CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge

Daily Review 29th Nov

2007-11-30T13:48:00.000+11:00

In the league table, Dangerous_Dave held the lead with a total of $417,191.65 all in cash by market close. Now more than $100,000 separates 1st and 2nd place with McJames sitting at $298,610.60 followed by dsaw and show me the money.

In the high earners, Dangerous_Dave turned over a huge 10.2% in the day's trading to strengthen his lead. PETER POLOS turned over 9.5% to make 9th place and blankman earned 9.3% to reach 121st place.

In the rank jumpers, KJ got past 305 traders to reach the 180th place. blankman jumped 292 places to 121st rank and dbarker skipped 160 places to 73rd.

Of the top 500 traders, 451 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Only 28 were completely out of the market before the close, while another 60 players had less than $100,000 invested.

Also yesterday, the biggest group of traders sharing the same rank was reduced to 11. Each of these traders is now holding $240,000 and shares the 218th rank. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Daily Review 28th Nov

2007-11-30T13:26:00.000+11:00

In league table results, the now seemingly unbeatable Dangerous_Dave maintains his lead with a total of $378,690.61 all held in cash by market close. Second place is kept by McJames with $285,487.38, followed by show me the money and dsaw.

In the top earners, PETER POLOS turned over 10.6% in the day's trading to reach rank 35. ZEBRADICK earned 9.1% to make rank 49 while Idai gained 9.1% to reach 105th place.

In the rank movers, Idai jumped 370 places to reach 105th. Dizzy skipped 346 places to make 106th rank while Alex.O jumped over 329 places to 90th.

Of the top 500 traders, 428 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. There were only 26 of the top 500 traders completely in cash before the market close, while another 64 players had less than $100,000 invested.

The biggest group of traders sharing the same rank was at 13. Each of these traders was holding $230,000 and sharing the 173rd rank. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Is the Weekly Top 10 list meaningless?

2007-11-28T03:35:00.000+11:00

Since Wednesday last week we have been able to view the "Weekly Top 10" list in the rankings feature of the Trading Matters Challenge website. Although I enjoy browsing this list, it always seems to be filled with players who are not in the top 500 ranks. This is understandable, as the $10,000 trivia bonuses ensure that the highest percentage gains are most likely to be made by players who started the week with extremely low accounts. To a player starting the week with $50,000, one week's worth of trivia bonuses would produce a weekly gain of 100%, much more than someone can expect to achieve if they start the week with $250,000. My other issue is that although the list shows players who have made quite enormous gains, but it doesn't give any indication of who is in the runnings for the weekly prize. To be eligible to win the weekly prize, traders must start the week with at least $250,000.

In my opinion, it would be useful if that list would only show us the weekly gains of the players who are eligible for the weekly prize. In this way, we would be able to compare the traders who are in the running for the weekly prize, and not players who get the most leverage from the trivia questions. Please vote to find out what the other traders think.

Do you think the Weekly Top 10 list should only show traders that are eligible for the weekly prize?

Daily Review 27th Nov

2007-11-28T01:26:00.000+11:00

The ASX dropped yesterday, after continuing sub-prime concerns caused declines on Wall Street. The All Ordinaries closed 0.61% lower while the ASX200 index dropped 0.60%. The ASX300 index closed 0.60% lower.

In the "Weekly Top 10", simplysimplesales maintained the lead with a gain of 49.95% for the week so far. Second place was stolen by guterres1 with a gain of 48.89%, leaving cyben in third place with a total gain of 43.55%.

In the league table, the ever consistent Dangerous_Dave retains his grip on first place with a total of $347,438.03 all held in cash by market close, in his usual style. Following not-so-closely behind are McJames, show me the money and dsaw. These exceptionally consistent traders have held the top four ranks for at least a week now.

In the top earners, p&c turned over 10.5% in the day's trading to reach rank 80. Dangerous_Dave gets himself another title, earning 10.1% to keep the lead while mostafa gained 9.4% to reach 73rd place.

