Research Challenge

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CFA Institute Research Challenge

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that connects university students with investment professionals from within the CFA Society® network. The competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and ethics and tests participants' analytical, valuation, reporting writing, and presentation skills.

Members of our society, along with a faculty advisor and an industry mentor, work with teams of students to value a stock, write a research report, and present their recommendations. Teams then compete with peers from other schools at local-level competitions organized and judged by CFA Society members and volunteers. The winning university team(s) from each local competition then advances to see who will become the sub-regional, regional, and global champions. 

Learn more and read FAQs See the schedule and get involved

Local Research Challenge

CFA Society Iowa hosts a local Research Challenge every year. The Research Challenge is a competition between local universities and colleges to analyze a designated publicly traded company and present their findings to a panel of judges. The competition has several levels: local, sub-regional, regional semi-finals and global. As a local host of the challenge, it is up to us to determine the winning team among our local competitors. The winning team then moves on to the sub-regional competition.

The 2023 local challenge was held Thursday, Feb. 23 in downtown Des Moines. Five teams participated -- Grinnell College, Iowa State University, Loras College, University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa -- and the subject company was Sun Country Airlines. Congratulations to the team from Iowa State University for winning the local competition!

2023 Local Research Challenge winning team with their coach, Professor Tyler Jensen, and CFA Society Iowa Board President Joyana Pilquist

Research Challenge Volunteers Wanted!

We're always looking for volunteers to judge the presentations, grade the written reports and mentor the teams. If you're willing to help, please contact our Director of Outreach!

Email Director of Outreach

Thank You to Our Research Challenge Sponsor