Swamp Stock Market Challenge

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:22 pm

Keg, hope I didn't steal your thunder, but I went ahead and did this.

Ok, this one looks to be a site that is totally free (will probably have some banner ads, etc) but nothing required to play. It's designed for classes, but it was easy to register and set up a challenge. Registration is open until 1/31 and the contest starts officially on Monday, 1/12 and runs through the end of the year.

Use this address:

http://virtual-stock-exchange.com/publi ... egto=33581" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I set a trading limit of 100 total trades. That will encourage people to think long and discourage day trading. Minimum stock to buy is 25 cents, 50k starting balance. I can edit any of these if the group would like.

Here are the rest of the ground rules:

Your Contests is: Private
Password: frog
Description: Swamp Stock Market Challenge
Estimated Number of Participants: 25
Currency of Portfolio: United States Dollar
Initial cash balance: 50,000
Equities Position Limit:
Equities Position Limit 100
Minimum Stock Price for Buying: 0.25
Minimum Stock Price for Shorting: 3.00
Start Date: 1/12/2015
End Date: 12/31/2015
Equities Commission:
Equities Commission 10.00
Display Sharpe Ratio Rankings: No
Display Alpha/Beta Rankings: No
Allow Short Selling: Yes
Allow Day Trading: Yes
Allow buying on Margin: Yes
Allowed Security Types: EQ,
Allowed Exchanges: US,
Fill orders on daily volume %: 100
Benchmark Index: DJIAÂ® (^DJI)

L-Jam3 · Post by **L-Jam3** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:29 pm

Only 100 Trades? Heathen.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:29 pm

Once you get registered you have to select the challenge from the nav bar at the top. The default is "US DOllar" challenge, but if you click the arrow beside it it will let you click to the Swamp Challenge. But the default is a stock challenge with 1million and is just totally for fun as well.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:29 pm

L-Jam3 wrote:Only 100 Trades? Heathen.

That's two a week!

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:41 pm

Thanks for setting this up, AB. I do not mind, I prefer a portfolio to just picking one stock.

I am in with username kegtron.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:47 pm

In. Don't expect to win. My job is stock market-related, but I don't have a great track record as an investor.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:51 pm

sancarlos wrote:In. Don't expect to win. My job is stock market-related, but I don't have a great track record as an investor.

I have a finance degree but don't invest outside of my 401(k), though I do keep up with that fairly well.

So this is an excuse to learn and think about the markets more in the hopes that I will be able to invest more in the coming years.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 3:38 pm

Loading up on small cap gold miners and marijuana stocks...

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:23 pm

AB_skin_test wrote: Allow Short Selling: Yes

Allow buying on Margin: Yes

Hmmm…

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:26 pm

This thread is really just a way to drag Billy Waterski back to the Swamp right?

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 2:22 am

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 11:39 am

Bump

Contest begins on Monday

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:21 pm

Wouldn't you just know it. One company I was planning on buying big for the contest just pre-announced stronger-than-expected earnings this quarter, and the stock price jumped. Why couldn't they have waited few days?

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:32 pm

I feel ya, SC.

Junior gold miners were up about 10% this week :(

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:10 am

This is open for joining until 1/31.

Officially opened today.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 12:38 pm

Is it possible to see each others portfolio holdings?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 1:21 pm

Keg wrote:Is it possible to see each others portfolio holdings?

I was tyrying to figure that out as well. There is a rankings page but it isn't populated yet. I wonder if it will populate once the market closes. I'll poke around some more but am about to hit the road until Wednesday. If worse comes to worse we can put our stuff here and talk about why we chose particular stocks.

I have four right now, but I am not certain about a couple of them but wanted to go ahead and get my portfolio started. Didn't study as much as I would like.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 1:26 pm

OK, now it is showing up on the My Rankings page.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:05 pm

Can I buy nothing and win by watching you guys go negative?!

Site is blocked at work, will do all trading at home.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:25 pm

degenerasian wrote:Can I buy nothing and win by watching you guys go negative?!

That sounds like a fail proof strategy to me...

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:56 pm

AB_skin_test wrote:OK, now it is showing up on the My Rankings page.

I see my ranking relative to all their players, but I'd like to just see the Swamp players. Haven't figured out how to display that yet.

I bought a tiny bit when I registered last week. But, I was buying (and shorting) with a vengeance after market close, today.

Post by **brian** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:57 pm

I'm gonna pull a Howard on your asses and buy nothing but gold and firearms stocks.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:26 pm

sancarlos wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:OK, now it is showing up on the My Rankings page.
I see my ranking relative to all their players, but I'd like to just see the Swamp players. Haven't figured out how to display that yet.

I bought a tiny bit when I registered last week. But, I was buying (and shorting) with a vengeance after market close, today.

If you bought last week, you were buying in the general game, not the swamp game. You have to click on the navigation bar across the top and switch from US dollar challenge to Swamp Challenge. This game started today and buying was locked until this this morning.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:04 pm

Gotcha. New guesses input, now.

Post by **brian** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:08 pm

I'm filing a grievance since the one purchase I made popped 3.5 percent today (fortunately I own it in real life).

(I am not really filing a grievance.)

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:11 pm

My bad. I should have mentioned that on January 7th 2015 at 2:29 PM

If I were the type of person who used smileys, there would be one here.

Post by **brian** » Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:30 pm

I'll have to settle for the sweet, sweet $150 in sorta real money I made today on VSTM.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:34 am

brian wrote:I'll have to settle for the sweet, sweet $150 in sorta real money I made today on VSTM.

I dont see you in the Swamp rankings...are you sure you joined the correct challenge?

Post by **brian** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:42 am

Keg wrote:
brian wrote:I'll have to settle for the sweet, sweet $150 in sorta real money I made today on VSTM.
I dont see you in the Swamp rankings...are you sure you joined the correct challenge?

No, I still have to join it. I joined the first one initially.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:55 am

Here are my holdings so far:

51% Cash
10% GILD
10% GOOG
10% AAPL
8% KMI
6% FSLR
5% ORB

I'm looking to jump into a couple of small cap pharma companies (likely 2.5% each, maybe less).

Gold miners will have to wait for a dip back below $1,100/oz.

Energy (other than KMI) is also on standby.

Hopefully everything keeps getting cheaper while I am still heavy on cash.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:11 am

do you guys see me? i have $50,012.33 but don't see my name in the standings.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:04 am

Nope, I only see BFJ, AB, Chedda and SanCarlos.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:21 am

I can't figure out where to see you guys in the challenge. I see that I'm in it, but I can't see anyone else.

NM - found it.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:30 pm

Should've bought Swiss Francs on Monday.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:22 pm

I'm there now. Guess I had to buy something.
1st place! :)

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:33 pm

govmentchedda wrote:Should've bought Swiss Francs on Monday.

Yup, Swiss Franc Trust (FXF) is up a cool 19% since...

https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEAR ... W2qQHx9YEo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:26 pm

I am rolling the dice and double shorting gold via DZZ (2% of my portfolio).

https://www.google.com/finance?q=dzz&ei ... iQLw_4HADg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 3:43 pm

Keg wrote:I am rolling the dice and double shorting gold via DZZ (2% of my portfolio).

https://www.google.com/finance?q=dzz&ei ... iQLw_4HADg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, that's an ETF that's a 2x short of "gold"? Interesting.

Keg · Post by **Keg** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:04 pm

I could have sworn that a 3X gold short ETF exists, but I couldn't find it. I have no idea how these things work so I figured I'd use some swamp bucks to follow and find out.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:04 pm

I have no idea what I'm doing.