Jumping the ranks, p&c soared an amazing 407 places to reach 80th. Liarne skipped 323 places to make 127th rank while ray520 jumped over 321 places to 85th.

Of the top 500 traders, 435 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Making a surprise return to the list is Keyser_S÷ze, jumping to rank 432. For unexplained reasons last Friday, 17KeyserSoze and his namesakes were removed from the "Weekly Top 10" and the top 500 list.

Yesterday ended with high confidence in the market with only 22 (4.4%) of the top 500 traders completely out of the market before the close, while another 58 (11.6%) players had less than $100,000 invested.

Also yesterday, the biggest group of traders sharing the same rank was reduced to 10. Each of these traders is now holding $220,000 and shares the 244th rank. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Daily Review 26th Nov

2007-11-27T09:15:00.000+11:00

Breaking a streak of losses, the ASX gained yesterday, led by firmer commodities and the RIO takeover bid. Both the All Ordinaries and the ASX200 index ended the day 2.2% stronger. The ASX300 index gained 2.1%.

We started the week with a new "Weekly Top 10" group, currently lead by simplysimplesales, with a gain of 41.44% for the week so far. In second and third place are cyben with a total gain of 36.48% and nkup at 25.13%.

In the league table, Dangerous_Dave holds the lead with a total of $315,565.16 with more than half of still invested in stocks by market close. Now more than $40,000 below the leader is the second place holder McJames followed by show me the money and dsaw. These top four players are the only traders to have begun the week with the minimum $250,000 required for weekly prize eligibility. To be eligible for the weekly prize, and a place in the finals, traders must start the week with a minimum of $250,000 (see official rules).

In the high earners, danr had a mammoth gain of 19.0% in the day's trading to reach rank 17. wuppertal turned over 11.4% to make 38th place and Banksia also earned 11.4% to reach 103rd place.

In the rank movers, Banksia flew past 283 traders to reach the 103rd place. killingangel jumped 246 places to 253rd rank and Gomer leaped 238 places to 242nd.

Of the top 500 traders, 427 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Of the newcomers to the list, Mrdirect jumped to rank 73, johnny jumped to rank 82 and nkup made it to rank 85.

Traders showed faith in more market gains yesterday with more traders willing to hold positions overnight. Only 19 (3.8%) of the top 500 traders were completely out of the market before the close, while another 68 (13.6%) players had less than $100,000 invested.

Also yesterday, the biggest group of traders sharing the same rank was reduced to 13. Each of these traders is now holding $210,000 and shares the 298th rank. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Week 2 Results

2007-11-24T06:27:00.000+11:00

Undoubtedly, the star of the week was Dangerous_Dave holding the 1st position for three consecutive days and ending the week with a lead of more than $30,000. We also saw amazing performances from show me the money, McJames and dsaw who managed to hold 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions respectively, over the last three days of the week.

The biggest percentage earner for the week was db69 who turned over an incredible 72.81%. That trader was closely followed by hvnguyen with a weekly gain of 71.92% and sl196 earning 65.67%.

Unfortunately, this week should not yield a weekly winner, as the rules state that to be eligible for the weekly prize, traders must begin the week with at least $250,000. Next week however should be the first week to produce a weekly winner as the top three players managed to end the week above the requirement.

Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Daily Review 23rd Nov

2007-11-24T06:01:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, the ASX dropped again for a forth consecutive day, led by banks on subprime concerns in the U.S. The All Ordinaries closed down 0.04% while the ASX200 index fell 0.06%. The ASX300 index closed down 0.08%.

For reasons unknown, Thursday's "Weekly Top 10" leader, 17KeyserSoze, was removed from the list yesterday, making the new leader db69 with a 72.81% gain for the week so far. The two runners up were hvnguyen with a total gain of 71.92% and sl196 at 65.67%.

In the league table, again the top four traders all managed to maintain their positions. Dangerous_Dave strongly maintains the lead with a total of $289,564.52 all held in cash by market close. Coming second and third are show me the money and McJames. The top four players are the only traders to end the week with the minimum $250,000 required for weekly prize eligibility. To be eligible for the weekly prize, and a place in the finals, traders must start the week with a minimum of $250,000 (see official rules).

