Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge
We have officially wrapped up both competitions for the 2025-26 Academic Year! Thank you for all who participated!
We will be back again for the 2026-27 academic year in the fall, so please keep an eye out for us when you get back to campus. Enjoy your summer!
Spring 2026
The CFA Society Pittsburgh Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge Spring 2026 session wrapped up in April!
We were excited to host 140 students across 10 local universities.
The spring competition consisted of students from: Saint Vincent, Duquesne, Penn State Behrend, IUP, La Roche, Penn State, Penn State World Campus, PennWest - Edinboro, PennWest – Clarion, and PennWest – California.
Congratulations to our winners below, as well as our top performing university, Saint Vincent!
Top 10 Leaderboard (as of 4/15/26)
|
Username
|
Portfolio Return
|
|
Evan Farbarik
|
50.43
|
|
Liam
|
47.69
|
|
noulletm
|
31.09
|
|
zward
|
31.00
|
|
Mary Boff
|
24.18
|
|
sjmcwreath
|
18.90
|
|
Naomi1324
|
18.63
|
|
SamGreene1
|
18.37
|
|
selah.love
|
17.93
|
|
rtr5240@
|
17.61
|
College Leaderboard (as of 4/15/26)
*College leaderboard includes universities with 2 or more students participating.
|
College
|
Return
|
|
Saint Vincent
|
7.15
|
|
Duquesne
|
5.22
|
|
Penn State Behrend
|
4.61
|
|
IUP
|
4.28
|
|
La Roche
|
3.34
|
|
Penn State
|
2.93
|
|
Penn State World
|
1.89
|
|
Edinboro
|
1.78
|
|
PennWest - Clarion
|
-0.54
|
|
Pennwest - California
|
-0.70
|
Event Timeline
Fall Session: Finished
Spring Session: Finished (2/15-4/15)
Participants Allowed
Unlimited
Prizes
Student Award: $50 (Amazon gift card) per student for Top 10
Team Award: $250 donation to chosen charity of selected university*
Overview
The Stock Picker Challenge gives students the opportunity to pick their own portfolio of stocks and compete against their fellow peers for the best total return. The Stock Picker challenge seeks to give a large group of students a chance to start investing and participate in a CFA event with minimal time commitment.
Guidelines
- Portfolio: 5 stocks
- Universe: Russell 3000 (3,000 Largest US Public Companies)
- Eligible Stocks to Choose: 3,000 largest US-based companies
- Performance: Equal-weighted total return of 5 stocks within portfolio
- Student Returns: Average Total Return of 5 stocks
- Team Returns: Average of student returns for each college*
Instructions
To compete, students fill out an entry survey that involves picking 5 stocks from a dropdown list. The signup process takes less than 5 minutes for students to complete! Good luck!
*Please note that we reserve the right to veto charity choice, if it is deemed contrary to the CFA Society Pittsburgh's mission. Please refrain from choosing organizations affiliated with a singular political party.
**University must have at least 3 participants to qualify for team prize.