MT Stóck Pïckíng Game - February 2011·

[Virgil Showlion]

Welcome to the February Edition of the Market Talk Stock Picking Game (SPG)

The Where and the What:

The SPG is located in the Market Talk application rack at the top of the Market Talk forum. To open the rack, click the '+' icon at the right end of the title bar. To open and close individual applications, click the '+' and 'x' on their title bars.

The SPG is the first application on the rack.

Rules and How to Play:

• Any member can participate. If you're not a member, become one! It's free and takes about two minutes. :)
  
• To enter, click the "Enter Game" button in the SPG any time the NYSE is open (business days 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM EST). You will be prompted to enter a ticker symbol and choose a long or short position. If the symbol is a valid entry for the game, the application will return the opening price. You may then click "Submit Pick" to enter the game.
  
• Once you have submitted a pick, the "Enter Game" option will be replaced by "Close Position". You may click this button at any time to leave the SPG and lock in your profits/losses for the month.
  
• Any positions still open as of 4:00 PM EST on February 28 will be automatically closed with the closing price on the NYSE.
  
• Once you have entered and left the SPG, you will be unable to re-enter for the month of February.
  
• If you wish to pre-open or pre-close a position (for some future time when the NYSE is open), please post the ticker symbol, time, and long/short designation in this thread.
  

How to Win:

The goal of the game is simple: with one entry-and-exit play during the month of February, try to make the greatest percentage profit.

Monthly winners will be immortalized in future monthly editions of the game. :)

Troubles:

• The SPG is for fun! If you have a wild, risky pick, don't worry about how it performs. There are winners; no losers.
  
• If you are unable to find the SPG, unable to completely see it, or if the application stays on the "Loading" screen but does not load, please notify me in this thread.
  
• Stock quotes are provided by the NASDAQ RSS feed, which has a two-minute latency. Opening prices may vary slightly. If the price of your pick changes substantially (unreasonably) after you enter the contest, please notify me immediately in this thread. This was a known bug in the January edition of the game. It should be fixed, but it may yet live on.
  
• Any other questions and concerns are welcome in this thread. :)
  

Admin Only:

rovo and ArchieTheDragon: for you, "Enter Game" and "Close Position" are always available. Furthermore, you can specify the user name (or display name) to enter/withdraw and edit prices (the bug where the edited price wasn't accepted is now fixed).

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Have fun, good luck, and let the games begin. 8-)

^{_{offtopic-do-not-remove:iJ7Z}}

[bimetalaupt]

With the down day .. Pick qqqq.. AKA Power Shares QQQ....Things are going to get wild!!! QQQQ LONG $56.96

Just a thought,
Bi Metal Au Pt

[Virgil Showlion]

I was away all Thursday, Bruce (and Friday looks like another iffy day for Internet-have). I put in your pick at the quoted price.

[texasredneck]

Last 2 days SPG does not load. Anyone else having problems?

[Virgil Showlion]

It won't load sometimes if you have a high latency connection, texas. If the problem persists another day, please let me know.

[Deleted]

Is windy city;s quote right? Did YUM hit a low of $40.07 today?

[tyfighter3]

I was wondering that myself.

[Virgil Showlion]

Don't ask me how that got in there. I'm at the mercy of the accuracy of the RSS feed.

The entry is timestamped, so I'll plug in the correct value--when I get back to my home machine.

[tyfighter3]

YUM's low for 2/11/11 was 49.08 and that was a little after the open.

[Virgil Showlion]

I fixed palmbeachpaul's pick. Thanks for people's vigilance in reporting the anomaly. A karma to both ty and Archie.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mid, is there a reason you entered and exited GOLD at the same price?

[midwesterner (banned)]

Feb 15, 2011 12:34:05 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Mid, is there a reason you entered and exited GOLD at the same price?

I was playing with it and didn't mean to enter that stock. So I closed it. Wasn't one I was even considering.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It's interesting- I don't know squat about this. You guys are the pros. But I randomly picked a stock from the "cheap food" category using the reasoning that in this economy people won't necessarily stop eating out, but they may well be spending less. I didn't do a dime's worth of research on the company, I just threw it up there. So far, YUM has been a good pick.

So, what do I do next? What happens when I "close position"? Is that how I basically say "sell it" and then pick a new one?

[Deleted]

Feb 16, 2011 11:01:01 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

So, what do I do next? What happens when I "close position"? Is that how I basically say "sell it" and then pick a new one?

When you close position you sell.. You can only do one buy and one sell a month, so do so wisely..


COngrats on the pick, by the way!

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Feb 16, 2011 11:06:31 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Feb 16, 2011 11:01:01 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

So, what do I do next? What happens when I "close position"? Is that how I basically say "sell it" and then pick a new one?

When you close position you sell.. You can only do one buy and one sell a month, so do so wisely..


COngrats on the pick, by the way!

Got it- I think I'm going to keep it for the same random, no-good-reasons that I picked it...

I was going to start "researching" something for next month, but I'll probably just screw it up if I do that....lol!

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Man, I was gonna go with Weight Watchers - WTW. I shoulda done THAT!

[Virgil Showlion]

Man, I was gonna go with Weight Watchers - WTW.

It's one stock guaranteed never to be rated 'overweight'. </badjoke>

[clubv]

how does texasredneck do it? looks like he's losing money

[clubv]

oops he's short. my bad

[Virgil Showlion]

I'm having some problems with the SPG. Not sure if it's the google feed loader or the NASDAQ RSS feed. I've disabled the app for now to debug it.

You can post entries/exits here in the meantime.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[tyfighter3]

I've been wondering how bad I'm beating everyone Virgil. LOL

[Virgil Showlion]

Sorry, Ty. It's been hectic lately for me.

I'll have the game back up there today or tomorrow.

[Virgil Showlion]

OK. The SPG is back up and running. I'm 95% certain I've fixed the caching bug that was causing problems with the closing price.

And Ty, it looks like you're still in the lead, although clubv is hot on your heels.

[tyfighter3]

This message has been deleted.

[rovo]

When I try to open the game the thing says it is loading, and loading, and loading, and loading. It does stop "loading" eventually, when I disable it.

[Virgil Showlion]

I'm at the mercy of the google feeds, which appear to be off-again-on-again today. I'm going to build in a potential fix when I next have time (perhaps tomorrow). Until then, you'll have to wait for period of low traffic and take advantage of the SPG when you have the chance.

I will get these problems fixed.

Incidentally, this problem with intermittent loading has always been there--but in the past, google always responded by pushing out a cached (and usually badly outdated copy)--of the feed. I got rid of the caching, and it's only since doing so that I uncovered the greater problem.

Have patience, oh hooded one.

ETA: If the game doesn't load in 5 seconds, it's not going to.

[texasredneck]

On my 1 year old dell running Vista and IE8 takes 8 min. to load.

[Virgil Showlion]

The man has patience.