Ended the contest in the top 2%

Wow! What a roller coaster ride. I played the contest, but I didn't get in to the top 20 that made it to the finals this week. Now the contest will run another few weeks ending on 2/9/2009. In thinking back over the past ten weeks I wonder what I could have done differently and how I would have approached the stock markets or if I would have experimented as much with my choices.

Let me list a few of the challenges of trading a game like this. First you have to multitask very effectively. You must be able to trade stocks, trade currencies, and complete the questionnaires daily. Just by completing the questionnaire alone for the entire ten weeks you will accumulate $600,000 for the game.

Second, when you trade you must pick a winning sector and load up on shares in that sector. While the 25% rule is fully in effect for stocks it has zero affect on sector investing. So when you bet you want to bet big and have 100% of the million dollars heading in the same direction at the same time.

Third, there are also end of day/real time trading issues. You must execute all of your trades "before" the market moves/opens the next day. You cannot enter trades in real time on this game, so if your signals are saying buy, you MUST buy. My program has always been about confirmation of the markets movement and executing afterwards to catch the momentum. This habit was a detriment for me in this game. On many occasions I would miss the first run up and lose those initial profits.

Fourth, you must be VERY aggressive when it comes to the currency trading. Like Vegas you need to "let it ride" every time and exit at the first sign of loss. The lack of stop losses makes it difficult to operate on autopilot in this game.

Fifth, you must play this game like a job. Nightly research is essential along with following and knowing about announcement and last minute reports. This is is big money, $500K for the winner, and like most things in life while the meek may inherit the Earth, they definitely will not win the CNBC Challenge.

It's not all challenges only. The great part about this game is that there are ten ways to get into the finals, besides being the overall leader. It is easier to become the weekly largest percent gainer, even though you may not have the largest gross amount, while at the same time much more simpler to achieve. For example if you drove your account down to 100K being very aggressive, but you got luck and made 80K you would be up 80% for the week. If you made that same 80K on a 900K portfolio you would be at 9%, huge difference between percent gains.

So how I did I end up?

Strangely enough every single one of my portfolios ended up in the positive. So my strategies do work. On the low end I was up 20% on the high end I was up 56% for just ten weeks of effort. My biggest wish is that I would have taken advantage of the daily and weekly questionnaires to continue to boost the equity I was trading with. I also wish that I had simply been more aggressive in my currency transactions and had not been such a stickler for following my exit rules. Basically, I simply should have taken more chances. I look forward to seeing who the final winner is and I hope to get an interview with him or her to find out what they did to "win the CNBC Challenge".

Madoff, Oil Surplus, 6 straight drops, is it Armageddon yet?

I think the Mayans may have gotten it wrong by three years, 2012 has come early! I apologize for not keeping up with the blog as diligently as I promised i have been ultra focused on trading. I have continuously looked for an angle to penetrate the upper levels of the game by employing my strategy of taking my profits and focusing on solid trades. It has made all of my accounts in the green, but I still have yet to have a tremendous break out week.

I am currently in the upper 2%, near the top

10,000 but I still haven't figured out the formula. I am anxiously anticipating the end of the contest to see what the winner did to break the barrier.

Obama's stimulus package may be over $1 trillion dollars

When Countrywide collapsed and was bought out by Bank of America it had over $1.5 trillion dollars in home loans, with the majority non-performing. This was one private company. The true problems facing the United States are deep and insidious, which far exceed the band aid that $1 trillion, $2 trillion, or $10 trillion dollars can fix. The mistake has been made from the onset that trickle down economics work.

Individual citizens must be relieved of their burdens first, before any corporate bail out or investment should be made. Billions of dollars was poured into AIG to save 100,000 jobs when 500,000 jobs are being lost monthly. A federal tax moratorium needs to be put in place to allow the citizens of the United States to have a chance to regroup. A foreclosure moratorium needs to follow to force the banks to help the purchases protect themselves against unscrupulous lending practices. Unless these fundamental measures are taken, no matter how much money is pumped into the market economy it will be stymied by the fact that everyday people will not gain access to any of the services.

Back from my 2 week vacation

Just got mack from y two week vacation to find my ranking in the 3-5% range for the last week. The market's stunning performance this Friday has lead to a surge above 9,000 in the dow for the first time in two months. Next week's employment figures along with the returned volume will set the stage on whether or not this is the beginning of a bull market or just a temporary respite from the weak economy. More trades, currency and stock, forthcoming in the final few weeks of the contest.

Day 20 & 21 - Free Money! Yeah?

The Federal Reserve has reduced the interest rate down to zero, but the bill collectors still keep coming. Home foreclosures are expected to hit 2 million people, jobs continue to be shed at a rapid rate, and the world is looking to the United States as if we have are the only ones with a problem. If we thought the asian flu was contagious then the U.S. flu will be twice as bad. The Federal Reserve has made a grave mistake, in the process my holdings in the game have moved like lightning, my euro holdings have made over $60,000 in 11 days, unfortunately all indicators are screaming overbought. My gold stocks have jetted up in value as well, too bad I have't been able to get everything moving at the same time in the same account, so now I have two accounts up 30%, but my conservative nature is killing me in the process.

Days 17,18,&19 - Automakers allowed to fail

I am still caugh at an empasse. My returns are double digit, but have not propelled me into the top spot for the week. With the contest 50% over I will have to find the key that will open up the final level to get over the hump. A lot of traders are imploding and so my top ranking is bouncing between the top 2-5% on any given day.

If I am to have any hope of making it to the finals I have to win a week. This will require almost a 100% return for the week, this weekend will be the litmus test for my strategy to see if I can find some diamonds in the rough that will give me the boost.

Day 16- Hard to get back in the groove

I created a 3-hour introductory course for my fully blown "Winning the Trading Game" course and found myself distracted from the CNBC Challenge. The audience at the Denver Trading Group was a blast to meet and it was definitely refreshing to speak to some established traders. That allowed me to move forward quickly without focusing too much on vocabulary. They also helped me clarify some points in my seminar that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted based on the slides I had created.

With all of that being said I neglected my trading duties. So far another one of my accounts is "Winning Portfolio C" and so I exited my positions and I am looking to clean slate. I have fallen in the overall rankings in my strongest acount to the top 30,000. So I will have to move into high gear over the rest of the week and net next few weeks if I hope to make it to the finals.