Global Investment Research

The goal of the CFA Institute Research Challenge is to gather together university students, investment industry professionals, and representatives from a publicly traded company for local, regional, and global competition. This annual educational initiative promotes best practices in equity research through mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is composed of university teams of 3-5 students who are mentored by industry professionals in writing an equity research report on a publicly traded company. The teams then present their findings to a panel of experts.

Participants interested in becoming an equity analyst are highly encouraged to participate.

Detailed program

1. 1. Analysis of a public company - teams research a publicly traded Swiss company. The Swiss CFA Society, in collaboration with the university, carefully selects the company which is the same for all teams from Switzerland. Students have the opportunity to meet with company management and participate in an analyst conference call. Company management presents to the teams and participates in a Q&A session.
2. Mentoring by a professional research analyst - each team works with a Swiss investment professional, who mentors the team on research process and reviews and critiques its report. The Swiss CFA Society, in collaboration with the university, assigns an investment professional to each team.
3. Writing a research report - each team produces an equity research report on the publicly traded Swiss company. The report is reviewed and scored by a group of judges.
4. Presentation of research to high-profile experts - teams present their research to a panel of experts from top financial institutions at the end of the semester.
5. Advancement to the Global Challenge - the team with the highest combined report and presentation score is the winner of the local competition (within the same university). The winners of local competitions advance to compete against teams from other Swiss universities. The Swiss winning team advance to compete within EMEA region, culminating in a global finale competition.

Exam:
No examination

Evaluation:
Research report (written) and presentation (oral)

References:
For more information, please refer to the CFA institute website at http://www.cfainstitute.org/community/challenge/Pages/index.aspx and the Swiss CFA local institute at https://new.cfasociety.org/switzerland/Pages/ResearchChallenge1516.aspx