Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge

Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge

Fall 2024

The CFA Society Pittsburgh Collegiate Stock Picker Challenge is currently underway for the Fall 2024 semester!

We are excited to have our largest competition yet, with 191 students signed up across more than 10 local universities. 

The competition this year consists of students from: Chatham, Duquesne, Franciscan University, Grove City, IUP, La Roche, Penn State, Penn State Behrend, Penn State World, Penn West, Pitt Greensburg, Robert Morris, University of Pittsburgh, W&J, Waynesburg, and WVU.

Top 10 Leaderboard (as of 11/8/2024):

Participant ID Return
JoshBerger 36.03
Bianca D. 31.29
15lehmana 24.29
tup150 20.96
mpaoloemilio 19.40
Natalie Harris 17.64
michaeld19 17.54
jon8480 17.00
BradyZarnick 16.18
Evansala6 15.59

Among all student portfolios, the top 5 most popular stock picks are:

Stock # Students
Apple Inc 77
NVIDIA 63
Amazon.com 38
Tesla 22
Microsoft 22

 

Event Timeline

Fall Session: October 15 – December 15

Spring Session: February 15 – April 15 

Participants Allowed

Unlimited

Prizes

Student Award: $50 (Amazon gift card) per student for Top 10

Team Award: $500 donation to chosen charity of selected university*

Overview

The Stock Picker Challenge gives students the opportunity to pick their own portfolio of stocks and compete against their fellow peers for the best total return. The Stock Picker challenge seeks to give a large group of students a chance to start investing and participate in a CFA event with minimal time commitment. 

Guidelines

  • Portfolio: 5 stocks 

  • Universe: Russell 3000 (3,000 Largest US Public Companies)

  • Eligible Stocks to Choose: 3,000 largest US-based companies

  • Performance: Equal-weighted total return of 5 stocks within portfolio
    • Student Returns: Average Total Return of 5 stocks
    • Team Returns: Average of student returns for each college* 

Instructions

To compete, students fill out an entry survey that involves picking 5 stocks from a dropdown list. The signup process takes less than 5 minutes for students to complete! Good luck!

*Please note that we reserve the right to veto charity choice, if it is deemed contrary to the CFA Society Pittsburgh's mission. Please refrain from choosing organizations affiliated with a singular political party.

**University must have at least 2 participants to qualify for team prize.