In other impressive results, rogerramjet75 had a colossal gain of 15.9% in the day's trading to reach rank 21. kypro turned over 15.4% to make 39th place and leidy barrantes earned 11.4% to reach 45th place.

In the rank jumpers, rexio soared past 327 traders to reach the 88th place. kypro jumped 321 places to 39th rank and Hi Ho Silver leaped 256 places to 71st.

Out of the top 500 traders, only 408 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Of the newcomers to the list, jonnyaa jumped to rank 72, Mr Rich jumped to rank 82 and carole mcculloch made it to rank 90.

Traders showed confidence in a market turnaround yesterday, with more players taking weekend risk. Only 29 (5.8%) of the top 500 traders were completely in cash by market close, while another 76 (15.2%) players had less than $100,000 invested.

Also yesterday, the biggest group of traders sharing the same rank was reduced to 17. Each of these traders is now holding $200,000 and shares the 157th rank. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please leave a comment or email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Daily Review 22nd Nov

2007-11-23T01:19:00.000+11:00

To cap three consecutive days of losses, the ASX closed lower again yesterday, on concerns of increasing subprime losses in the U.S. The All Ordinaries closed down 0.86% while the ASX200 index fell 0.79%. The ASX300 index was down 0.81%.

The leader of the "Weekly Top 10", 17KeyserSoze, maintains first place with an enormous 76.11% gain for the week so far. Following closely behind is hvnguyen with a 63.02% gain and db69 at 57.32%.

In the league table, the top four traders all managed to maintain their positions. Dangerous_Dave is still in the lead with a total of $263,989.51 again all held in cash by market close. Coming second and third are show me the money and McJames. The first player to reach the $250,000 required for weekly prize eligibility seems to be Dangerous_Dave, with the following three players only one trivia bonus away.

Other impressive results, gmehta had a massive gain of 12% in the day's trading to reach rank 51. Mss_Jo earned 10.0% to make 56th place and Dangerous_Dave produced 9.1% to keep the lead. Nugatka jumped an incredible 331 ranks to reach the 142nd place. Koos jumped 290 places to 133rd rank and hotplates leaped 286 places to 147th.

Out of the top 500 traders, exactly 405 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Of the newcomers to the list, dbarker managed to soar to rank 80. jew4 jumped to rank 104 and Leighanne made it to rank 124.

More traders were willing to hold overnight risk, compared to Wednesday, with only 38 (7.6%) of the top 500 traders all in cash by market close, while another 79 (15.8%) having less than $100,000 invested.

Interestingly, 19 traders at the 167th place form the biggest group to share the same rank, each holding $190,000. That amount also happens to be the maximum amount reachable without making any trades in the competition so far.

Also yesterday, for the first time, traders were offered six multiple choice answers for the trivia question.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

Daily Review 21st Nov

2007-11-22T06:05:00.000+11:00

Yesterday the ASX closed lower again, making two consecutive days of losses, led by falls in the banking sector. The All Ordinaries closed down 0.62% while the ASX200 index fell 0.64%. The ASX300 index was down 0.66%.

The "Weekly Top 10" list was introduced for the first time yesterday in the "Ranking" feature, listing the top 10 traders in terms of their weekly percentage gain. At the top of the list is 17KeyserSoze, with a remarkable 60.84% gain for the week so far.

In the league table, Dangerous_Dave has taken the lead with a total of $241,996.62 all held in cash by market close. Coming second and third are show me the money and McJames. Next week should be the first week to produce a weekly prize winner, as the top traders approach the required $250,000. To be eligible for the weekly prize, traders must start the week with a minimum of $250,000 (See official rules).

Other impressive results, ransom had a mammoth gain of 12% in the day's trading to reach rank 45. ronchi earned 11.5% to make 60th place and ericakelly produced 11.4% to get to the 61st rank. dleverett jumped an amazing 259 ranks to reach the 206th place. orphic_trader jumped 232 places to 200th rank and Allan Eberle leaped 207 places to 276th.

