Timefolio seeks aspiring fund managers

[Financial News]  Simply posting high returns is not enough to become a fund manager candidate. As in real-world asset management, candidates must manage limits on individual stock holdings and allocations by industry, while also controlling portfolio volatility.
Timefolio Asset Management is holding the Road to Fund Manager (RFM) mock investment competition to assess these practical asset-management skills.
Timefolio is an independent asset management firm that CEO Hwang Seong-hwan built over many years by establishing a track record through hands-on portfolio management. The firm is led by a CEO who is among the industry’s best-known former fund managers, and its direct role in identifying the next generation of managers sets it apart from typical mock investment competitions, observers say.
According to the financial investment industry on the 7th, this is the competition’s 13th edition, running for two months from the 1st through November 30. It is open to university and graduate students hoping to enter the capital markets, as well as people who earned their undergraduate degrees in 2017 or later. The application deadline is the 8th.
Participants are given 1 billion won in virtual investment funds. They manage the funds using real market data, with single-stock holdings capped at 15%, and must follow additional investment rules, including limits on allocations by industry group and restrictions on certain stocks.
The evaluation process is a notable feature. Rather than focusing solely on short-term returns, it also considers factors required in real-world asset management, such as portfolio diversification and volatility management. The five participants with the highest returns will share 20 million won in prize money, and those awarded an A+ in a separate management evaluation will also have the opportunity to take part in an internship that can lead to a job offer.
The 12-week internship provides practical training in portfolio construction and the use of investment management systems. It also includes seminars with securities firm analysts. Since the internship began in 2024, around 30 people have completed it through the latest, fifth cohort.
Timefolio has run RFM itself since 2023, holding the competition every quarter. Each edition draws around 2,000 participants, and some competition and internship participants have gone on to work at asset management firms and securities companies.
A person in the financial investment industry said, “A competition that ranks participants solely on returns may favor aggressive bets. The fact that this one also looks at portfolio allocation and risk-management skills, as an actual asset manager would, makes it more like a practical test for identifying prospective fund managers.”


[email protected] Kim Kyung-ah Reporter