Day One

Today was pretty frustrating. My internet connection with the CNBC site began to drag during the day. It made it difficult to confirm my orders were going in and I had to constantly refresh the page.

On the bright side I was able to narrow down the stocks I was interested in trading based on a specific set of criteria I had developed over the past few weeks.

1) Stocks with 52 week Highs and Lows
2) Stocks with a share price under $10
3) Stocks with strong institutional buyers
4) Stocks that have been up after their Friday earnings report
5) Stocks that have crossed the 50 day MA

With all of these personal criteria I still had to make sure the stocks fit the contest criteria of $500 billion dollar market capitalization, exceeded the $2 per share rule, and were listed as approved stock on CNBC's site.

My goal is to 100% attempt to find fast moving, inexpensive shares that have the ability to double or triple over the life of the contest, but have little downside risk.

I have taken positions in both the Euro and the Canadian dollar, but I have yet to tackle the use of the ETFs. Ideally I wish I could be good at everything, unfortunately it's beginning to look like I may have to leave the ETFs off or convert one of the portfolios to an EFT only strategy. The only lament I have with the ETFs is that we cannot short them, based on my limited findings today.

So we are off to the races. This weeks contest ends on November 21st. By then we will see the favored shares for trading and the first winner of the contest. Tonight and tomorrow I will be re-evaluating my currency trades and I may take a more active stance when it comes to buying and selling, depending on the weakness of the dollar in the weeks to come.