What if your university lecturer was so confident in his investment strategy that he offered to pay you if you could beat him? For Dan Ye, that’s exactly the point.
The AI entrepreneur, investor and honorary lecturer at Johns Hopkins University has created an investment challenge unlike anything most students are likely to encounter. Those who outperform his portfolio by 20 per cent receive a US$10,000 scholarship. Continue outperforming over the following years and that scholarship could eventually grow to an extraordinary US$1 million.
It sounds almost too generous to be true, but for Ye the money is only part of the lesson.
“I want people to think differently about investing,” he explains. Rather than teaching students to chase hot stocks or rely on market predictions, he wants them to develop disciplined thinking, understand risk and build confidence through experience rather than theory.
The programme is built around a live investment portfolio rather than a classroom simulation. Starting with US$40,000, the fund has so far significantly outperformed the S&P 500.
“We’re beating the S&P by around 50 points,” Ye says. “If this were a Wall Street fund, it would rank among the top five per cent.”
Critical Thinking
For him, the portfolio isn’t there to demonstrate that he is smarter than the market. It’s there to show students that successful investing is built on process, discipline and long-term thinking rather than luck.
Ye’s own career has been anything but conventional. Originally trained as an attorney, he moved from law into the renewable energy sector before turning his attention to artificial intelligence, where he now focuses much of his work. That combination of legal, commercial and technological experience shapes his approach to teaching, encouraging students to think across disciplines rather than viewing investing, technology or business in isolation.
His teaching role at Johns Hopkins is honorary rather than salaried, reflecting a personal commitment to making financial education more accessible. Instead of limiting his work to enrolled students, he has opened many of his sessions to wider audiences, believing that knowledge should be available to anyone prepared to learn.
During our conversation, it became clear that Ye is less interested in creating traders than in developing better decision-makers.
He argues that many people believe investing is reserved for financial professionals or those working on Wall Street, when in reality the most valuable skill is learning how to analyse information, manage risk and remain disciplined when markets become emotional.
Open to All
Perhaps most surprising is that the challenge extends beyond Johns Hopkins. Ye is actively encouraging people from outside the university to join his open online sessions, where participants can learn the principles behind his investment philosophy and follow the programme as it develops. He believes financial literacy is becoming an essential life skill and wants as many people as possible to have access to the same learning opportunities available to his students.
The scholarship may be what captures people’s attention, but Ye hopes it won’t be what they remember.
The real prize, he believes, is learning how to think independently.
Markets will always change. Technologies will continue to evolve. Artificial intelligence will transform industries. Yet those who understand how to analyse information, make considered decisions and stay disciplined through uncertainty will always have an advantage.
