Theodore R. Aronson, CFA
Chair
CFA Institute Research Foundation
After all, research is the lifeblood of what financial analysts do: Fundamental research drives security values, market research makes (some!) sense of market behavior, economic research is driven by macroeconomic forces, and quantitative research marries them all. From Ben Graham’s “intrinsic value” and “margin of safety” to Robert Shiller’s “irrational exuberance,” to Paul Samuelson’s re-introduction of the “random walk” of security prices, to Bill Sharpe’s capital asset pricing model, progress advances as a result of research.
In his 2018 monograph, Kahn forecast that it is a great time for a quantitatively oriented 28-year-old to join our profession. I’m reminded of a wonderful statement by Robert McNamara, former secretary of defense and president of Ford Motor Company. The 1960s were a similar time of major quantitative advances, and McNamara—a quant!—nicely summarized to financial analysts the intersection of the intellectual and the practical—their toolkit of skills: “A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.”
The Research Foundation lies at the nexus of all these activities. I am honored to lead a team of volunteer trustees dedicated to our profession. On behalf of those colleagues, thank you for consuming our intellectual output and providing donations to further the cause. Every single penny supports those efforts; thus, it is fair to say that voluntary donations to the CFA Institute Research Foundation pay substantial dividends!