Now it’s six years running.
The winning streak of Cal State Fullerton investment students at the annual CFA Institute Research Challenge Los Angeles local competition has continued in 2025, with a group of four finance students and one accounting student led by Dylan Nguyen taking the top spot. The Titan team from the College of Business and Economics competed against student teams from Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Northridge, Claremont Graduate University and Pepperdine University. CSUF was the only school to send two teams to the Feb. 14 event, with the second Titan cohort coming in third place.
The CFA competition requires participating students to complete in-depth research on a real-world public company. This year, the subject company was PennyMac, a Westlake Village-based residential mortgage company. The CSUF students assumed the role of investment research analysts who have a thorough understanding of the business and factors involved in valuing it. They met the executive team, including the CEO and CFO of the company, last November. Each team member spent hundreds of hours on this competition in addition to their other coursework and employment.
“To have won it six times consecutively is such an honor for our students and our program. This year’s team worked incredibly hard to be worthy of winning and this is their year and their moment irrespective of our past success,” said Kelly Ko, lecturer in finance and faculty adviser for Titan Capital Management, the program in which finance students manage real-world equity and bond portfolios. “The students’ reports and presentation were unanimously considered the best among seven teams competing this year. Hard work is fundamental, but team collaboration is also a key component for winning this competition. Our team exhibited both, demonstrating the quality and strength of the Titan Capital Management program.”
Read more in CSUF Business News.