Four students from the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI recently competed and won first place at a local research competition hosted by the CFA Institute. The undergrads — Jacey Stuckey, David Goldberg, Matthew Smith and Jonah Gjertson — continued on to compete in the Americas Regional on April 23 and 24.
The CFA Institute is the “premier global association for investment management professionals.” They host an annual research competition to provide undergraduate and graduate students “hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis.”
This was the first annual competition in Indianapolis. According to the CFA’s website, 2018 saw more than 5,700 students from 85 countries participate in 112 local challenges.
Two of the students, Jonah Gjertson, BS’19, and David Goldberg, BS’20, shared that the team spent between 50 and 75 hours together preparing a 10 page report and presentation. In addition, each teammate spent several hours individually working on the research, evaluation and presentation.
After reflecting on the project, both Gjertson and Goldberg say they’d encourage other students to participate in future competitions. The team has strong support from the Kelley faculty, and they credit their mentors and advisors, including finance professor Glen Larsen, for their success.
“As an accounting student, I know about the CPA and the preparations for that, but also getting to learn about the CFA and the benefits it brings, as well as more about the finance industry, specifically equity investments and equity evaluations, was very beneficial,” Gjertson said.
Competing student teams focused their projects on a buy, sell, hold reading for Anthem. Gjertson says Goldberg was instrumental in creating the evaluation they used along with delegating work for his teammates.
Goldberg adds, “All the teams do an evaluation. What sets the [successful] teams apart is their ability to go into the qualitative data and information.”
The students say the competition helped test their knowledge in financial analysis. They also credit the program with reinforcing skills they learned in I-Core, like teamwork, delegation, research and public speaking.
Goldberg says, “On top of getting to know my teammates better, getting to know Professor Larsen really well and being able to develop a relationship with our industry mentor… I was able to sit down [with the CFO of Anthem] at a company presentation. That’s something I’ve never been able to do before.”
As they prepare for regionals, the students are implementing feedback from the judges, reviewing past winning presentations and working closely with Kelley School faculty at IUPUI and their industry mentor. They are excited about the opportunity and ready to compete at the next level.