About
A fund built to teach the craft, not just the theory.
LQDF exists so that Loughborough students can learn how a fund actually works: how ideas become positions, how risk is managed, and how a team is held accountable for a book.
Mission
Produce people who can run money with discipline.
Most student investment societies are discussion groups. LQDF is deliberately not. Members own a book, answer to a committee for it, and are marked to market every week.
The fund has two divisions. Discretionary Trading develops judgement: reading companies, macro conditions and derivative markets, then sizing a view. Quantitative develops rigour: designing signals, testing them honestly and running them systematically.
Both sides share one position book, one risk framework and one set of standards for written work. Graduates leave with a portfolio of theses, post-mortems and code they can show to anyone.
How the paper fund works
No real money. Real prices, real limits, real accountability.
The fund tracks £100,000 of simulated capital against live market prices entered by desk leads. Nothing is bought or sold.
- 01
Idea
A member writes a one-page thesis: the view, the instrument, the catalyst, the size and where it is wrong.
- 02
Committee
The desk lead presents the idea at the weekly investment committee. Risk and compliance can veto; the committee votes.
- 03
Book
Approved trades are entered in the position book at the prevailing market price, with the thesis attached.
- 04
Mark
Desk leads refresh prices from live markets each week. Data & Infrastructure produce the NAV snapshot and risk report.
- 05
Review
Every closed trade gets a post-mortem, whether it made or lost money. The write-ups form the fund's institutional memory.
Governance
Committee, risk and compliance.
Committee
A president, two division heads, a head of risk and a head of compliance. Elected annually by members; chairs the weekly investment committee.
Risk
Fund-level limits on gross exposure, single-position size, drawdown and concentration. Breaches are published in the Monday risk report and must be cut within a week.
Compliance
Members trade only paper. No real positions may be held in instruments discussed at committee until seven days after the idea is closed. Conflicts are declared in writing.
History
Founded in 2025.
LQDF was founded in autumn 2025 by a group of economics, mathematics and computing students who wanted something more demanding than a stock-pitch club. The first book opened on 31 October 2025 with £100,000 of paper capital split across seven desks.
The first year was spent building the process: the risk framework, the trading rules, the weekly committee and the data stack that marks the book. The 2026/27 intake is the first cohort to join a fund with a full year of history behind it.