A few days ago, the South China Reginal Final of the 2022-2023 CFA Institute Research Challenge came to a conclusion. After fierce competition, XYZ SucceeD team consisting of Yin Qiyao, Shen Yimin, Duan Zijun, Zhang Yunhan, and Xiong Chang, students from the School of Management and Economics (SME), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen) emerged as the champion from many participating teams and qualified for the East Asia regional finals for their in-depth research on LONGi’s green energy and photovoltaic industry expressed in such a fluent and excellent way. The Sleepingsleepy team consisting of Xu Menghong, Mao Yaxuan, Zhang Yichen, He Jiayi, and Huang Yiding won the second runner-up award. Notably, Duan Zijun from the champion team and Xu Menghong from the second runner-up team claimed the Best Individual Performance Award respectively.

Since first participating in the CFA Challenge in 2017, SME students have won five championships in the CFA Institute Research Challenge (South China Region).

Instructor’s Comments

Ye Shuai

Assistant Professor, School of Management and Economics,

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

The CFA Institute Research Challenge requires participants to clearly brief the logic of valuation in a short period of time. Both logic refinement and view expression are challenging for the students.

There are hundreds of factors that may affect stock prices. However, fortunately, the most influential one is usually far more important than others, so the key to valuation is to find the most influential factor. Instead of building castles in the air, I suggest they talk with practitioners. The industrial experience crystalized after many years of striving cannot be simply replaced by pure theoretical deduction.

After the summary of the core logic of valuation, attention should be paid to viewing the expression as appropriate without any overplay or downplay. Students tend to demonstrate logic through massive information, which is usually too much for the judges to digest. I think the most important thing for students to learn is to subtract information and selectively present brilliant conclusions. However, this does not mean they should go to the other extreme and omit necessary information in their presentation. It is such a common mistake that there is even a term to describe it, namely, the Curse of Knowledge, a bias in which, once we know something, we find it difficult to imagine not knowing it. In the Challenge, many participants unconsciously stood on the “commanding heights” of information. Assuming the judges knew the terminology and background information like the back of their hands, they did not give sufficient, necessary explanations for the information or their views, which led the judges to feel that the conclusions could hardly justify themselves. In this regard, there is an interesting and useful way for their practice: before the speech, the contestants can try to give a trial speech to friends who barely know the related industry or with any background knowledge and see if they can be convinced and see eye to eye with them. They can ask these friends to point out the inconsistent and incomprehensible parts and make supplements or revisions accordingly.

Should Undergraduates Participate in Business Case Competitions?

The main purpose of participating in the competitions is to add a convincing ability-certifying point to your resume. GPA is not comparable among different universities, but excellent performance in business case competitions serves as good proof of ability since they bring students from different schools on a fair platform. However, it is not easy to win prizes. Usually, chances are slim for students who participate in the competition for the first time to win the championship. They need to participate repeatedly for their improvement. Students should clarify their goals before participating in the competition and think about whether they really want or need to prove themselves through the competition because it is possible to make an impressive resume by accumulating internship experience instead of participating in a business competition. However, if the students decide to participate in the competition, they must burn the bridges behind them and give up something like grades and internships. All in all, I hope that everyone can find a suitable development path according to their own situation and interest, work hard and stay committed to the way forward.