CFA Institute Research Challenge

by Twister Marquiss

In April 2023, for the first time in Texas State University’s history, a team from the McCoy College of Business advanced to the Regional Semifinals for the Americas in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge.

While the term “Regional Semifinals” might conjure up notions of a competition in part of Texas, or maybe part of the U.S., it’s important to note that “Regional Semifinals for the Americas” means something entirely different, especially in a global competition.

In this case, it meant that Texas State’s team was among the top 12 teams in the U.S. and among the top 17 in all of North and South America. The “region” was the entire Western Hemisphere of the planet Earth.

In short, it was a very big deal.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is the largest equity research competition in the world. This annual program provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis.

Texas State's team was comprised of Michael Hardy, Brian Dorough-Paniagua, Jesusa Zuniga, and Aaron Aguirre.

“Competing and winning at these levels is only possible because of the support and mentorship our faculty members provide students in offering a world-class business education,” says Dr. Sanjay Ramchander, Dean of the McCoy College of Business.

“I’m really proud of them,” says Dr. Janet Payne, the team's faculty advisor and professor in the Department of Finance and Economics. “Every bit of work has been their own.”

Students from the undergraduate Student-Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) class, overseen by Dr. Holland Toles, were recommended for the team in fall 2022. Each team member put in over 200 hours of research, a tremendous load on top of coursework and other obligations.

“It’s a big deal, and I want people to know that,” says team member Aaron Aguirre, who completed his bachelor of business administration (B.B.A.) degree in finance in December 2022. “Interest was lacking in the program, and when people found out the number of hours that are required, they backed off. We didn’t have a free weekend for months on end. We were in the lab very late some nights.”

Texas State’s team hosted the first round — the CFA Southwest U.S. Research Challenge — at McCoy Hall on Feb. 25. This marked the first time that McCoy College had hosted the event. In order to compete in the CFA Southwest U.S. Research Challenge, teams submitted 10-page sell-side reports. The CFA Societies of Austin, San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Louisiana chose a company on which the competing teams wrote their reports, and 21 reports were submitted. The societies then chose the top 10 to compete at the event. Texas State’s team won that competition outright.

The Americas Sub-Regionals, which took place in March, were video-only. Texas State and Creighton University (Nebraska) advanced from their bracket to the Regional Semifinals for the Americas.

The Americas Regional Semifinals were held Thursday, April 6. The competition was virtual but live, consisting of 10-minute presentations and 10-minute question-and-answer sessions. Seventeen teams were divided into three virtual rooms, with each room sending two teams forward. Texas State’s team faced-off with James Madison University (Virginia), Universidad EAFIT (Colombia), the University of Michigan, and the University of Waterloo (Canada). The judges for all rounds were CFA charter holders and members of CFA societies.

The University of Sydney (Australia) eventually won the Global Final on May 3.

Team member Jesusa Zuniga, who earned her B.B.A. in May 2023 with a double major in accounting and finance, with minor in Economics, says that the team was assigned their company to research — Energy Recovery Inc. — in mid-November.

“We each put in 140 hours of research over winter break,” Zuniga says. “It was a total of 200 to 250 hours each, working in the [T. Paul] Bulmahn Trading Lab to one [o'clock] in the morning.”

But Aguirre says the research shouldn’t scare-off future team members. He competed on the team while working as a mechanic at Tire Factory Outlet, and he continued competing after he landed a position as a private equity and real estate investment analyst with the Texas Permanent School Fund.

“For those worried about the time commitment, I was working a full-time job, even after graduating, and my job was willing to help me — both when I was a mechanic and now,” Aguirre says. “The time commitment shouldn’t be a worry. We’re willing to help future students to ensure that they stay at the top of these future competitions.”

An Austin native, Aguirre is a first-generation American. Both of his parents immigrated from Mexico. He says that the CFA Institute Research Challenge has been an impactful part of his life and his career ahead.

“CFA is the gold standard,” he says, “and CFA will help you get those jobs that people are looking for. While I travel for work, I’ve gotten to tell a lot of people about the CFA Research Challenge. They know what CFA is. It’s global.”

Zuniga, a Houston native, has recently accepted a position as head of compliance and business analyst at Pecan Street Investment Holdings, LLC, in New Braunfels. 

“My ultimate goal is to come back to school to teach finance and be able to do research on the economics side,” she says.

She worked at Texas State's Student Learning Assistance Center (SLAC) for four years, and she says that helped set her foundation for finance.

Team member Brian Dorough-Paniagua, who hails from San Antonio, earned his B.B.A. in May 2023 with a double major in accounting and finance. He has been accepted in McCoy College’s Master of Accountancy (MAcy) graduate program, which he will start this summer. Dorough-Paniagua works for SWBC in San Antonio until December, and he has just accepted an auditing internship from Ernst & Young that starts in winter; the EY internship transitions into a full-time role.

He says that participating on the team has helped develop his presentation skills.

“It’s helped me get a job. I talked about it in my interview with Ernst & Young,” Dorough-Paniagua says. “When I first started, I felt like I was out of place. It was so much work, and I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. But we had a lot of help along the way. In our Financial Modeling class, alums who graduated from SMIF would grill us on things and tell us what they see. Not many people get that opportunity.”

Dorough-Paniagua is also a McCoy College legacy student: his father earned his bachelor’s degree in computer information systems at what was then Southwest Texas State in 1986, followed by a master of business administration (M.B.A.) in 1998.

Team member Michael Hardy, a native of Temple, Texas, graduated with a B.B.A. in finance in May 2023. He says he wants to get into banking or an analyst role.

“I want to do something similar to what we were doing in CFA — that was fun,” Hardy says. “I want to be in wealth management, it’s an umbrella of things.”

Hardy says that being part of the team in the CFA Institute Research Challenge was a fantastic experience.

“I think we were very successful in [the global competition] because none of us were shy about mentioning our own ideas or challenging each other on those ideas,” Hardy says. “We asked thought-provoking questions and took-in other perspectives.”

Hardy also says that being part of the Student-Managed Investment Fund was a key part of his college experience, both for the class and the opportunities it provided.

“My favorite class was SMIF, for sure,” he says. “We love it because we can apply what we learned. It’s a good program in lieu of an internship. We have a client — the endowment. It’s real-world money, real-world data, not hypothetical equations.” ✯