CFA® Research Challenge Advice

Hi,
I will participate in CFA® 

A IRC 2015. I really want to leverage this opportunity. Does anyone know about the competition? Any advice or comment is appreciated.

7 Comments
 

I'm not the OP, but I'd appreciate some insight if you were a competitor or have knowledge about the Research Challenge.

1.) Without a doubt your mentors and own effort probably determined how much you learned, but did you feel like you gained a better understanding of the research process by having gone through the competition rather than solely having learned how to perform equity research on your own?

2.) In your experience did the competition provide you with networking opportunities?

3.) Is the Research Challenge recognized by the financial services? In my limited experience speaking with a few professionals, including a couple ER guys, I have yet to hear anyone claim knowledge of the competition.

 
Best Response

I'm a current competitor, and I've spoken with many past-competitors so I can prolly answer these.

1.The Research Challenge is a really great way to learn how to properly format and produce an initiation equity research report. A student with no previous research experience, or has only written their own reports through trial and error, would benefit a lot from it. Personally, after spending last summer interning in buyside research I'm annoyed by the amount of content we have to produce for it, but having every base covered (on paper) is how you win this game.

2.There are definitely networking opportunities. The presentation stages are good since local CFA Society members stroll through to watch, and those who show up are usually the guys who like seeing students with an interest in research/investing.

3.The reason why guys in the industry don't really know about it is because the Research Challenge is only a few years old. I haven't met anyone who didn't seem to OK it after hearing a little bit more about what it was.

 

Stryfe, thanks for the response. I just met our mentor last week it seems very tough to cover everything. Our company is very complicated. But as you said i feel like learning to do proper initiation research will be very beneficial, especially we have mentor to help and guide us. I am more curious in networking opportunities. Is there any networking event other than presentation stage? Not every team goes that far.

 

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