Future finance experts (from left) Jose Mari Punzalan, Choerleen Bianca Solema, Pamela Yu Li, Rachelle Denise Sison, and Raymund Siegfrid Li from the University of the Philippines with coach, Prof. Gavin Lee (fourth from left).

While most young people would cringe at the idea of dealing with numbers and analysis, Business Administration and Accountancy students Raymund Siegfrid Li, Rachelle Denise Sison, Pamela Yu Li, Jose Mari Punzalan, and Choerleen Bianca Solema from the University of the Philippines, deal with them head on.

This is how these students – members of Long Island Investments team – clinched the plum in the recent Investment Research Challenge (IRC) finals, a worldwide competition organized and initiated by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, a local affiliate of CFA Institute and composed of financial analysts, portfolio managers, and investment professionals.

The said team bested finalists from other universities that included Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University-Manila (DLSU), De La Salle University-Dasmariñas and University of Sto. Tomas (UST). Second and third places went to the teams from Ateneo, fourth place to DLSU-Dasma, while the fifth place to UST.

The IRC is part of the initiative of CFA Philippines to complement and strengthen finance education in the country.

CFAP offers educational programs, and encourages ethical behavior among its members.

For the elimination round, eight teams were asked to produce an equity research report on Energy Development Corp , the chosen subject company. Their mentors included a roster of investment professionals and educators from AdMU, Unionbank, ATR Kim Eng Securities, CitisecOnline, CLSA Philippines, Inc., Altus Transactional Services, and Campos Lanuza.

The task involved analyzing the company assigned, and writing a research report under the mentorship of a professional research analyst. Each team produced a coverage report on EDC and was reviewed and scored.

After the presentation of research to a high-profile panel of experts, the team from UP got the highest presentation score and was declared the winner. They became Team CFA Philippines who will represent the country in the IRC Regionals to be held in the country for the first time in March.

Emerging as winners

Since the IRC involved not only math skills but also effective communication skills, team leader Raymund Li says it wasn’t an easy contest to win.

First and foremost, they needed at least four months to prepare. Team members Rachelle Sison and Jose Mari Punzalan admit they had a hard time because the topic “Equity Analysis” was not usually taught or discussed in school. “We had to do our own readings, look for different books, and make a report all on our own,” Jose Mari explains.

What made the team win, Rachelle opines, is the cooperation and intense preparation. “All those sleepless nights paid off and we really wanted to win!” she quips.

Their strategy of spending more time on the more critical aspect of finalizing and polishing the model rather than the paper could also have made them win.

Gearing up for the regionals

But if there is anything that winning has taught this team, it is never to rest on their laurels. They know that regional IRC will be tougher.

“There will be more contestants whose knowledge and training may be far better than us,” team member Pamela Yu Li muses.

The members are humble enough to acknowledge that they need to improve on their presentation skills and analysis.

Jose Mari says it’s not all about numbers.

“It’s not all computing especially in doing reports or analysis. You should also have the skills to analyze and the skills to tell the story behind these numbers,” he remarks.

Team member Choerleen Solema also says diligence is a must. “Tiyaga lang talaga because there are so many documents
na kailangan i-file or i-research and also yung technicalities.”

For Pamela, devotion is what will make them achieve whatever they want. “This is applicable not only in contests but in real life situations because if you devote your time to something, it will eventually pay off.”

Raymund also puts emphasis on the fact that in business, one doesn’t have to have inherent talent. “In the business world, if you work hard, start early, and push yourself, eventually you will be able to overcome the challenges.”

The team also plans to refine its presentation by minimizing the local references and going really global. They will do this by familiarizing themselves with international companies.

Everyone agrees that they need to work even harder because the Philippines would host the regionals. “Nandun din yung pressure since most of our schoolmates will be watching as well so we really have to prepare well,” says Rachelle.

More, more, more!

Coach and associate professor Gavin Lee says that although the team members are among the top in their batch, they should not let up on training. “We know that they can crunch the numbers because they are accounting majors, we need to know how well they can present what they are crunching,” he explains.

He believes that what made the team win is that they worked hard and they were persistent. “They were also open to new suggestions and they were very patient especially in reading huge volume of documents.” But, he feels that that team needs to work harder on the Q&A. “That means they have to know more than what you have prepared for. There has to be a lot of back up knowledge for any unexpected questions.”

Confidence also counts a lot especially when mouthing the market jargons. “When they talk about the market, they should know what technical terms to use and use these in the proper context,” he explains.