CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge - Tuesday, Week 1

[Scroll for answers to today's Bonus Bucks trivia questions.]

Let's give this another shot, shall we.  Yesterday, things got off to a bumpy start, as technical difficulties prevented many traders from accessing their portfolios and/or making trades and/or avoiding Spontaneous Disappearing Order Syndrome.

Equity orders seem to have been processed normally (at least for my portfolios they have - let me know if you're seeing differently), but all currency trades from yesterday have slipped down the CNBC memory hole.  This morning, currency trading thus far remains unavailable:

Due to technical difficulties related to currency trading, we have cancelled [sic] all currency transactions submitted throughout Monday, May 12th and currency trading is currently unavailable. All traders' currency allocations will be reset to $100,000 CNBC Bucks until currency trading resumes.

Which suits me fine.  I wasn't in love with this addition to the game in the first place.  Last year saw sufficient technical difficulties that it would have been an achievement just to debug the existing format.  In any event, this can't be the kind of exposure CNBC's currency trading platform provider FXCM was intending when they partnered up.

As for the comparatively stable equity trading end of things, if you're logging into your account and noticing your positions haven't budged, that's normal.  Yesterday was the first day of trading, but that means the first trades were processed at yesterday's trading bell.  Those initial allocations will re-price for the first time at today's closing bell, at which point you should see your first move up or down (excluding the effect of your bonus bucks ).  You'll notice the top-ranked players are all tied at $1,017,000 = the initial allocation + $5,000 in refer-a-friend bonuses + $12,000 for yesterday's Bonus Bucks.

For you volatility hounds, below is the list of eligible stocks reporting earnings either after today's close or before tomorrow's opening bell (i.e. stocks you can trade today before 4 pm and get exposure to during tomorrow's session).

                       

Symbol	Name
CVLT	CommVault
WFMI	Whole Foods Market
CGV	CGGVeritas
AMAT	Applied Materials
DE	Deere & Company

Yesterday's volatility picks are shaping up to be a mixed bag, but there appears to be one big winner - Canadian Solar (CSIQ), up 24% shortly after the open.  The company blew out revenue and earnings estimates (EPS was $0.61 per share, compared to the consensus of $0.31).

Happily, I gave CSIQ the maximum 25% allocation in two of my portfolios, the better performing of which is up 6.6% intraday.  So, Canadian Solar, let me be the first to say:

Applied Materials (from the above about-to-report-earnings list) might be an interesting pick for one of your portfolios, if Canadian Solar was any indication of how solar stocks fared this quarter.  The whole sector isn't doing as well as CSIQ today, but overall it seems to be trending well.  Analysts are expecting a down quarter from AMAT, but the company has a tendency to exceed analysts' expectations.

CommVault might also sate the volatility jones, as it's the smallest cap company on today's earnings list.  With a market cap of less than $600 million, it's barely eligible for the contest.  Analysts tend to peg its earnings on the nose, so there might not be as much opportunity for upside surprise, but the shares have pulled back decently in recent months, so there might be room for a jump.

(Consider all of the above to be for entertainment purposes and not meant to be used as real-world investment recommendations.  The goals and strategies of the Portfolio Challenge are not to be confused with those of sensible investing.)

See all related posts in the CNBC Portfolio Challenge archive.

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Tuesday, May 13th

Throughout the contest, each day's answers will be at the top of the CNBC Portfolio Challenge archive as soon as the questions are published, so bookmark accordingly.

Daily Trivia:

Squawk Box: "CNBC.com Video: On May 5, analyst Elaine Kub discussed a possible commodity cartel. What commodity was it?

  Answer:  Rice 

Squawk On the Street: "Market Insider blog: On May 9, what did John Kilduff say was his upside target for crude oil?"  

  Answer:  $138

The Call: "Web Video: On May 5, strategist James Altucher said three stocks may be the "next Berkshire Hathaways." Name one of them."  

  Answer:  Otter Tail

Power Lunch: "On May 9's "Stop Trading", Jim Cramer warned NOT to buy certain stocks. Which one did he call a "travesty"?"

  Answer:  AIG

Street Signs: "According to Rebecca Darst, what "slammed" the Pawn-and-Payday firms?"

  Answer:  Wham-bam legislation

Closing Bell: "How did Larry Kudlow's blog “Bush Whiffs on the Dollar” end? "

  Answer:  McCain, are you listening?