CFA Institute Research Challenge

The Research Challenge gives students all around the world the chance to learn best practices in equity research through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis. Last year’s competition featured more than 5,000 students from more than 900 universities worldwide.

Teams will compete against teams from other Quebec universities and will have the opportunity to :

  • Analyze a public company
  • Be mentored by investment management professionals
  • Write an equity research report
  • Present their research to a high-profile panel of experts
  • Advance to Regional and Global levels of competition if they win the local challenge

Link to the CFA Institute

How it works

1

The university representative registered with the Research Challenge forms a team or teams and works with the selected students throughout the competition period.

2

Each team is assigned a mentor from the Montreal financial industry. The mentor provides support to the team for the duration of the competition.

3

LOCAL COMPETITION: The teams’ written research reports are submitted to CFA Montréal and graded by local professionals.

4

LOCAL FINALS: A panel of experts from top financial institutions critiques each team’s 10-minute presentation, followed by a 10-minute Q&A. The winning team moves on to the regional quarter finals for Canada.

5

REGIONAL QUARTER FINALS: The four teams that earn the highest score at the regional quarter finals advance to represent Canada at the semifinals for the Americas.

6

SEMIFINALS FOR THE AMERICAS: All the selected teams compete to represent the Americas at the global finals. Two teams move on to the finals for the Americas and the CFA Institute Research Challenge global finals.

7

FINALS FOR THE AMERICAS AND GLOBAL FINALS: The winners of the global finals are named the Research Challenge World Champions.

Important dates for the 2023–2024 season: 

Deadline for team registrations

October 20, 2023

KICKOFF OF THE 2023–2024 SEASON AND UNVEILING OF THE SUBJECT COMPANY

November 22, 2023 1 p.m.– 4:30 p.m.
Location to be confirmed

Attendance mandatory for participants.

Q/A WITH THE SUBJECT COMPANY AND WORKSHOP ON HOW TO PREPARE THE WRITTEN REPORT

January 19, 2024 Noon to 2 p.m.
Location to be confirmed

Deadline for the written report

Date to be confirmed

Local finals and cocktail reception

February 15, 2024 2 p.m.– 4:30 p.m
Location to be confirmed

(hosted by CFA Montréal in cooperation with CFA Québec)

Lauch of the sub-regional competition

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

REGIONAL QUARTER FINALS — DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING THE VIDEO PRESENTATION

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

Announcement of the sub-regional competition

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

America semi-finals

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

America final

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

Global Final

Date to be confirmed
Location to be confirmed

Winners from the past four years

2022-2023

BAKOPANOS, Ioannis

CLOUTIER FAUCHER, Olivier

MACNEIL, Matthew

ROZON, Justin

WEI, Zi Hao

2021-2022

MATTON, Charles-Olivier

HINSE, Mathieu

AMYOT, Maxime

PÉLLETIER, Maya

BENOIT, Olivier

2020-2021

CHEN, Bruce

LUO, Haiwen

WIACEK, Neil

WU, Audrey

YU, Andy

2019-2020

LAFLÈCHE, Pier-Olivier

ARSENAULT, Olivier

KANTHASAMY, Sai

McEWEN, Mitch

CFA Montréal: Contacts

denise.nimara@cfamontreal.org
Denise Nimara
Research Challenge Coordinator
Danielle.filistin@desjardins.com
Danielle Filistin, CFA, PRM
Chair of University Relations Committee

Universities : Contacts

HEC
Valeri Sokolovski
valeri.sokolovski@hec.ca
Polytechnique de Montréal
Robert Normand
normandr@cirano.qc.ca
Laval University
Christian Boutet
Christian.Boutet@fsa.ulaval.ca
McGill University
Vadim di Pietro
vadimpierre.dipietro@mcgill.ca
Concordia University
Sukyong Yang
sukyong.yang@concordia.ca