Rocky Mountain Investment Challenge 2023

Up to two teams of three to five undergraduate students from each school are eligible to participate in the Rocky Mountain Investment Challenge. Application to participate should be completed via the link provided by Mar 10. Students may choose any publicly traded firm for their stock pitch. The only exception is securities that were CFA Research Challenge firms. 

As soon as teams receive the notification that their entry to the competitions has been accepted, the teams may begin searching for attractive stocks and, if desired, have their own internal competition to decide which two teams will represent their school at the competition.  

At the Challenge, the teams will present their stock pitch to a panel of judges. Judges will consist of distinguished investment professionals. The judges score the presentations, deliberate and choose the winners. Teams will be judged on their presentation. Handouts are allowed but should be limited to two pages.

The first, second and third place teams will receive cash prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500, respectively. The prize money will go directly to the students of the winning teams. Students are expected to comply with the honor system throughout the event.

All teams may use pre-designed templates provided by the organizers of the Rocky Mountain Investment Challenge for their presentations. Teams must allow all team members to participate in the presentation and in answering the judges’ questions. A total of 30 minutes is allotted per team pitch: 15 minutes for the presentation and 15 minutes for Q&A from the judges. Time limits will be strictly enforced by an official timekeeper. Student teams may view other team presentations once they are done with their own. Judges will use an evaluation sheet for scoring. Presentations will be judged on the basis of the quality of the analysis and presentation delivery, as well as the quality of the Q&A session.

For research leading up to the competition, all data sources are fair game, including the internet and any proprietary quantitative or fundamental models developed in advance. All sources must be cited. The work, however, must be the student teams’ and may not include any outside help or professionals.

Teams are expected to fully respect one another's privacy; team members should neither seek nor provide information to anyone outside their own team. Teams will be allowed to seek the guidance of a faculty advisor on their pitch but will be restricted to using no more than 10 hours of the person's time. Teams may not contact investment professionals on the buy-side or sell-side (alumni or otherwise) to ask about their investment opinion on the researched stocks. Violation of these rules constitutes grounds for disqualification.