Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge
Spring 2025
The CFA Society Pittsburgh Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge Spring 2025 session officially wrapped up earlier in April!
We were excited to have our largest competition yet, with 291 students signed up across more than 15 universities.
The spring competition consisted of students from: Grove City, Duquesne, La Roche, Penn State, Chatham, Gannon, Saint Francis University, W&J, Edinboro, Franciscan University, Penn West, Clarion, Pennwest University, Lamar University, IUP.
Thank you to all of our participants!
Top 10 Leaderboard (as of 04/15/2025):
|
Participant ID
|
Return
|
|
Haydn Hughes
|
5.46
|
|
krishraj raju
|
0.78
|
|
Padraig.McGrail
|
0.38
|
|
Alexander Wolfe
|
-0.50
|
|
BenTownsend
|
-3.58
|
|
Sryan_30
|
-3.61
|
|
caitlynjwilliams
|
-3.88
|
|
bkloss
|
-4.38
|
|
CandaceScalise
|
-4.68
|
|
willsnyder
|
-5.94
|
Top 10 College Leaderboard (as of 4/15/2025)*:
|
College
|
# Students
|
Team Avg. Return
|
|
Lamar University
|
4
|
-12.38%
|
|
Penn State World
|
5
|
-13.67%
|
|
Gannon
|
17
|
-13.78%
|
|
Penn State Behrend
|
9
|
-14.48%
|
|
La Roche
|
21
|
-15.17%
|
|
Edinboro
|
5
|
-16.74%
|
|
Duquesne
|
75
|
-17.37%
|
|
Franciscan University
|
15
|
-17.58%
|
|
Chatham
|
6
|
-18.44%
|
|
Grove City
|
108
|
-18.47%
|
|
Penn State
|
15
|
-19.34%
|
|
PennWest - Clarion
|
5
|
-20.13%
|
|
Pennwest University
|
2
|
-21.42%
|
*College leaderboard includes universities with 2 or more students participating.
Among all student portfolios, the top 5 most popular stock picks are:
|
Stock
|
# Students
|
|
NVIDIA
|
123
|
|
Apple
|
102
|
|
Tesla
|
69
|
|
Amazon
|
53
|
|
Microsoft
|
40
|
We will be bringing back the Collegiate Stockpicker Challenge for the 2025-2026 academic year! Please keep an eye out for more information later this year.
Event Timeline
Fall Session: October 15 – December 15
Spring Session: February 15 – April 15
Participants Allowed
Unlimited
Prizes
Student Award: $50 (Amazon gift card) per student for Top 10
Team Award: $500 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.