Out of the top 500 traders, exactly 400 managed to stay in that list by the day's end. Perhaps showing a lack of confidence in the market, 42 (8.4%) of the top 500 traders were holding no stocks at the market close, while another 83 (16.6%) had less than $100,000 invested.

ASX data can be obtained at the ASX website: www.asx.com.au
Contest results can be obtained at CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge website: www.tradingmatterschallenge.com.au
To contact the author of this article, please email Jeff Johnson at tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com.

How to Win Updated

2007-11-20T07:18:00.001+11:00

Yesterday, someone noticed an important discrepancy in the rules that seriously reduces the potential for the risk-seeking strategy described in the post titled How to Win CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge. The contest requires that we start the week with at least $250,000 to be eligible for the weekly prize. This is as opposed to $100,000 as was stated in the original email we all received from CNBC. I'm not sure when the rule was changed, or if it was merely a typo, but Google's cache shows the new rule was published at least as early as the 11th of November.

The principle behind the risky strategy described in the previous post is making big risky bets knowing that if we bet wrongly we can recover quickly enough to place another big bet. The $250,000 requirement makes it more difficult to play the risky strategy, because it takes too much time to recover from serious losses using the trivia bonuses alone. In the worst case of a bankruptcy, it would take 5 weeks to build up enough capital to be again eligible for the weekly prize.

Another consequence of the rule is that new participants are not immediately eligible to be a weekly winner. New participants start with only $100,000 so they have to build up another $150,000 before they even have a chance at winning the weekly prize. If you want to register friends and family, do it now.

So what's the best strategy then? Well in my opinion, the advantage of the risky strategy is gone, but a conservative strategy is definitely not the way to win. My advice is, build your account to $250,000 using the trivia bonuses and a conservative portfolio, then when you think the odds are in your favour, take big risks. You want to win the weekly prize, or get to the top 20 ranks - don't sell out until you get there. Don't take too much risk before you are eligible for the weekly prize or you may end up winning nothing even if you pick stocks that end up doubling. As I said before, trading results over 10 weeks will be strongly influenced by luck. If you take big risks you can end up with mammoth gains or enormous losses, but I guarantee you that the winners will be people that took risks.

How to Win

2007-11-17T06:20:00.000+11:00

THIS POST HAS SINCE BEEN UPDATED, PLEASE READ:
How to Win Updated

Anyone can win this contest and I'll tell you why: It's not based on reality, it's a game that's designed to make you watch CNBC and open an eTrade account. They give you $10,000 for trivia questions so that you watch the show religiously. They give you $1000 referral bonuses so that you bring along all your friends. They put you in the notoriously addictive stock market and give you ridiculous amounts of money to play with. They show you that there is the potential for making riches in the stock market. In the end they win thousands of new customers. It's an excellent marketing strategy and one that must be successful because this is not the first time they've done it. If you want to win the challenge, this is all good news. Here is how to win CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge:

(Please note: These strategies do NOT represent sound investing principles. Do NOT use these strategies for investing real money.)

#1 - Buy risky stocks. Buy the penny stocks that double or triple in a day. Don't waste your time with blue chips. Remember, all you have to do is begin the week with more than $100,000, get the highest percentage gain for the week and you're in the finals. Even if you go bankrupt one week, the trivia question bonuses will give you a chance to earn back your $100,000 and win another week.

#2 - Buy only 5 stocks at a time and use all your cash. Don't diversify more than you have to. If you like more than 5 stocks, pick only the best ones. The more stocks you buy, the less your overall gain will be if one of them takes off.

#3 - Get as many of your mates involved as possible. Get family involved. The Maserati is better off in your family than someone elses. Cooperate with each other. Make sure that your portfolios are not all the same - you're not all going to win.

#4 - Answer the trivia questions. $10,000 a day is a lot of money. You're not going to make $10,000 a day consistently from your trades. If you go bankrupt, it only takes 2 weeks to be back in the game if you answer all the questions. Watch Trading Matters for the questions. Search for them on the net. If you don't know the answer, call your mates, search the net but make sure you get it.

