Quant Awards

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Student In Finance? This Is The Award For You!

Are you currently in the process of writing your thesis (Master or Bachelor) about a quantitative finance subject? And do you have the confidence to present your dissertation to an expert panel, selected by the CFA Societies participating in the project? If you are in for a challenge and if you would like to make an impact in the field of quantitative investing, the CFA European QuantAwards are for you!! Submit an innovative research report in quantitative finance for a chance to win one of the 3 prizes below.

You will be asked to summarize your Master's or Bachelor's dissertation and submit your paper (according to these guidelines) in order to have a chance of winning one of the 3 prizes below:

1st PRIZE: €3,000 + trip to the award ceremony
2nd PRIZE: €2,000 + trip to the award ceremony
3rd PRIZE: €1000 + trip to the award ceremony

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Eligibility

Quant Awards are open to university students and interns in quantitative finance regardless of specialty. Applications are free. No CFA candidacy or membership is required.

Submission

Students must submit their original research focusing on the topic of Quantitative Finance. The report should concentrate on the importance and practical applications rather than technique. It can consist of an end of studies dissertation, internship report or work conducted specifically for the Quant Awards.

You can subscribe to the competition here before end of May 31st, and submit your contribution here before August 31st. Winners announced in November 2024.

Useful documents

Judging

The judging panel consists of 8 judges, including a Chairperson. The panel may call on external experts if participation is particularly high or if a given report requires additional technical oversight.

Reports are judged anonymously, with a code replacing the names of the candidates. Each submission will be marked by two juries, from 1 to 10. Their mark is a weighted average of four criteria:

  • Applicability and relevance (30%)
  • Innovation (30%)
  • Accuracy and completeness (30%)
  • Presentation (10%)

The final mark will be the sum of the marks of two juries. Decisions may not be appealed.

Award Ceremony

The Award Ceremony will take place towards the end of the year. It will be held in the country where the winner applied. All winners will be invited, and travel and housing costs covered (with a limit of €750 per person).


The 2023 competition in Oslo


The 2022 competition in Dublin


The 2021 competition in Amsterdam

About CFA Societies

The QuantAwards is an initiative of several CFA Societies, that are the local chapters of CFA Institute, the non-profit, global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials. The organization is a champion for ethical behavior in investment markets and a respected source of knowledge in the global financial community. The Institute offers the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) Program, a globally recognized, graduate level curriculum that provides a strong foundation of real-world investment analysis and portfolio management skills. The Societies aim to support and contribute to the progress and stability of the national investment community by organizing professional education, setting standards, sharpening ethics, improving competence and sharing knowledge and supporting the industry in many other ways.

In 2024 starts the 10th edition and features the participation of CFA Society France, CFA Society Netherlands, CFA Society Norway and CFA Society Ireland, CFA Society Belgium, CFA Society Spain, CFA Society Italy and CFA Society Turkye.

Questions?

For more information please contact us at [email protected] and follow the Quant Awards LinkedIn group.

Winning Papers

Read our 2023 winners papers here

  • 1st prize: Latent Factors in Private Markets - Bakken & E. Vorpenes - BI Norwegian Business School
  • 2nd prize: Interest rate sensitivity of risk measures in European and exotic options - Nicolas Manelli - Paris Dauphine University
  • 3rd prize: Single factor modeling, building a financial stress index - Louis Briens - Natixis Investment Managers International

Read our 2022 winners papers here

  • 1st prize: Private Equity Target Selection Using Artificial Intelligence - Julian Schneider - Trinity College Dublin
  • 2nd prize: Extreme co-movement between the US equity market and geopolitical risks - Shengyu ZHENG - ESSEC Business School
  • 3rd prize: Has Manipulation in the VIX Decreased? - Tim Baumgartner - Ulm University

Read our 2021 winners papers here

  • 1st prize: Reinforcement Learning vs 1/N and Mean-Variance Optimization In The Portfolio Allocation Problem' - Matus Jan Lavko - Utrecht University, Economics and Business Economics
  • 2nd prize: Selection of securities for collateralized debt obligations contracts: an optimization approach applied to European SME loan portfolios - Matthieu Jonard - UC Louvain, CEMS Master in International Management
  • 3rd prize: Who Are the Socially Responsible Investors? A Machine Learning Approach - Sul Kim - Tilburg University, Master in Finance

Previous Winners

  • 2023 winners Brage Bakken and Tor Andre Vorpenes - BI Norwegian Business School
  • 2022 winners Julian Schneider, Shengyu ZHENG and Tim Baumgartner
  • 2021 winning report by Matus Jan Lavko, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, Reinforcement Learning vs 1/N and Mean-Variance Optimization In The Portfolio Allocation Problem
  • 2019 winning report by Sophie Emerson, University College Cork, Ireland, Investor Regime Analysis using Self-Organising Maps and Hierarchical Clustering
  • 2018 winning report by Sarai Murillo Val, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland: Using Investors' Sentiment to Forecast UK Market Volatility
  • 2017 winning report by Joseph Comisi, Dauphine University, France: Impacts of macroeconomics forecast errors on volatility smile