XCPUS Stock Picking Challenge - 4th Quarter + Prize

[SuperFly03]

Stock picking challenge

Inspired by Simul4ti0n’s thread, I thought it would be interesting to pit all this advice against each other in a friendly non-cash stock picking challenge. You may pick an ETF, MM, Stock, or Option. Whatever you choose to pick you must provide a way to track it via a reliable site (WSJ, CNN, Yahoo Finance, etc).

You must sign up for an account at investopedia.com (don't worry it's free). Link: Investopedia Simulator

I have created a private game for yall and I hope you enjoy it.

After you create your account click this: Investopedia Simulator

Password for the game is xcpus

You can't trade until 10/1/08. I am the game manager... meaning within the small context of this game ... your are in my world

Nah, I'm running things by Brent/Mods/etc so everyone is apprised.

Rules:

1. Amount to invest: $500,000. You may place it all in one stock or in 20 stocks.
2. You may not buy a stock then sell it and just hold onto the cash.
3. 90% of your capital must be invested at all times unless you are holding it for exercising options (which you must explicitly state).
4. All ETF/MM/Stocks/Options are fair game (assuming they are listed @ investopedia.
5. There will be transaction commissions from $20-30.
6. This will run from the close of business 9/30/2008 to 12/31/2008.
7. If you purchase options you may either exercise them (assuming you have adequate capital) or sell the option.
8. You may not buy $500k in options and expect to exercise them all because you will not have any liquid capital (cash) left over.
9. All members of the forum may participate.
10. You may not short sell stocks
11. I have limited the turnaround time with a stock to 8 hours. This means once you purchase a stock you must hold it for 8 hours before you can sell it. This is implemented to prevent large volumes of day trading and to give everyone a more even playing field.

Shorting a stock: You sell the stock at the closing price and then repurchase it the next week [in our case] hopefully at a lower price than you paid.

I will post a spreadsheet for viewing after I get all the initial investments in and one every 2 weeks.

A newegg gift certificate will be awarded to the winner or if you are outside the US a computer store of your choice.

Prize:
First Place: $100 newegg gift certificate (more prizes may come) provided by Ninja and myself.
Second Place: 2GB Intel Flash Drive (Hey not everything can be expensive ) http://www.bdasites.com/theintelstor...s/701229_x.jpg
Third Place: Intel Knit (yes this is a punishment ) http://www.bdasites.com/theintelstor...s/701118_b.JPG

Ninja and I will both participate but we may NOT win the prize.

[Lionhardt]

Wow this is pretty cool, I have no real clue on how the stock market works other than the obvious buying and selling of stock. Maybe I'll just enter and put it all on a wild card like AMD, haha. Great idea guys.

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by Lionhardt

Wow this is pretty cool, I have no real clue on how the stock market works other than the obvious buying and selling of stock. Maybe I'll just enter and put it all on a wild card like AMD, haha. Great idea guys.

You can keep it as simple or as complex as you want. That's kinda why I crafted the rules the way I did. I wanted to make sure that anyone could play, not feel overwhelmed, and would have fun.

I look forward to your submission.

[Tark]

bastard.. i was working on this myself

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by Afrodisiac

Can I produce a fake oil company, hype about some crazy new oil fields we found, make the value of our stocks increase by 10,000%, then sell the stocks right before the day of the drilling comes along, so everyone gets duped and I get alot of money.

I'm going to go with no...

Originally Posted by Tark

bastard.. i was working on this myself

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by AlBundy

That might be a problem.

you are quite correct.

I'll fix it.

[MagicLess]

This sounds like fun. I did something like this on a site devoted to stocks, it was kinda of a game of sorts, but money could be involved, and it did have it's own money market, or something like it.

Sounds like fun. Think I'll put in my stock picks at the beginning of next month.

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by MagicLess

This sounds like fun. I did something like this on a site devoted to stocks, it was kinda of a game of sorts, but money could be involved, and it did have it's own money market, or something like it.

Sounds like fun. Think I'll put in my stock picks at the beginning of next month.

Cool. Glad you are participating.

Your selections must be in before 10/2/08 @ 9:30AM ET and based on the closing prices on 9/30/08. I am giving a 1 day leeway to change picks and get your share prices and allocation finalized.

[Deadhead_matt]

Nice idea SF.. (think I had a HS course like this a long time ago)

[MagicLess]

Would this be something of a proper example:

Purchase:
Closing price of Complete Production Services, INC [CPX]: $23.00
Stocks bought: 20,000
Historical prices for CPX (Complete Production Services, Inc.) - Google Finance
Remaining cash: $500,000 - $460,000 [Shares purchased] - $10 [Transaction Fee] = $39,990

Current assets:
CPX: 20,000 shares
Cash: $39,990

[Tark]

ETF, MM, Stock, or Option

How about explaining what these are for the less informed so more people can have some fun.

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by MagicLess

Would this be something of a proper example:

Purchase:
Closing price of Complete Production Services, INC [CPX]: $23.00
Stocks bought: 20,000
Historical prices for CPX (Complete Production Services, Inc.) - Google Finance
Remaining cash: $500,000 - $460,000 [Shares purchased] - $10 [Transaction Fee] = $39,990

Current assets:
CPX: 20,000 shares
Cash: $39,990

Very Good example.

I just edited it for a real stock so someone could find a real stock and see where to get the numbers.

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by Tark

ETF, MM, Stock, or Option

How about explaining what these are for the less informed so more people can have some fun.

Will edit the OP.

[Phoenix]

I did something like this in sixth grade. Could be fun. I'll need to look into some stocks though.

[SuperFly03]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

I did something like this in sixth grade. Could be