Mastering Industry Research for the CFA Challenge 📊

Hi everyone, my name is Shaheer and I was a part of the winning team (Kozminski University) of the 2025 CFA Research Challenge Global Finals.

In this conversation, I discuss with my fellow team mate and friend, Aniket Thakkar, about his experience, tips, and strategies from being part of the winning team of the 2025 CFA Research Challenge, especially focusing on the importance of industry analysis and competitor research.

Here's everything we discussed:

00:00 - Introduction
06:32 - How to define the scope of industry research?
07:34 - PESTEL Analysis Framework
13:08 - How to start with the industry research?
15:38- What sources to use?
23:26- The POV of the judges
25:11- The 'So What' framework
28:19- How to link industry research to the target company?
32:25- How many pages should the industry analysis take up?
38:10- How much time to dedicate to industry research?
41:00- Take inspiration from past teams

If you are participating in the CFA Research Challenge, I highly recommend you to also watch the videos below.

How to win the CFA Research Challenge
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCfsCWJTSdk
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvyQecWiReI&t=2278s

Watch our team's pitch at the 2025 CFA RC Global Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlmCj8fDMvM&t=713s

Reach out directly to me or Aniket on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniket-thakkar-439339219/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaheeransari/

#cfa #cfaresearchchallenge #cfainstitute #cfarc #kozminskiuniversity #cfasocietypoland #valuation #industryresearch #industryanalysis #businessvaluation #stockpitch #equityreserch #financialmodeling #dcf #discountedcashflow #investmentmanagement #assetmanagement