Team Artume, IIT Kharagpur qualifies for the Asia Pacific round of CFA Institute Research Challenge

The whole organizing committee of CFA Institute Research Challenge and the competition, on the whole, were top notch. Each round was an eliminator round which meant that, each team had to be thorough with their work. Another commendable thing was the level of transparency maintained throughout the event. Here is an account of our strategy and learning experience.

Secrets of a great team!

The main challenge in the competition was to deliver the pitch in the stipulated time and show things in a manner that would make us stand apart. Therefore, our strategy involved dividing the work within us according to our area of expertise so that the quality could be delivered within the set deadlines. During the whole course of the competition, as a team, we had invested around 300 hrs per person.

We were a team of five students, currently all in their final year. We all have known each other for the past 2-3 years which helped in our team gelling together and eventually doing well in the event. Generally, working in a team always has its ups and downs but in this case, the experience helped us learn a lot from each other and broaden our skillset. And in times of conflict, someone or the other stood up to take up the mantle and resolve the issue or complete the task.

The team's main forte was the diversity within the team in terms of the skillset each one brought to the table. They were in a way complementary to each other.

The final match and our learnings

There were 8 teams from the 4 zones across India in the National finals. We were the underdogs as all other teams were more experienced than us and hence, all were tough competitors for us. But we kept faith in our hard work and sailed past all the challenges that came across successfully.

CFA Institute Research Challenge helped us to implement the theoretical knowledge gained through classroom and books in the real world problems with practical constraint under the surveillance of industry mentors. This has helped us broaden our understanding and scope of thinking.

Everything seems picture perfect when your hard work is recognized. And so, during CFA IRC, when the judges praised our research in the National finals in front of the great minds and declared us the Asia Pacific finalists, it meant a lot to us.

Satwik Bansal - IIT Kharagpur

2015-2020

The team consisted of Satwik Bansal, Ritika Agarwal, Daksh Thakkur, Shubham Maheshwari, and Tanay Jagani. These M.Tech. Financial Engineering students worked in close coordination under the mentorship of Prof. Abhijeet Chandra from Vinod Gupta School of Management, the business school of IIT Kharagpur.