For the ninth consecutive time, the Externado wins the CFA Institute Research Challenge national round

The largest association of finance professionals in the world annually organizes this competition, for university students, on financial analysis and business valuation.

For the ninth consecutive time, students of the Externado de Colombia Finance, Government and International Relations Faculty won the university competition CFA Institute Research Challenge. They will represent Colombia in the qualifying round of the Americas to be held in New York in April 2020.

The largest association of financial professionals in the world, the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFA Institute), with currently more than 150,000 members in over 165 countries, annually organizes a global competition, for university students, on financial analysis and business valuation. In this event, held for the ninth time in Colombia and the 12th on a global level, about 6,100 young people and 1,150 universities participated. This time, the students had to give an investment recommendation on Ecopetrol S.A., the largest company in the country.

On November 20, 2019, approximately 12 Colombian universities participating in the local round submitted an anonymous report, in English, to a panel of evaluators. On December 13, 2019, the five teams with the best reports (Universidad Externado, Universidad Nacional, Universidad del Rosario, Universidad EIA, and EAFIT), had the opportunity to present their investment recommendation to a panel of four investment world experts. This time, the judges declared the Externado de Colombia University team as the winner. This achievement allows our team to represent the country in the next phase of the contest: the Americas Regional Round, in New York, United States, on April 20 and 21, 2020.

The winners

PHOTO: From left to right: Andrés Romero (ninth-semester); María Alejandra Rodríguez (ninth- semester); Luis Miguel Chitiva (eighth-semester); Carlos Daza (ninth-semester)

The four Finance, Government and International Relations undergraduate students who have just completed their seventh and eighth semesters are, María Alejandra Rodríguez Gómez, Luis Miguel Chitiva Cardona, Carlos Mario Daza Flórez, and Andrés David Romero Aguilar. During the past three months, with the support of Professor Germán Forero Laverde (FIGRI) and Claudia Arciniegas of the English department, the group focused on preparing a technical document and a 10-minute executive presentation, both in English, explaining the investment recommendation of the company studied.

Over the next few months, until the presentation in New York, the students will need to refine the models implemented to incorporate new developments in local and global finance. It is worth noting that in this new phase of the competition, students will face not only teams made up of undergraduate students but also masters and doctorates from the best universities in the Americas while keeping up with their regular academic work.

The Finance, Government and International Relations Faculty congratulates the students and wishes them the greatest success in this new stage of the competition