This is an important point: The rules state that to qualify as a weekly winner you need to start the week with more than $100,000. If you drop significantly below that amount, close your positions and wait until you have built your account back up to $100,000. Don't be a cowboy and stick with your losers, you just risk losing time. If you lose two weeks building back your $100,000 that's two chances you lost of being a finalist.

Some of you will feel that you're better off to play conservatively and try to end up in the final 20 largest accounts, who end up as finalists also. Well it sounds like a fair enough plan, but I don't recommend it because the duration of the contest is too short. Most professional traders will tell you that to compare two good traders, you need to examine their trades over more than a year. The results over periods shorter than that are too strongly influenced by luck. If you want to play conservatively, I wish you the best, but I think you will end up being disappointed by 20 others who should have been buying lotto tickets.

I recommend reading the following article, although the rules to our competition are slightly different:

How to Win CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Ranking Changed

2007-11-16T06:00:00.000+11:00

It seems that along with the rule change yesterday, they've also trimmed away at the league table, making it impossible to view those ranked below 500. Well I don't like to complain, but with more than 10,000 people in the competition, that cuts more than 95% of us from the list. Now if you're not in the top 5% of traders, you can't compare your account size with others, you can't checkout how your mates are going, and more importantly, you can't checkout who the losers are and how much money they've squandered. They've taken away all the fun!

Why did they do it? My only guess is that with the list getting ridiculously long, there was too much pressure on the server as people viewed it. All those inactive referred accounts didn't help either. I suggest that CNBC implements a rule to close accounts that are inactive for a certain period of time. That might shorten the list enough for them to let us view it again. Another solution could be to let us view the list in ranges, for example 1-500, 500-1000, etc.

I want the "Show All" feature back! Tell me I'm not the only one... Vote to find out what the other traders think.

Do you want to see the complete rankings?

Change of Rules

2007-11-16T04:33:00.000+11:00

Yesterday we found out from CNBC that the wizards were cheating... Well not exactly. To quote CNBC, they were not playing "in the spirit" of the competition. They were caught exploiting the "Refer a friend" bonus feature which earned them $1000 for every friend referred. And exploit it they did, with the top player reaching well above the $600,000 mark, putting his/her total number of referrals in the range of 400! That's a lot of friends - or a lot of dummy email accounts.

Thanks to the swift action of CNBC, the loop-hole is rectified and total earnings from "Refer a friend" bonuses are now limited to $20,000. What's more, the extra bonuses earned by the abusers have been trimmed away (If you didn't refer more than 20 people, you've nothing to fear).

So I've got to say, good work CNBC. Action was taken quickly and we didn't end up needing a petition, as one reader suggested. I don't think the abusers had enough time to make significant stock gains with their bonuses and most likely they were spending that time opening new accounts rather than making good trades.

So now it's back to a fair game... or is it? Do you think the abusers have already gained an edge? Do you think the rule change was fair? Did your account get "trimmed"?

Meet the Wizards

2007-11-15T08:36:00.000+11:00

Meet the top ten of the competition after 3 days of trading. With gains of up to 400%, not including the trivia prizes, people are saying something is not right. Are these guys playing funny business?

Let's find out if they were... To produce a gain of 100% on their total equity, a conservative gain for the wizards, they would have needed to either:

(1) buy 5 or more different stocks that on average experienced a 100% gain over the last 3 days

OR

(2) buy less than 5 different stocks that on average experienced GREATER than a 100% gain

The number 5 comes from the diversification rule that says you can only put a maximum of 20% of your equity into any one stock.

Well I call a challenge for anyone to name a combination of 5 stocks (or less) from the ASX 300 that produced on average a 100% gain (or more) over the last 3 days (12th Nov to 14th Nov).

Do you recon these guys are playing fair?

Strategy, Luck and Cheating

2007-11-14T09:06:00.000+11:00

The CNBC trading challenge has been done before by the name Million Dollar Challenge. Here are some interesting articles about it involving strategy, luck and cheating:

CNBC looks at possibility of fraud in contest

CNBC's "Portfolio Challenge" Fallacy

CNBC Portfolio Challenge finds Cheating

How to Win the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

How to Win CNBC's Million-Dollar Challenge

Champ Strategy

Do you have a strategy? Do you think people are cheating? Tell me about it.

