University of Sydney team makes history by advancing to CFA Challenge global finals

A team of University of Sydney Business School students have become the first Australian team to advance to the CFA Institute Research Challenge global finals.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is a one of the most prestigious finance competitions in the world, and provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and professional ethics.

The University of Sydney team, comprised of undergraduate students Sahil Arora, Jeffrey Brown, Jassis Chen, Tom Luo and Jessica Wu, who are all majoring in Finance, won the Asia Pacific finals after preparing a stock pitch of CBA over nine months.

Sahil Arora, Jassis Chen, Tom Luo, Jessica Wu and Jeffrey Brown

“We owe our success to the phenomenal work of our faculty mentor, Dr Angelo Aspiris, and the USYD Finance Faculty," the team said.

"Being the first Australian team to reach the global finals speaks volumes about the quality of teaching at our university and the opportunities provided to us.

"Most importantly, it highlights that we are a school of contemporary learning, able to contextualise our classroom learnings in a highly dynamic setting.”

The team will now go on to represent Asia Pacific at the global finals, which will be held via video conference on 22 April 2020.

"It has been a long and wonderful journey," Jeffrey Brown said. "We are honoured to be flying the Asia Pacific flag and for the opportunity to continue sharing our research with the wider community."