The Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Annual Academic Competition is held at our annual Fall Conference in September. Competitive papers are invited from all non-tenured faculty and students who wish to apply. Preference will be given to those papers which have direct applicability to investment management in one or more of the following areas: Security Valuation/Pricing, Factor Models, Strategic or Tactical Asset Allocation, Risk Budgeting, Optimizing the Allocation of Risk Capital, Multi-period Portfolio Problems, and Performance Attribution.

Only complete papers will be considered in this competition. In addition, the primary author must be either non-tenured faculty or a student. The top three submitted papers will be invited to present on Thursday, October 1st, at the CQA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Cash awards of $3000, $2000, and $1,000 will be given to the first, second, and third place finishers in the competition. CQA will cover travel expenses for one author (capped at $1,000). Hotel accommodations will also be provided. Other authors are invited to attend the conference but must do so at their own travel and hotel expense. Criterion for awards will be based on both presentation quality and content of interest to practicing investment professionals. 

This is an excellent opportunity for academic researchers to receive valuable feedback on their work from practicing investment professionals. The conference is a members-only event and the attendees represent all of the major investment firms involved in quantitative investment strategies. For a list of firms represented by our members, see the Affiliated Firms link.

Instructions for Contributors:

1. Please submit a Word or Adobe PDF version of your paper to be received no later than June 30, 2026.
   
   E-mail the papers to:
   Melissa Allison
   At: melissa@cqa.org

   If you have any questions, contact Melissa at melissa@cqa.org

2. The cover page must have title, author(s), affiliation(s), and phone number, and e-mail address of the primary contact. Please also include the tenured status of each author at his/her respective institution.
   
   
3. Acceptance decisions only will be communicated to authors by August 1, 2026.