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CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 National Winner Jaskrit Kohli’s Story

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CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 National Winner Jaskrit Kohli’s Story

When we won the national round and were called on stage, that was a very special moment for the entire team. Everyone was happy and ecstatic. It felt good that all our efforts paid off. CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 is considered as the world cup of finance among all the B-Schools in India. So, there was a motivation to participate and win such a competition. Also, IIM Trichy had been performing exceptionally well for past so many years, so it was a natural inclination too.

The first part of the challenge was forming the team and then, winning the campus evaluation round. After that when we got the subject company, there was proper planning on how we would advance as a team. It took us around a month to prepare the equity report and prepare the PPT for zonal round. After winning zonal, our focus was more on improving the knowledge and covering anything that was left for zonal. The most challenging phase was the initial report writing phase. Getting all the data and making a quality submission was something that we found difficult. And also by that time, one doesn't know how the quality is as compared to others, so there is always a chance of a mismatch of expectations.

The best thing about the team was that everyone had an exceptional knowledge of finance. So, most of the discussions were aimed at challenging each other’s concepts and bringing out the best in everyone. There were conflicts but they got resolved with rational discussions and one thing that was made clear from the very beginning was that everyone’s opinion would be heard. Every person in the team had a role and everyone made sure that the quality of discussions was of top level. The intellectual level of the team in finance was very high and that, according to me, was the key factor that led us to win CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018.

There were 8 teams in total in the finale of CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018. According to me, both IIFT and IIM Kozhikode were excellent. The competition fared pretty well in terms of judgment quality, organization, and framing. Deadlines were sacrosanct. The organizers were very helpful and flexible with requests. It was a very pleasant and easy to go experience.

There were many learnings some of which were finance based such as financial projects, risk measurements and many more. Apart from that, we got to know how real equity research is made, what all aspects are covered. All in all, this competition taught me my biggest life lessons and I would always be grateful for that.

Read more about CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018-19 and the organizers CFA Institute.

Edited by

Jaskrit Kohli - IIM Trichy

(Batch of 2017-19)

Jaskrit Kohli, an MBA student from IIM Trichy, has worked for 1 year prior to joining IIM Trichy and has also cleared CFA Level 1.

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MBA B-School CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 IIM Trichy