The CFA Society of the UK and Brandes Investment Partners are delighted to announce the 2019 winner of the investment essay competition honouring Benjamin Graham, founder of the CFA Program and widely considered the father of value investing.
Tomasz Bulinski, CFA, was awarded the £5,000 prize at the Aberdeen Road lecture held on 30 October in London. Tomasz’ essay discusses his belief that Graham’s ideas are as relevant as ever, despite the financial world changing significantly since 1934, when Graham’s book Security Analysis was published.
“Our winner, Tomasz Bulinski, suggests many of Benjamin Graham’s ideas are not vulnerable to change, especially when it comes to human nature and the importance of psychology in the financial markets,” says Will Goodhart, Chief Executive of CFA UK.
“Graham developed key insights into behavioural finance and Tomasz’ essay conveys how these can still be used in today’s world.”
"We received many compelling essay submissions this year and are very impressed with the in-depth knowledge and quality of research demonstrated by the entrants," says Brandes Managing Director, Oliver Murray. “We are pleased that many up-and-coming investment professionals continue to evolve the thinking behind value investing in today’s market environment.”
John Citron, CFA, a judge in the essay competition and also a previous winner, says: “As a former entrant I know how much hard work goes into every essay that gets submitted and the quality this year was exceptionally high.
“It is wonderful to see so many young professionals engage with the foundational work of Ben Graham and I am sure they have all made themselves better investors as a result. It was hard to choose a winner, but the judges felt that Tomasz Bulinski’s entry particularly captured the spirit of the original texts, while also taking a modern view.”
Read the winning essay here.
About the Investment Essay Competition
The annual competition awards a £5,000 prize, provided by Brandes Investment Partners, to one winner for a paper that draws on Graham’s thinking and work as well as promotes financial analysis as a profession. It is open to all members of CFA UK aged under 35.
Part of the worldwide network of member societies of CFA Institute, CFA UK represents the interests of 11,600 investment professionals in the United Kingdom.
About Brandes Investment Partners
Brandes is a leading investment advisory firm managing global equity and fixed-income assets for clients worldwide. Since the firm’s inception in 1974 Brandes has consistently applied the value investing approach pioneered by Benjamin Graham to security selection. It was among the first investment firms to invest globally using a value approach. Headquartered in San Diego Brandes and its related entities have offices in Milwaukee, Toronto, Dublin and Singapore.To learn more about Brandes, visit the website or follow it on LinkedIn.
Notes to editors:
For further information about the results or to request an interview, please contact Ogilvy Public Relations: CFASocietyUK@ogilvy.com