Loughborough University · Student-run paper fund
Loughborough Quantitative & Discretionary Fund
A student-run £100,000 paper trading fund, built by Loughborough’s next generation of quantitative and financial talent.
Paper AUM
£100,000
Current NAV £105,769
Desks
7
Across two divisions
Members
2
Active this year
What we do
A training ground for people who want to run money properly.
LQDF gives Loughborough students the structure of a real fund: desks with mandates, an investment committee, risk limits and a position book that is marked every week.
Research first
Every position starts with a written thesis, a sizing rationale and an exit plan. Ideas are presented to the investment committee before they enter the book.
Two ways of thinking
Discretionary desks build judgement-led views across equities, macro, derivatives and commodities. Quantitative desks design, test and run systematic strategies.
Real process, paper money
£100,000 of simulated capital, tracked against live market prices. The constraints, risk limits and reporting are real; the losses are only educational.
Desks
Seven desks, two divisions.
Each desk has a lead, a written mandate and its own book inside the fund.
Equities
Single-name and sector views across UK, US and European equities, built from fundamental research, earnings analysis and valuation work.
Macro & Rates
Top-down views on growth, inflation and central bank policy expressed through government bonds, rates futures and index-level instruments.
Options & Futures
Derivatives desk focused on volatility, structured expressions of directional views and defined-risk strategies on liquid underlyings.
Commodities & FX
Energy, metals, agricultural commodities and G10 currency pairs, traded on supply-demand analysis and relative macro strength.
Systematic Strategies
Runs the fund's rules-based strategies: trend, carry and cross-sectional momentum portfolios with weekly rebalancing.
Quant Research
Researches new signals, factor models and risk tools. Strategies graduate to Systematic Strategies once they pass out-of-sample review.
Data & Infrastructure
Owns the fund's price data, position book, backtesting framework and reporting pipeline so every desk works from the same numbers.
Performance snapshot
Marked monthly, since inception.
- Fund NAV
- £105,769
- Since inception
- +5.77%
Paper trading only. Last snapshot 30 September 2026. Full performance →
Applications are open to all Loughborough students.
No prior trading experience is required. We look for curiosity, rigour and the willingness to be wrong in public.