Suitably Flip

CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Is Back

Trading begins November 17 and registration begins today at 4:00 pm.

Just like last time, we'll be posting daily trading strategies, stock picks, contest commentary, and answers to the 6 daily Bonus Bucks trivia questions.  All contest-related posts will be archived here.  (Posts related to the previous contest are archived here.)

Last year, we managed to help one of our readers walk away with a 3rd prize share of the million dollars and many others finished in the top 100 (out of about a quarter million traders), including yours truly who squeaked into double-digits at #98.  This year, we won't be satisfied with anything shy of one of our readers taking the grand prize.

To sign up for additional updates, send us a note with "Sign me up for contest updates" in the subject header.

We'll get into the rules changes and other nitty gritty in future posts before trading begins, but here's the scoop in brief:

1st prize is $500,000 and a 10-hour Marquis Jet card.  2nd and 3rd place win $200,000 and $100,000, respectively.  There are also 10 weekly prizes (mainly trips to big-ticket sporting events, home theater equipment, and more Marquis Jet cards).  New this year, each week's 100 best performers will also win a free FX Power Course from FXCM (CNBC's currency trading partner) and each week's 10 best currency performers will win a $300 mini-account with FXCM.

Once again, it's a 10-week contest for which you can register up to 5 portfolios under a single account.  Your portfolio is allocated $900,000 in equities and $100,000 in currencies (and you can't transfer between the two).  Trade execution among equities still takes place just once a day, pricing at the market close.  Currency trades, on the other hand, are processed continuously (let's hope this doesn't cause the massive tech problems it did last year).  Your currency account gives you 10:1 leverage, so it essentially has $1,000,000 of buying power.  As in the past, you can't short equities, but you can now trade ETFs.

Each week's largest percentage gainer will win that week's weekly prize.  Unlike last year, the overall winners are not determined solely by your 10-week performance.  They're reverting to the system they used in the 2007 contest, in which each weekly winner AND the 10 overall percentage gainers will compete (with reset portfolios) in a 2-week final round.

In my view, this is a little silly, since it skews the optimal risk-tolerance and encourages traders to trade less rationally (i.e. shoot the moon each week, since you only need to have one superlative week to put you at parity with the 19 other finalists at the end of the regular season).  In any event, them's the rules, so we may as well use them to our advantage.

The full rules are available here.

Don't forget to register after 4 pm today (and don't try to register multiple times; even if you succeed, they'll discover it during the vetting process if you win one of the prizes and we'll all laugh at you).

Good luck!

See related posts in the Summer 2008 - CNBC Portfolio Challenge archive.

Comments

CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Is Back

Trading begins November 17 and registration begins today at 4:00 pm.

Just like last time, we'll be posting daily trading strategies, stock picks, contest commentary, and answers to the 6 daily Bonus Bucks trivia questions.  All contest-related posts will be archived here.  (Posts related to the previous contest are archived here.)

Last year, we managed to help one of our readers walk away with a 3rd prize share of the million dollars and many others finished in the top 100 (out of about a quarter million traders), including yours truly who squeaked into double-digits at #98.  This year, we won't be satisfied with anything shy of one of our readers taking the grand prize.

To sign up for additional updates, send us a note with "Sign me up for contest updates" in the subject header.

We'll get into the rules changes and other nitty gritty in future posts before trading begins, but here's the scoop in brief:

1st prize is $500,000 and a 10-hour Marquis Jet card.  2nd and 3rd place win $200,000 and $100,000, respectively.  There are also 10 weekly prizes (mainly trips to big-ticket sporting events, home theater equipment, and more Marquis Jet cards).  New this year, each week's 100 best performers will also win a free FX Power Course from FXCM (CNBC's currency trading partner) and each week's 10 best currency performers will win a $300 mini-account with FXCM.

Once again, it's a 10-week contest for which you can register up to 5 portfolios under a single account.  Your portfolio is allocated $900,000 in equities and $100,000 in currencies (and you can't transfer between the two).  Trade execution among equities still takes place just once a day, pricing at the market close.  Currency trades, on the other hand, are processed continuously (let's hope this doesn't cause the massive tech problems it did last year).  Your currency account gives you 10:1 leverage, so it essentially has $1,000,000 of buying power.  As in the past, you can't short equities, but you can now trade ETFs.

Each week's largest percentage gainer will win that week's weekly prize.  Unlike last year, the overall winners are not determined solely by your 10-week performance.  They're reverting to the system they used in the 2007 contest, in which each weekly winner AND the 10 overall percentage gainers will compete (with reset portfolios) in a 2-week final round.

In my view, this is a little silly, since it skews the optimal risk-tolerance and encourages traders to trade less rationally (i.e. shoot the moon each week, since you only need to have one superlative week to put you at parity with the 19 other finalists at the end of the regular season).  In any event, them's the rules, so we may as well use them to our advantage.

The full rules are available here.

Don't forget to register after 4 pm today (and don't try to register multiple times; even if you succeed, they'll discover it during the vetting process if you win one of the prizes and we'll all laugh at you).

Good luck!

See related posts in the Summer 2008 - CNBC Portfolio Challenge archive.