University students in financial research competition

THE Investments Professionals Association of Zimbabwe (IPAZ), will host the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge in Zimbabwe.

IPAZ, a representative of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute — the global association of investment professionals made up of portfolio managers, investment advisors, educators and other financial professionals — will hold the local level of this global competition on October 18, 2018.

During the Zimbabwe round, eight teams of three to five students from the country’s leading universities and business schools will compete for a place in the regional competition.

Zimbabwe is in the Europe Middle East and Africa region.

The EMEA Regional competition will be held in Zurich, Switzerland on April 8, 2019 while the Global final will be held on April 21, 2019 in New York, USA.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and compete on a global basis.

Students will learn from leading industry experts and their mentors and peers from the world’s top business schools.

As part of the competition, each team will work with a CFA charter holder who will mentor the team during the research process and reviews and critiques its report.

The teams’ final presentations are locally evaluated by panels of experts from top financial institutions.

Panelists include heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms.

The team with the highest combined written report and presentation score is the winner and advances to the regional level of the Research Challenge.

Regional winners then progress to compete at the Global Final.

At the regional and global stages of the Research Challenge, teams are evaluated solely on their presentations.

This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands - on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.

“We are excited about launching this educational competition in Zimbabwe as IPAZ and we hope to make a contribution in the training of prospective investment professionals,” said Mr Ranga Makwata IPAZ board member and local host co-ordinator of the Research challenge.

“The competition should help university students develop their competencies in equity research, report writing and presentation. Besides competency, the challenge should also teach them to be ethical in their conduct and always put the client’s interest first before their employers, and theirs too.”

The global competition, which runs until April 2019, attracted more than 5 500 students from 1 100 universities in 87 countries during the 2018 competition year.