Trivia Questions

2007-11-13T09:00:00.000+11:00

OK, this levels the playing field. Checkout this page for the answers to the trivia questions..

tradingmattersquiz.blogspot.com

Great work! Now its a trading contest - not a trivia night. By the way, the site doesn't mention what the questions actually were so feel free to let us know.

Brokers

2007-11-12T10:23:00.000+11:00

Here is a list of broker's websites for those seeking to open an account:

* E-trade
* Comsec
* Sonray
* BrokerOne
* GetFinancial
* Macquarie
* CK & Locke
* Tricom
* I-deal

If you know of other good brokers, please leave a comment with a link to their website.

Trading Tools

2007-11-12T09:03:00.000+11:00

Trading has begun and it turns out that CNBC doesn't give us much in terms of trading tools. I imagine that those of you playing without the services of a broker are at a pretty big disadvantage. I recommend you get one, at least so that you've got a decent watchlist to work with. Here are my suggestions:

(1) Sign up for an online share trading account with a broker such as Comsec, eTrade or BrokerOne. That should give you free access to price data (delayed by 20 mins), charts, financial data and analyst forecasts. Usually, this is all accessed through the brokers website once the account is setup.

Alternatively...

(2) There are some futures brokers that offer free trials of their trading platforms for a limited number of days (typically 20). Of course, you're only interested in the futures brokers that also deal with stocks/equities. Although it is called a "simulation", during the 20 days you get access to real stock price and volume data (with a 20 min delay of course) as well as charts, news, etc. It usually involves registering your name and email with them and installing the trading platform software on your PC. Due to the demanding nature of futures trading, these platforms are typically more powerful than a broker's website service and offer many more features. A few brokers that offer a free trial are Sonray, BrokerOne and GetFinancial.

With a broker you can at least get reliable price data, charts, fundamental data, analyst forecasts, news and a decent watchlist feature. Of course you'll still have to place all your trades through the CNBC website but at least you'll have a better idea on what are the right trades.

The Contest

2007-11-11T09:01:00.000+11:00

CNBC recently announced an online trading challenge for Australian residents whereby each participant is given 100,000 fictional dollars to fictionally trade stocks on the ASX. Trading is limited to buying and selling without margin, and stocks are limited to those that compose the S&P/ASX 300 Index. Short selling is not permitted, nor is the trading of options, bonds or mutual funds. Monday through Friday, CNBC announces a question on their show "Trading Matters" that participants can answer on the website. The prize for each question answered correctly is 10,000 fictional dollars. In addition, participants who successfully refer others to the contest will receive 1000 fictional dollars for each person referred.

It's a publicity stunt, yeah I know, and I realise that the limitations imposed on the players and the ridiculously generous prizes make it more a game of luck than a challenge of trading skill. But its a bit of fun, its an excuse to get competitive about something and there are more than 10 thousand people playing. Why not have a go?

I thought it would be good to have a place where the players could share their ideas, give tips and vent frustration. I expect to post regularly with new developments and ideas as they come up. If you have a topic you want to bring up or some information to share, you can post a comment or email me.

I'm competing under the name Jeff Johnson.

Good luck to everyone competing!

Contact Me

2007-11-11T06:08:00.000+11:00

This blog was created to promote and follow the progress of CNBC's Trading Matters Challenge, and to offer the participants a place to express their ideas and opinions regarding the contest. This is a non-profit website that does not seek financial gain of any kind, be it through advertising, donations or other means. This website does not in any way seek to discredit CNBC or the contest, or to offend any individuals, participants or promoters. Any criticisms made through comments by the readers will be left on the site, unless those comments are deemed offensive by the website author.

If you have any problems regarding the content of this website or if you would like to make a contribution, please send an email to the author, Jeff Johnson. The email address is:

tradingmatterschallenge@gmail.com