When, just a few months ago, we sat around a table to discuss financial competitions, none of us imagined how far that conversation would take us. It was not simply about deciding whether to take part in a contest; it was about the desire to challenge ourselves, to give concrete value to the hours spent in the classroom, and to prove that even in Bolzano-Bozen, there is a generation of students ready to compete with the best. This shared ambition marked the first step of a new journey: unibz’s return to international finance competitions.

At the heart of this revival stands the newly established Finance Club BZ, created to bring together students united by a passion for finance and to bridge the gap between theory and practice that is often felt at university. The idea was simple yet ambitious: to build a space where students could exchange ideas, prepare together, and grow collectively. And we could not have imagined a better starting point than the CFA competitions.

CFA Competitions: Bridging Theory and the Real World

The CFA Research Challenge is much more than a competition: it is an international experience that offers students a concrete insight into the work of a financial analyst. Each Italian team is required to produce a professional equity research report on a company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, assessing its prospects and risks to answer a crucial question: should investors buy, sell, or hold the stock?

This year, the assigned company will take us to Lecco, where we will have the opportunity to meet the company’s management in person at their headquarters. This represents a valuable chance to deepen our analysis by engaging directly with those who experience the company’s dynamics daily.

Representing our university in the CFA Research Challenge will be three undergraduate students and two graduate students: Edoardo Grossi, Alexander Brigadoi, Besam Muca, Jennifer Magnani, and Chiara Zivanic. The team will be led by Edoardo Grossi, with the support of faculty advisor Professor Dimitri Boreiko and industry professional and CFA mentor Marco Miglierina.

Alongside the CFA Research Challenge, unibz students are also participating this year in the Fund Management Challenge (FMC), another initiative promoted by CFA Society Italy, focused on active portfolio management. The competition is open to students enrolled in the Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance. It involves a demanding yet exciting task: managing a portfolio of 5 long and 5 short positions, selected from a universe of mid- and large-cap stocks listed in Europe or the United States. Representing unibz in this second competition will be Gioia Zecchin, Marta Antognozzi, Martina Leoni, Bela Bekesi, and Andrea Staffieri.