CFA Society Toronto was delighted to serve as host city for this year’s CFA Institute Research Challenge Regional Finals. This marks the first time that the Regionals have been held outside of the U,S., and CFA Society Toronto was thrilled to be the first Canadian city to have this honour.

Forty-five local champion teams from around North and South America competed in Toronto on 21 March 2013. Among them were CFA Society Toronto and CFA Society Ottawa’s local champion, University of Waterloo, who advanced to the semi-finals of the regional competition.

“Participating in the CFA Institute Research Challenge has been a tremendous learning opportunity that challenged our intellect and allowed us to flex the skills necessary to be successful in this dynamic industry. Facing tough Q&A posed by a judging panel that had decades of industry experience was both frightening and exciting, allowing us to experience something that cannot be easily replicated in a classroom,” said Donna Heng, Team Captain of the University of Waterloo team.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a unique educational competition for students that allows participants to assume the role of investment research analysts. The annual competition offers participants the opportunity to develop and present an equity research report on a locally relevant company and compete on a global basis with peers from top business schools. Each team works with a CFA charterholder who mentors the team during the research process and reviews and critiques its report. This year, more than 3,500 students and 650 universities in more than 55 countries participated in local Challenge events, culminating in a global final in London on 12 April 2013.

Through the course of the competition, which requires hundreds of hours of preparation, participants receive mentoring from a professional research analyst as they analyze a publicly traded company, write a professional research report, and present their research results and recommendations to a high-profile panel of experts. Points are awarded to teams on the basis of their investment case, their poise, and their ability to answer the judges’ questions.

After a gruelling day, with three intense rounds of sudden death−style presentations to panels of industry experts, a team of future investment professionals from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was crowned champion of the seventh annual CFA Institute Research Challenge Americas Final for their presentation on Kona Grill.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, moved on to compete in the Global Finals where they competed against three other regional champions: Fordham University, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, and Wroclaw University of Economics.

Wroclaw University of Economics here earned the distinction of 2013 CFA Institute Research Challenge champions for their presentation on copper mining company, KGHM Polska Miedź.

The 2012 Research Challenge victor, Thammasat University, representing CFA Society Thailand, celebrated the value of their subject company, CP ALL Public Co. Ltd., a Thai convenience store operator.

Since last year’s challenge the stock has doubled in value. Only time will tell how this year’s student predictions will fare.