Chartered Financial Analyst Research Challenge

Abstract

The University of Arizona Honors College and the Eller College of Management jointly offer the optionality to participate in either the CFA Institute Research Challenge or the CQA Investment Challenge for graduating finance seniors looking to complete their honors thesis requirement. While both research opportunities are team-based tasks and require a comprehensive skillset learned within the finance undergraduate experience, the challenges vary significantly in scope and responsibility. The CFA Institute Research Challenge is much more micro focused consisting of the valuation of a single company while the CQA Challenge is much more macro in nature as that challenge consists of managing an investment portfolio exposed to global financial markets. This report is focused on my personal and my team's experience participating in the CFA Institute Research Challenge. My team consisted of Tessa Collins, Amber Lucas, Shivani Patel, Henry Roden, and myself, Robert McCollister. As has been consistent with my tenure at the Eller College of Management, team-based objectives are of a completely different complexity than projects where one is solely responsible for the end product. I found my experiences described below to be not only transformative but also extremely rewarding.