CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Institute's Research Challenge competition enables students from all over the world to learn best practice in financial analysis through hands-on coaching and intensive training in business analysis.
The regional competition is organized by CFA Montréal in collaboration with CFA Québec.
Every year, the competition features thousands of students from more than 900 universities worldwide.
Teams competing against other teams from Quebec universities and have the opportunity to :
- Analyzing a public company
- Be mentored by investment management professionals
- Write an equity research report
- Present their research to a high-profile panel of experts
- Advance to Regional and Global levels of competition if they win the local challenge
How it works
The university representative registered for the Research Challenge makes up the team.
Each team is assigned a mentor from the Montreal financial industry.
Local competition
Research reports are graded by local professionals.
Local final
A panel of professional judges recognized in the financial industry evaluates the teams' presentations. The winning team from the local final moves on to the next round: regional/Canadian quarter-finals.
Regional quarter-finals
The four teams with the best results in the regional quarter-final qualify to represent Canada in the Americas semi-final.
Americas semi-finals
All teams compete to represent the Americas region at the World Final. Two teams qualify for both the Americas Final and the World Final.
Americas & World Finals
The winning team of the world final is declared world champion of the Research Challenge competition.
Important dates
Deadline for team registrations
- November 14, 2025
Kickoff of the season and unveiling of the subject company
- November 27, 2025
- Montreal
Q&A with the subject company
- January 16, 2026
Deadline for the report
- February 11, 2026
Local finals and cocktail
- February 25, 2026
- Montreal
Sub-regionals - deadline for submitting the video presentation
- March 12, 2026
Regional semifinals
- March 31 and April 1, 2026
- Virtual
Regional finals
- April 2-3, 2026
- Virtual
Global final
- May 2026
- Hong Kong
Winners of the most recent editions
2024-2025 : Concordia University
BHANDARI, Garv
DI NUNZIO, Giovanni
MARCHESSEAULT, Eli
VÉZINA, Édouard
WANG, Hannah
2023-2024 : McGill University
ANDERSON, Owen
KIRIAZIS, Charles
QUIRK, Britton
RABELLO, Philippe
RINDLER, Jordan
2022-2023 : Concordia University
BAKOPANOS, Ioannis
CLOUTIER FAUCHER, Olivier
MACNEIL, Matthew
ROZON, Justin
WEI, Zi Hao
2021-2022 : HEC Montréal
MATTON, Charles-Olivier
HINSE, Mathieu
AMYOT, Maxime
PÉLLETIER, Maya
BENOIT, Olivier
2020-2021 : McGill University
CHEN, Bruce
LUO, Haiwen
WIACEK, Neil
WU, Audrey
YU, Andy
Contacts : CFA Montreal
Alexandre Cyr, CFA
Co-Chair of the University Relations CommitteeContacts : Universities
ESG UQAM
MAHER KOOLI
kooli.maher@uqam.ca
HEC Montréal
CELINE GEMMEL
celine.gemmel@hec.ca
Concordia University
SERGEY GELMAN, CFA
kwpmp@concordia.ca
Université de Montréal
BENOIT PERRON
benoit.perron@umontreal.ca
Laval University
CHRISTIAN BOUTET, CFA
christian.boutet@fsa.ulaval.ca
McGill University
VADIM DI PIETRO, CFA
vadimpierre.dipietro@mcgill.ca
Ethics Challenge
The Ethics Challenge is held at locations around the world to instill strong ethics in the next generation of investment professionals to help them prepare for a successful career.
The regional competition of CFA Societies Canada Ethics Challenge is organized by CFA Québec in collaboration with CFA Montréal.