Choose a school-identifiable team name and designate one captain to manage registration and submissions.
NORTH AMERICA + UNITED KINGDOMCHURCHILL INVESTMENT COMPETITION · 2026STUDENT-RUN BY THE CHURCHILL FUND
BUILT BY HIGH-SCHOOL INVESTORS · FALL 2026
Back your
best idea.
Choose one public company, identify what the market may be missing, and show how the stock could perform over the next three to five years.
01 / $1B+ MARKET CAP02 / 10 MINUTES03 / UP TO 15 SLIDES04 / 3–5 YEAR VIEW
THE CHALLENGE01
Research with rigor.
Pitch with conviction.
Organized by high-school investors at The Churchill Fund and open to secondary-school teams across North America and the United Kingdom. Choose a long, short, or put-option thesis on one public company and defend it with evidence.
Select a company worth at least US $1 billion and research how its stock could perform over the next three to five years.
LONG · SHORT · PUT OPTIONSubmit one PDF equity research report and a recorded YouTube presentation delivered on camera by your team.
Build your pitch ↓BUILT BY STUDENTS02
THE ORGANIZERS
We built the competition
we wanted to enter.
The Churchill Fund is an interschool, student-run investment organization. Its high-school members research companies, train younger analysts, and manage a live investment process across schools. This competition opens that same discipline to student teams ready to test an original idea.
Run by students who do the work.
Churchill students design the competition, set the research standard, and manage the participant experience.
Reasoning matters more than polish.
Judges focus on evidence, valuation, risk, and your ability to defend the thesis—not expensive tools or professional design.
Develop the investor, not just the pitch.
The goal is to help students ask better questions, test assumptions, and explain what they believe with clarity.
A STUDENT PITCH PLAYBOOK03
RECOMMENDED FORMAT
Show the gap.
Then close it.
A strong pitch lets another student follow your logic and test your assumptions. Make each step clear, especially where your research differs from what the market appears to expect.
BUSINESS + ADVANTAGE
Start with the business.
Explain how the company makes money, what gives it an advantage, and whether that advantage is getting stronger or weaker.
WHAT THE MARKET MISSES
State your variant view.
Show what investors appear to expect, what your team believes instead, and which evidence supports that difference.
VALUE + CATALYST
Connect the thesis to the payoff.
Show how your assumptions lead to valuation, what could change the market's mind, and what would prove you wrong.
Presentation standard
Aim for approximately 10 minutes and up to 15 content slides. The title slide does not count, and supporting detail may be placed in an appendix.
WHAT JUDGES WILL LOOK FOR04
INVESTMENT MERIT
Six criteria built around how an investor reaches conviction. Paid data and direct company access are not required.Three lenses.
One decision.
01 / 03UNDERSTAND
Know the
business.
Explain how the company makes money and why its advantage could last.
- Business understandingBusiness model, industry dynamics, and the drivers of long-term returns.
- Competitive edgeCompetitive landscape, moat durability, and the forces that could strengthen or erode it.
02 / 03DIFFERENTIATE
Earn the
variant view.
Show what the market may be getting wrong and why your evidence supports a different conclusion.
- Variant viewA specific explanation of what investors appear to expect and why your team believes something different.
- Management qualityEvidence-based judgment of leadership, incentives, governance, and capital allocation.
03 / 03DECIDE
Make the
payoff explicit.
Translate the thesis into value, timing, downside, and a decision.
- Valuation & catalystsA clear bridge from your assumptions to valuation and the events that could change the market's view.
- Risk & presentationA balanced downside case delivered through concise, sourced, persuasive work.
THE DECISION
Would you put capital behind this idea?
Judges assess the full case—reasoning, public evidence, valuation, risk awareness, and the team's ability to answer questions—not presentation polish alone.
FINALIST PRIZES05
Research that
gets rewarded.
Every student on a finalist team will also be invited to a post-competition dinner with the judges.
IMPORTANT DATES06
From first-round
research to New York.
Teams advancing from the first round will receive feedback and several weeks to complete follow-up research.
- SEP 302026First-round submissions due
Submit one PDF report, the YouTube presentation, and your team information.
- OCT 102026Top 25 teams announced
Feedback is provided to every team advancing to the final round.
- NOV 122026Final-round submissions due
Finalists submit their updated research and presentation materials.
- NOV 142026 · NEW YORKTop 25 teams present
Live presentations and Q&A at Columbia University, followed by the closing dinner.
SUBMISSION DESK07
BEFORE YOU SEND
Put the whole case
in one package.
Identify every participant.
- School-identifiable team name
- Designated team captain
- Participant names and email addresses
- School and country information
Make the research reviewable.
- YouTube link to the recorded presentation
- One PDF equity research report
- Sources cited for all outside work and ideas
- Appendix inside the PDF, if needed
Deliver the pitch on camera.
- Presenters visible throughout the recording
- Voices clearly audible
- Slides visible by screen share or beside the presenter
- Recorded presentation—not a livestream or voiceover-only deck
RESEARCH & AI POLICY08
Source it.
Build the case from publicly available information and cite every source, outside idea, and piece of work that is not your own.
Represent yourself.
Direct company access is not required. If you contact management, analysts, or third parties, act only for your student team—not for The Churchill Fund or Columbia University.
Understand every claim.
AI may support your process, but it cannot replace your judgment. Verify, cite, and be ready to defend every claim in the submission.
A STUDENT-RUN COMPETITION FROM THE CHURCHILL FUND