Attention first year MSF students:
CFA Chicago will hold a kickoff webcast on a Friday in early October. On the webinar, they’ll go over the rules and introduce the featured company. The Feature Company will remain anonymous until then. The teams will then begin their research process ahead of the company presentation scheduled for a Friday, in early November (location TBD). If you decide to participate, we will assign a CFA equity analyst industry mentor to guide the team through their research. The research reports will be due in mid-January, and will be graded by CFA equity analyst volunteers, with the report accounting for 50% of the total score. The teams that advance to the local finals will be announced in early February 2020. The advancing teams will present their research and answer questions from our panel of CFA judges, who are senior executives with equity research experience. The presentation score will account for the other 50% of the total score. The local winner will compete at the Americas Regional finals in New York on April 20-21, and then (hopefully) at the global finals on April 22.
Sign up at http://cglink.me/s20678 (first year MSF students only) Sign up by Wednesday, September 18th at noon.
Critical Timeline:
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Webinar Kickoff – October 4
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Company Presentation – October 25
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Team Reports Due – January 21
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Advancing teams announced – February 7
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Oral Competition – February 28
The CFA Research Challenge is an annual global competition for business students, both undergraduate and graduate, in equity analysis. Each student team prepares a written equity research report on a local featured company, and then presents their recommendation to a panel of industry portfolio managers and research analysts. Teams competing in the local level of the Research Challenge have the opportunity to advance to the regional and global finals hosted by CFA Institute.
Last year, our local winner, Illinois Institute of Technology, competed in the regional semifinals held in Chicago with their analysis of McDonald’s Corporation. The local featured company for the 2017 - 2018 competition season will be announced on October 6, 2017 on the kick-off webinar. Past company participants include Zebra Technologies, Aptargroup, Littelfuse, CME Group, Mead Johnson and McDonald’s.
Individual Benefits and Skill Development
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Students learn how to read financial statements helping them as they apply for jobs upon completing their education and enabling them to ask better questions about the company for which they are interviewing for a position.
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Actual company data is used to complete their analysis which often includes a greater number of "real world" variables compared to academic prepared case studies which are often prepared with specific learning goals planned as a class exercise.
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Students become familiar with the use of equity (stock) valuation tools.
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Written skills are strengthened through development of their equity research report.
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Capital market skills are learned by examining how the market values a company's stock.
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Students develop teamwork skills which are invaluable as an employee of a company.
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Both a faculty advisor and an industry mentor work directly with students facilitating their transition from being a student to being better prepared to enter the workforce.
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If selected for the oral presentation round of the competition, students are asked to prepare an impactful PowerPoint presentation that tells the judges how they looked at the company, and how they arrived at their opinion of value and stock recommendation of Buy, Hold, or Sell. They are given the opportunity to practice their oral communication skills while developing the ability to "think on their feet" in order to answer the judges questions. This activity once again should strengthen their interview skills with prospective employers.
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A very important experience can be included on the student's resume enhancing their overall profile.