The ICZH Fund
Launched in Autumn 2025, the Investment Club Zurich introduced a paper money fund aimed at providing students with hands-on experience in market analysis and portfolio management — without financial risk. The initiative bridges academic theory with real-world investment practice through structured, sector-specific research.
The fund is organized around 6 specialized portfolio teams, each focusing on sector-specific research, valuation, and long-only equity strategies. Analysts pitch high-conviction ideas, build financial models, and defend their theses in a competitive internal environment — mirroring the workflow of a professional investment team.
Industrials
Focus
We cover industrial companies across capital goods, transportation, aerospace & defence, and business services — as well as materials and commodities sectors driven by long investment cycles and structural demand.
Approach
Our analysis combines order-book dynamics, margin analysis, and capex cycle positioning with bottom-up due diligence on competitive moats and management quality.
Coverage
Primary coverage spans European and North American industrials listed on major exchanges, including machinery, logistics, defence primes, engineering conglomerates, and commodity producers.
Consumer Discretionary
Focus
We analyse consumer discretionary companies across retail, apparel, leisure, automotive, and branded goods — sectors where brand strength and consumer trends drive long-term value.
Approach
Our team tracks consumer sentiment, pricing power, and category dynamics, combining top-down spending trend analysis with bottom-up assessment of competitive positioning and brand equity.
Coverage
Coverage spans global consumer discretionary names from luxury conglomerates to mass-market retailers, including LVMH, NIKE, Amazon, and leading European and Asian brands.
Technology
Focus
The Technology Group analyzes global tech trends and the innovations driving long-term prosperity, from AI and semiconductors to digital platforms and infrastructure. Our goal is simple: identify the right companies early by understanding where the world is heading.
Approach
We look at businesses across the globe, challenge each other's ideas through open and critical discussion, and translate insights into investment decisions. At the same time, we keep things dynamic, collaborative, and genuinely enjoyable.
Small Caps
Focus
We hunt for under-followed small and micro-cap companies — businesses too small to be on the radar of large institutional funds, where mispricing and information asymmetries create the sharpest edges.
Approach
Our process is bottom-up and idiosyncratic: deep reading of filings, management interviews where possible, and patient screening for niche market leaders, founder-owned businesses, and quiet compounders before consensus arrives.
Coverage
Coverage spans European and North American small caps below $2B market cap, with a tilt toward specialty industrials, niche software, regional financials, and overlooked consumer brands.
Health Care
Focus
We research healthcare companies across pharma, biotech, medtech, and health services — identifying value in innovation pipelines and structural growth trends.
Approach
Our team evaluates clinical trial data, regulatory pathways, and competitive positioning alongside traditional financial metrics to assess risk-adjusted returns.
Coverage
Coverage spans large-cap pharma, specialty biotech, and medical device companies listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, and major European exchanges.
(Energy & Utilities)
Focus
We cover energy producers, utilities, and infrastructure companies across traditional and renewable power — sectors shaped by the global energy transition and long-term capital cycles.
Approach
Our analysis combines commodity price dynamics, regulatory frameworks, and project-level due diligence with traditional valuation of capital-intensive businesses.
Coverage
Coverage spans integrated oil majors, independent power producers, regulated utilities, and renewable energy developers listed on global exchanges.
Portfolio Management & Development
These teams operate across the entire fund — guiding macro positioning, risk frameworks, and the incubation of new research initiatives.
Macro
Focus
We analyse the global macroeconomic landscape — monetary policy, inflation, growth cycles, geopolitical risk, and cross-asset dynamics. Our goal is to understand the forces that drive markets at the highest level and translate them into actionable investment themes.
Approach
Our research combines top-down analysis of central bank policy, fiscal dynamics, and global capital flows with bottom-up assessment of how macro regimes affect specific sectors and asset classes. We publish a monthly macro report covering the US, Eurozone, Switzerland, and key emerging markets.
Coverage
Coverage spans equities, fixed income, FX, commodities, and credit across all major economies. Primary focus regions are the US, Eurozone, Switzerland, China, and Japan — with thematic coverage of emerging markets during periods of elevated macro stress.
R&D
Focus
The R&D Team explores ideas before they become teams. We test new sectors, frameworks, and analytical methods — the experimental layer that feeds the rest of the fund with conviction once a thesis matures.
Approach
We work hypothesis-first: scoping a question, building a small prototype model or framework, and pressure-testing it against live markets. Promising threads graduate into dedicated coverage; the rest become lessons.
Coverage
Topics rotate by cohort — recent threads include alternative data, factor research, niche international markets, and cross-sector thematic baskets. Anything underexplored is fair game.