CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge - Monday, Week 1

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

Watch this space for today's updates, picks, and reallocation methodology.

As discussed last week, we're going to start off with a negatively correlated, triple-leveraged ETF strategy in our crowdsourced attempt grab those weekly prizes (and the corresponding tickets to the final round of the contest).

Later today, the specific baskets of ETFs to be used by any participating portfolios (and the methodology for determining which basket to jump into) will be made available as an update to this post.

You don't need to do anything special to participate.  As long as you were registered for the contest by 9:30 this morning, you're invited to join in.  And you can use 1, 2, 3, 4, or all 5 of your portfolios.

And whether or not you take part, do make sure you answer all of the trivia questions (6 per day, plus the weekly quiz).  These count toward your weekly gain and they do have a way of adding up, particularly in the early weeks when they constitute a larger percentage of your portfolio value.  Answering all of the questions correctly will boost your Week 1 gain by 6.2%, so come on back throughout the day for easy access to the answers.  (It's not cheating.)

Don't forget to enter your trades by 4 pm ET.

Update: Okay, minor snag.  Now that the list of eligible stocks and ETFs is available, it appears that none of the tripled-leveraged ETFs are on it (despite all of them meeting the volume and minimum price thresholds).  We'll see if we can get that rectified, but in the mean time, we're going to have to settle for double-leveraged funds.

No position can be allocated to more than 25% of a portfolio, so we've got two baskets (ultrabull and ultrabear) of four ETFs each.  The baskets consist of equal parts Dow Industrials, Dow Financials, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100.

We'll split all participating portfolios into two groups - if you were born in an even-numbered year (e.g. 1968, 1976), start with the ultrabull basket.  If you were born in an odd-numbered year (e.g. 1977, 1983), start with the ultrabear basket.

If you're using just one portfolio for this initiative, go with your designated basket.  If you're using more than one portfolio, split them evenly between the ultrabull and the ultrabear (with the extra going to your designated basket, if you're using 3 or 5 portfolios).

Ultrabull Basket: SSO, UYG, DDM, QLD

Ultrabear Basket: SDS, SKF, DXD, QID

These will get added to your portfolio at today's close and will therefore not be affected by today's market moves, so don't shy away from the ultrabull just because the market's down today.

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.

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Monday November 17th

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 On the Street:  At the start of the Oct. 29 CNBC.com video, Solid Gold Demand, how high is the Dow as displayed onscreen?

    Answer:  9084.47

The Call:  In the Market Insider post, Stocks That Survived 1929, which Jazz Age stock is not on the list?

    Answer:  National Salt

Power Lunch:  In Matt Nesto's Oct. 31 stock blog post, what "No. 1" gainer did he call the "hottest stock on Earth"?

    Answer:  Office Depot

Street Signs:  In the story, Stocks Could Get a Short Post-Election Bounce, who said Obama offered markets a "big positive"?

    Answer:  Bruce Fenton of Atlantic Financial

Closing Bell:  3:00 pm*

* I'll be on the Strategy Room at FoxNews.com from 3-4 and therefore won't be at the blogging machine to update this final question.  Check the comments below where I'll bet one of your fellow readers was kind enough to update it in my stead.

Update:  Closing Bell question: Our slideshow, The Many Sides Of Sarah Palin, depicts her meeting "Vikings and Valkyries" in which ethnic festival?

    Answer:  Norwegian

Weekly Quiz:

Question:  The Dow Jones Industrial Average consist of:

    Answer:  30 stocks