Being the Local Host of the CFA Institute Research Challenge (the Challenge), CFA Society Hong Kong would like to seek our members’ interests to serve as the industry mentor & grader.
The Challenge is an annual initiative designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts. This is a competition between university-sponsored Teams that research a designated publicly traded company, prepare a Written Report on that selected company and then present their findings to a panel of Judges.
There are four levels: Local, Sub-Regional, Regional and Global. Winners at the Local level advance to compete against Teams within their geographic region at the Sub Regional and Regional level. Winning Teams at the Regional level advance to compete at the Global level. One Team is designated the ultimate winning Team at the Global level. All participants are introduced to and held to the standard of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
MENTOR
Each team, consisting of 3-5 students (may consist of undergraduate and graduate students), will be assigned an industry mentor who mentors the team during the research process, reviews and critiques the team's company analysis report.
We are now looking for volunteers who are:
- Preferably sell-side analysts with more than 5 years of working experience (preferably CFA charterholders).
- With the enthusiasm to teach best practices and promote ethical decision making to the next generation of financial professionals.
- Willing to attend the subject company’s presentation with the team(s) (approx. 2-2.5 hours).
- Willing to contribute 6-10 hours (not including the company presentation) to provide guidance to the team(s) to do their investment research report. The hours would include emails and phone calls.
- Mentors will be entitled to obtain 6-10 CPT credit hours (recognized by the Securities and Futures Commission, exact number of hours subject to the number of teams assigned) at the end of the event.
GRADER
Graders will review and critique the written research reports for the Hong Kong Local Final of the Challenge. Graders may be analysts, portfolio managers, or other professionals with experience in either preparing or reading sell-side research. As a grader, you will review reports and score them according to a predetermined point system. Each grader may review 5-8 investment research reports and score each section and provide constructive comments to the teams on their reports.
We are now looking for volunteers who are:
- Preferably sell-side analysts with more than 5 years of working experience (preferably CFA charterholders).
- With the enthusiasm to promote ethical decision making to the next generation of financial professionals.
- Graders will be entitled to obtain 6-8 CPT credit hours (recognized by the Securities and Futures Commission, exact number of hours subject to the number of reports graded) for the year of 2026.
TIMELINE
| July 2025 | Invitation to universities in Hong Kong and Macau |
| 17 October 2025 (TBC) | Opening Ceremony |
| mid-November 2025 | Subject Listed Company Presentation |
| November 2025 - January 2026 | Students to work on the investment research report |
| 5 January 2026 | Deadline for students to submit research reports for grading |
| 7-17 January 2026 (2 weeks) | Graders to review and score the research reports |
| 17 January 2026 | Graders to complete the scoring |
| 19 January 2026 | Announcement of the top 5 finalist teams |
| 7 February 2026 | Final Presentation and Award Ceremony |
Our volunteers’ contributions and expertise are instrumental to the success of this Challenge!
If you are interested in becoming one of our volunteer industry mentors or graders, please click HERE to provide details about your professional experience on or before 19 September 2025 (Friday). Further information about the event and other logistics will be provided in due course.