Sifter is a portfolio management and networking platform built specifically for student investors and university investment funds. It combines institutional-grade portfolio tracking, research tools, and a verifiable credential system that showcases a student's actual trading record to recruiters. The platform uses a forward-only ledger and time-weighted returns to ensure every track record is auditable and cannot be backdated.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Student investors and university investment funds lack access to institutional-grade portfolio management tools, which typically cost upwards of $32,000 for professional platforms. At the same time, students struggle to demonstrate real investment experience to recruiters, as resumes and interviews fail to capture actual decision-making, performance, or the thinking behind their trades.
Solution
Sifter provides a unified platform where student investors, investing clubs, and recruiters converge. Students get a full toolkit for portfolio tracking, research, pitches, and team communication, all backed by a forward-only ledger that timestamps every trade and prevents backdating or silent edits. Investing clubs get a centralized home for the entire fund workflow, including role-based access, live-data documents, and institutional memory across cohorts. Recruiters can view verified, time-weighted performance metrics and the thesis behind every position, or post their own investment exercises with defined universes and scoring goals to source candidates based on demonstrated skill rather than self-reported claims.
Target Audience
Primary users are student investors and university investment funds (SIFs), along with faculty advisors and recruiters seeking verified evidence of investment skill. The platform serves individual students, formal investing clubs, and the alumni networks that return to recruit and mentor.
Features
- Forward-only ledger with timestamped trades that prevents backdating and silent edits, ensuring every number is tied to an actual transaction
- Time-Weighted Return (TWR) calculations, the institutional standard for measuring portfolio manager performance
- Verifiable Credential system with permanent public card URLs that stay in sync with live portfolio metrics
- Role-based access for funds, including President, VP, Manager, Analyst, Board Member, and Faculty Advisor with optional approval workflows
- Real-time collaborative documents with presence banners and version checks to prevent overwrites
- Recruiter exercise builder that allows defining investable universes, scoring goals (IR, Sharpe, Total Return, or Concentrated), and position constraints with anonymous or by-name leaderboards
- CSV upload from brokerages like Fidelity and Schwab to seed current positions or full transaction history
- Research tools including deep dives, screener, and FRED economic data integration