The 2024-2025 CFA Institute Research Challenge Shanghai Final concluded recently, with the student team from Nottingham University Business School China (including Ming Ding, Jianing Hu, Jiaye Xie, Yueyang Yin, and Yuhan Zhou) winning fourth place and Outstanding Performance Award in the intense competition. The top three spots were taken by Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, respectively.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an analytical and research-based competition aimed at students majoring in business, finance, and economics in higher education institutions around the world. The participating student teams will conduct research and analysis on a certain listed company, demonstrating their ability to write reports and give presentations, and undergoing tests on the best practices for promoting stock research and company analysis in the competition. The competition lasts for four months and is divided into local, regional semifinals, regional finals, and global finals, with four regional competitions in the Chinese mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu.
This year, a total of 18 student teams participated in the Shanghai region, including teams from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, New York University Shanghai, and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
The participating team from the Business School was composed of Year 4 students majoring in Finance, Accounting and Management, and International Business Economics. The Finance, Accounting and Management programme has been accepted into the CFA Institute University Affiliation Programme. The curriculum of the programme incorporates a significant portion of the CFA Programme Candidate Body of Knowledge, which is closely tied to the practice of investment management, laying a solid foundation for students to participate in this competition.
Ming Ding said, "Accounting modules such as Intermediate Corporate Reporting and Fundamentals of Financial and Management Accounting have given us a solid foundation in financial analysis and accounting, enabling us to accurately interpret company financial statements and conduct in-depth analysis of financial data. Modules such as Corporate Finance and Business Finance have also equipped us with the core methods and tools for enterprise valuation, which played a crucial role in the company valuation and investment recommendations in the competition."
The first-class facilities at the Business School also provided support for students in the competition. The school opened top data analysis software such as Bloomberg and Wind, helping students easily obtain global financial market dynamics and analyze corporate financial data. At the same time, professional tools such as Morningstar also enriched students' research reports. The combination of these hardware and software facilities provided powerful support for students to showcase their talents.
In addition, the good results in this competition could not have been accomplished without the careful guidance of the mentors. Jianing Hu expressed deep gratitude for their efforts, saying, "Before the competition, Dr Yi Zhang, Assistant Professor in Finance, supplemented us with methods for analyzing the revenue structure and stock valuation of target companies."
"After the competition began, Dr Xiaolan Zheng, Associate Professor in Finance, became our solid support. She not only helped us control the overall direction, but also guided us in analyzing the feasibility of valuation assumptions and the rationality of valuation, and standardized our investment analysis report writing. We receive timely feedback during the lunch break every Tuesday and Thursday, which helps us adjust strategies and directions timely. It is worth mentioning that this competition also provided us with the opportunity to visit the target company in person and was equipped with industry mentors. Ms Yuting Yin, with her practical experience and professional perspective, provided valuable industry advice for us."
After four months of hard work, the five students worked together to draw a great conclusion to the competition. Yuhan Zhou reflected, "This competition was an extremely valuable opportunity for us, as it almost simulated the actual work of a financial analyst. It not only deepened our understanding and mastery of financial knowledge, but also provided us with a platform to apply this knowledge to practice, inspiring our interest and enthusiasm for our career path. I am also grateful to have met a group of outstanding friends in the competition. We each have our strengths and share the burden, which has allowed me to experience the importance and value of teamwork. I believe that we will continue to improve our professional skills in finance and explore the depth and breadth of the industry based on this starting point."