Fordham GBA Students Travel to London for CFA Competition
A group of four students from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) traveled to London as finalists in the CFA Institute Research Challenge. After first beating out 18 competitors—including Montclair State, Pace, and Seton Hall—to qualify, the Fordham team won the New York Regional Finals to qualify for the international trip. In London they will compete with teams representing the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge requires teams to synthesize volumes of data about a company into a concise buy/sell/hold recommendation and report. In the regional finals, for instance, teams pored over documents relating to Microsoft Corporation and wrote a ten page investment proposal for that company.
Robert J. Fuest, adjunct professor of finance at Fordham, served as the team’s faculty advisor. The GBA students also received assistance in their preparation from Mike Kiernan, GBA ’93, who acted as the team’s mentor, and a number of other Fordham alumni and investment professionals. Feust and Kiernan reported that the GBA team spent countless hours reviewing past competitions in order to ensure the quality of their presentation as well as the quality of their financial analysis.
The CFA Institute is a global association of investment professionals whose members must undergo rigorous testing in order to demonstrate their investment expertise. Investment Professionals who hold a Chartered Financial Analyst designation are widely respected within the investment industry.
