Stock Picking (Beat Boho) Contest - V2.0

[sengsational]

I have stopped caring about this competition, particularly since I have nearly 20% of my capital locked into funds that are not updating nor can I sell them....

I also have a position that, due to a buyout, is now locked and I can't do anything with it. Not only that, it's priced as of my purchase, and the buyout drove the price way up and it's not showing that. Then we have several instances where it's just showing erroneous results, and those aren't just small things...one error is literally the difference between first and last place. And although there is visibility into trades, there is not visibility into 'corporate action', so one of these bugs can not be detected. So if someone had a way to recreate these bugs, they could win without having the kind of skill we're trying to test. Yeah, I threw up my hands with the contest a while back. Too bad the simulator is buggy to the point of frustrating us out of playing...it was fun while it lasted.

 

[ERD50]

I also have a position that, due to a buyout, is now locked and I can't do anything with it. Not only that, it's priced as of my purchase, and the buyout drove the price way up and it's not showing that. Then we have several instances where it's just showing erroneous results, and those aren't just small things...one error is literally the difference between first and last place. And although there is visibility into trades, there is not visibility into 'corporate action', so one of these bugs can not be detected. So if someone had a way to recreate these bugs, they could win without having the kind of skill we're trying to test. Yeah, I threw up my hands with the contest a while back. Too bad the simulator is buggy to the point of frustrating us out of playing...it was fun while it lasted.

I'm wondering if you wouldn't be better off just posting trades to the thread in real time. A few 'trusted' people could be tasked with updating a google docs spreadsheet.

Most of you are not trading that often, it would likely be just a few updates a week for the whole group. Some simple rule like it must be posted with a reasonable screenshot within 10 minutes of the trade. You might want to say that limit orders need to have the limit order posted to the thread, and referenced if it hits. That way, if the limit order hit while the poster was away from their computer, they could prove they had that order placed.

Sounds like work, but seems like less work than dealing with all these odd bugs. It ain't rocket science.

-ERD50

 

[ransil]

I have one i have that changed its name, have been trying to sellit for 5 months.

Tried to buy inogen on limit order today, never went. I cancelled them and did market orders , they went thru, put in another limit order and it never went thru.

I have missed alot of buying and selling on limit orders not executing, it seem like they get triggered at the limit price but dont execute until 20 minutes later if they are still under/ over the limit.

Still have not figured out the double or tripple buying on market orders, thought i had it but it screwed me on resmed.

 

[natetheb]

I'm wondering if you wouldn't be better off just posting trades to the thread in real time. A few 'trusted' people could be tasked with updating a google docs spreadsheet.

Most of you are not trading that often, it would likely be just a few updates a week for the whole group. Some simple rule like it must be posted with a reasonable screenshot within 10 minutes of the trade. You might want to say that limit orders need to have the limit order posted to the thread, and referenced if it hits. That way, if the limit order hit while the poster was away from their computer, they could prove they had that order placed.

Sounds like work, but seems like less work than dealing with all these odd bugs. It ain't rocket science.

-ERD50

Considering I probably wont be doing a lot of trading from here on out, that is a reasonable suggestion. I guess I can "sell" my positions in MTUM and VFMO and calculate what the market purchase of CQQQ would be (all three funds are not updating).

 

[natetheb]

Here we go:


2/28/2019 -

MTUM Sell 1500 $ 110.20 $ 165,300

VFMO Sell 262 $ 79.12 $ 20,729

CQQQ Buy 3890 $ 47.79 $ 185,903

 

[Boho]

February:

Current Rank	Previous Day's Rank	Account Value (USD)	Today's Change in Value	Overall%
1. Spudd	1	$2,041,563.05	($4,400.00)	104.16%
2. Fermion	2	$1,666,334.12	($3,630.90)	66.63%
3. comsecga	3	$1,620,406.21	($10,491.40)	62.04%
4. kite_rider	4	$1,592,039.94	$14,710.00	59.20%
5. exnavynuke	5	$1,330,900.14	($4,250.00)	33.09%
6. covert1	6	$1,265,734.74	($32,290.00)	26.57%
7. Totoro_ERF	7	$1,241,482.61	($11,490.00)	24.15%
8. nunnun	8	$1,219,490.84	($2,620.80)	21.95%
9. BohoII	9	$1,131,384.07	($2,820.63)	13.14%
10. DieWurst	10	$1,124,284.24	($7,357.88)	12.43%
11. cfahey27	11	$1,115,108.67	($8,115.00)	11.51%
12. nvestysly	12	$1,097,794.18	($1,186.37)	9.78%
13. easysurfer	13	$1,087,904.54	($2,088.96)	8.79%
14. wmc1000	14	$1,076,424.70	$2,851.90	7.64%
15. Fermion1	15	$1,062,729.67	($3,450.00)	6.27%
16. NormYoung	16	$1,059,355.25	($4,758.08)	5.94%
17. wrd58	17	$1,049,721.14	($1,878.00)	4.97%
18. lbymfreddie	19	$1,049,479.72	$1,354.50	4.95%
19. cdailey	18	$1,048,160.82	($1,610.70)	4.82%
20. natetheb	20	$1,031,305.89	$2,618.04	3.13%
21. RiskyBusinessC2	21	$1,016,578.22	($9,300.00)	1.66%
22. sengsational	22	$1,003,620.75	($12,374.50)	0.36%
23. t3ztam3nt	23	$1,001,087.51	($72.00)	0.11%
24. consvgmbl	28	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
25. HowUnfortunate	25	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
26. dixonge	26	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
27. MizRosie	31	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
28. garyweis	27	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
29. luckyclub	29	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
30. monitorLizzy	30	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
31. Gayl	33	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
32. longshot345kv	32	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
33. secondcor521	24	$1,000,000.00	$0.00	0.00%
34. Clone2	34	$972,767.41	($5,710.19)	-2.72%
35. underwrite	35	$946,281.08	($12,571.00)	-5.37%
36. lawrencewendall	36	$913,834.21	$1,755.09	-8.62%
37. ransil	37	$902,259.51	$9,362.50	-9.77%
38. KCScubaSteve	38	$888,771.77	$1,447.58	-11.12%
39. RISP	39	$740,080.96	($4,277.18)	-25.99%

