Queen’s University Alternative Assets Fund
A student-directed hedge fund where Smith School of Business graduate students manage real capital across alternative asset strategies — building practitioner experience that goes far beyond the classroom.
6
Distinct investment portfolios
10+
Alternative strategies
4
Global regions — Canada, U.S., Asia & EU
100%
Student-directed
A Fund Built to Teach
QUAAF’s first purpose is educational: to give graduate students at the Smith School of Business hands-on exposure to alternative investing in a real practitioner setting. We manage a pooled mandate of internally and externally managed alternative strategies — preserving the real purchasing power of our capital while seeking returns above inflation, all within a disciplined risk and ESG framework.
Learn by Doing
Members manage actual capital and make live investment decisions — from allocating to external hedge fund managers to researching and trading strategies the team builds itself.
Real Alternative Exposure
Go beyond vanilla equities into the full alternative landscape: fund-of-hedge-funds, real estate, global macro, thematic growth, and sustainable (ESG) investing.
Launch Your Career
Build a track record alongside mentorship from our alumni and industry advisory boards, and a network that reaches across global capital markets.
How We Invest
Externally Managed
The majority of the Fund is allocated to third-party Canadian alternative managers through a fund-of-hedge-funds approach — spanning equity long/short, market neutral, merger and convertible arbitrage, event-driven, credit, and quantitative strategies.
Internally Managed
Students create, trade, and execute their own strategies across dedicated thematic, real estate, and global macro portfolios — driving returns from structural change, real assets, and international markets.
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An Initiative of Smith School of Business
QUAAF is an educational initiative of the graduate programs at the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, with campuses in Kingston and downtown Toronto, Ontario. Membership is open to MBA, MMA, and other eligible Smith graduate students who are passionate about alternative investments and financial markets.
Get Involved
Ready to manage an institutional alternative portfolio while you earn your degree? Apply to join QUAAF, or learn more about who we are.