Yea, I was able to get in. But, afterwards, I could not sell out of the stock position I am in. I entered my symbol and the sell quantity but the Submit button was locked. I think they should restart the contest. Anybody agree? Also, they should take a note from the old FNN Stock Challenge back in the early 90's and limit each stock purchase to a maximum dollar amount of $200,000. That way, everyone will be forced to create a portfolio of stocks instead of having to gamble on the one big kill. Winners will be more respected for their stock picking ability also. Thoughts?
Never thought about limiting each trade or stock to a certain %, would make for a "realistic" contest, IMHO. I don't have a huge history or tons of experience in the market but it seems to me someone who puts all their eggs in one basket wouldn't end up having a long history ever. I think they made a mistake when the allowed people to create tons of accounts. Maybe I'm just jealous and wish I'd thought of it? I think they're screwed either way, re-start and people leading right now are going to cry fowl. Don't re-start and people that have already felt screwed aren't going to be happy. It's a no win for them, but they created that situation, IMHO.
You are right, Pacridge. My Bad. The old FNN Challenge limited portfolio choices to a percentage. Not a dollar amount. The percentage was 20% of the total account value for each stock pick. So, if the player starts out with a million dollars then he is limited to $200000 per stock position. But, if he increases his account value to, let's say $3,000,000, then he would be currently limited to $600000 per stock position. and, so on and so on. As for restarting the contest: There are just too many problems with the website right now for it to be a fair contest. They should halt play immediately. Give prizes and consolationgifts to the top 10 players and invite everyone to come back in a couple of weeks after all of the website problems have been resolved. Also, upon restart of the challenge, everyone should be limited to 3 accounts and all stock picks should be limited to 20% of the total account value. Thoughts Everyone?
You are right, Pacridge. My Bad? What was your bad? I thought I was agreeing with you. Why 3 accounts? Why not just one account per person? Maybe they did this because there's really no way to police this? If you use a different e-mail account to start an entry how do they know how many one person has?
No, we were in agreement. I was just saying that your mentioning of using a percentage amount for each stock pick is the correct way of stating what I meant to say. Personally, I would need 3 accounts so that I could employ a different stategy in each account i.e. one might be used to trade stocks that will bounce from a severe drop. Another, might be to play penny stocks only and another might be to play most % gainers at the end of the day. Then, as the contest progresses, I would start concentrating on growing the account that has the highest dollar value after a couple of weeks. Since most people would agree that having multiple acounts would be nice, then I say, allow them to have their way but limit them to 3 accounts. Each person can be identified by their phone number, right? i.e. One Name to One Phone Number where the same Name With Phone Number can be registered in the contest 3 times only.
I'm sorry. I think, minimally, 3 pieces of information should be required. Perhaps: Name, Phone Number, and Date of Birth. Sure, the player can open accounts under multple names but only one name will go on the pay check and if it is not his then he is going to have to try to get his money from the person whose name is actually on the check. And, I guarantee you he won't be getting all of it. He will be at the mercy of the person whose name is on the check as to what he can collect.
I participated in a contest I think CNBC ran in the 1st Qtr of 2000 or it was the 4th Qtr of 99'-1st Qtr of 00' It was great. The max size position you could take was 10% of your port. It was a $50 entry...so there were a bit over 1,000 who did it. And you payed a buck to place each trade...real-time. There were weekly prizes and the top 50 or 100 received cash prizes at the end. Very cool contest and well run. The site never crashed cause there wasn't a million people/Accts playing due to the small entry fee. I think I finished 43 overall...I made 70% or so...which was wasn't that amazing since we were talking early 2000.