 

[kite_rider]

I too have run into some of the warts related to this platform. For example, I learned right off the bat that trading options (or even stocks) with limit orders doesn't work all that well. So I had to finally just give up on the volatile options since I couldn't get them to trade the way I expected them to.

But having said that, I still really like this competition since it allows me to trade the way I want regardless of the tax implications. Like many competitions, I tend to focus more on the competitors ahead of me rather than those behind me (exceptions being nunnun and Boho) and I already know Spudd is about $700K over what she should be (which gives me comfort that I'm one rung higher on the ladder in reality). I've got my sights on Comsega and Fermion and am getting hope that I can close the gap with the time we have left to compete. Of course, fully expecting someone else to have a 'black swan' event that rockets them to the top like Fermion's biotech buy out.

 

[ERD50]

February: ...

Boho outperformed our market benchmark for the month, by 1.31%. This leaves him dragging behind by 8.81% or $88,107, and with increased volatility of ~ 20% (surprise! NOT).


2019 FEB:
Boho : $1,131,384
nunnun: $1,219,491


-ERD50

 

[Boho]

Yesterday people were talking about a trade deal already being priced into the market. Now the headlines are about a deal that will just end tariffs and futures are up over that. I'm investing in China.

 

[SecondCor521]

Yesterday people were talking about a trade deal already being priced into the market. Now the headlines are about a deal that will just end tariffs and futures are up over that. I'm investing in China.

Lucky thing you're the first and only person with that train of thought.

 

[Boho]

How do I check whether futures are up or down on Sunday? I'm always seeing it in news articles late Sunday but I want a website for that.

 

[jazz4cash]

Almost anyplace has futures pricing. I use the CNBC iPhone app or try investing.com

 

[Boho]

Almost anyplace has futures pricing. I use the CNBC iPhone app or try investing.com

I'm going to look for other sources because it's not abundantly clear that I'm getting Sunday's numbers even from sources that say "real time." I don't know anything about the futures market, like when it opens and closes. I don't know if I'm looking at results for late Friday because that's the latest or the results of Sunday or early Monday foreign trading. I just know I want what American newspapers report about futures late Sunday.

 

[jazz4cash]

I agree that many places reporting financial data do a horrible job of time stamping their quotes, but if you click on the CNBC quote, it is time stamped (but not dated) and appears to be only 10 min delayed. Also, you can watch them change every few seconds. The investing.com quotes are time stamped also.

 

[Boho]

When CME takes a sharp drop because of a slight to modest lowering of their forecasted profits, it's a buy. When BA is expected to take a sharp drop at the open because of two tragedies within six months like none ever seen before, you short it without even waiting for the open, even with Investopedia's 20 minute delay. I did both.

 

[SecondCor521]

When CME takes a sharp drop because of a slight to modest lowering of their forecasted profits, it's a buy. When BA is expected to take a sharp drop at the open because of two tragedies within six months like none ever seen before, you short it without even waiting for the open, even with Investopedia's 20 minute delay. I did both.

Well the BA short is against you so far today. BA down ~6.5% from yesterday's close at the moment.

What happened to investing in China?

So far your best move seems to have been your leveraged all in US strategy that you followed for a few weeks.

(For those wondering, Boho is in 11th place and about $116K behind nunnun, who remains in 7th place according to today's rankings page.)

 

[Boho]

What happened to investing in China?

I read about China forecasting hard times ahead so I bailed.

 

[natetheb]

What happened to investing in China?

FWIW, CQQQ has been doing great for me. Though my account doesn't show it because the simulator sucks, my paper trading shows my CQQQ (5890 shares) up 6.2%.

 

[SecondCor521]

Well the BA short is against you so far today. BA down ~6.5% from yesterday's close at the moment.

I apologize to all for my error and any confusion I may have caused. BA being down is good for a short like Boho.

 

[Boho]

I'm still down from BA though. I bought it near the low, at $371.27.

 

[Spudd]

I'm taking the opposite trade to Boho on this one, I bought BA hoping for a bounce off the bad news low. But I was too late so I got in at 378 and am currently down (it's 376 right now). So both Boho and I are losers on this trade! LOL. We'll see what happens.

 

[Boho]

So, how does what I did work? The longer I wait to buy the shorted stock, do I pay a higher fee? Is there a time limit?

 

[Spudd]

So, how does what I did work? The longer I wait to buy the shorted stock, do I pay a higher fee? Is there a time limit?

No, there's no time limit. It's basically just the opposite of buying a stock. If it's a dividend-paying stock, in real life you have to pay the dividends, I believe. But I don't know if that happens in this simulator. I read the help sections on short selling and they didn't mention it, so I think you're probably off the hook for that.

 

[sengsational]

If you shorted a stock, the simulator does remove dividends from your cash. If it didn't, that would be a huge flaw.

 

[Boho]

I tried a Buy to Cover at $365.10 for BA and it said it's an invalid symbol, then I tried again and it worked. I don't think I'll try changing it again but multiple attempts could work.