CFA Institute crowns 2 teams at its Americas regional

Students from the University of Minnesota Duluth and Jacksonville University in Florida are the new Americas regional champs of the CFA Institute Research Challenge.

The regional competition is part of an annual global challenge organized by the CFA Institute as part of its mission to provide university students with mentoring and training in financial analysis.

The Americas regional of the CFA Institute Research Challenge was held in Boston on March 19-20. Fifty-four university teams made up of more than 250 students from Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. competed.

Now in its 12th year, the CFA Institute Research Challenge encompasses the values from the CFA Institute Future of Finance initiative, which the organization describes as "a global effort to shape a trustworthy, forward-thinking investment management industry that better serves society."

CFA Institute CEO Paul Smith said in an interview that university students get together in teams of five and spend about six months analyzing a company. The teams then come up with a buy, hold or sell recommendation for the company through a presentation made to a panel of judges from asset management companies.

"The inspiration is to try to make sure that when students are thinking about a career in investment management, they think of it in the right way; they think of it in terms of analyzing and discovering value, rather than trying to time the markets or second-guess people's inclinations to trade," Mr. Smith said.

The winning teams from Duluth and Jacksonville now will compete in the global final April 27 in Kuala Lumpur, where they will go up against the winning teams from the Asia-Pacific region and the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. A $10,000 donation for scholarships will be made to the university of the global winner.