MT Stóck Pïckíng Game - March 2011

[Virgil Showlion]

Welcome to the March 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 March 31 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 March.
  
• 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 March, 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.
  

Have fun, good luck, and let the games begin.

---

Standings from February:

Firstly, congrats to tyfighter3, who prevailed over his competitors with a crushing 20% play on NOG (Nordic Oil and Gas).

clubv and texasredneck also put up incredible one-month gains.

The complete standings are as follows:

[tyfighter3]

Virg, that would be Northern Oil and Gas.

[Virgil Showlion]

Right.

I'm getting too used to reading the quotes off the TSX (Canadian) exchange.

[Virgil Showlion]

Lousy Google API is completely blocking the RSS feed now.

Apologies to those who were somehow able to squeak into the SPG. I'm moving to a new feed translating service (tomorrow, if I have the time). All indications are that it will fix the problems.

For now, the SPG is out of commission.

[Virgil Showlion]

Good to hear it Frank.

I have now abandoned the ridiculously terrible Google Feeds API and moved over to rss-to-javascript.com.

In retribution, I am posting this article about why Google is evil. I am also posting the following depiction of the unnamed Google programmer who wrote the junk code that made my life miserable:



Hopefully now, old and young alike will be able to view/play the game consistently, quickly, and with accurate stock quotes.

Screw you, Google!

[rovo]

SPG will not load when I click on the box.

[Virgil Showlion]

Uh oh. What browser are you using?

[rovo]

IE something. Very recent. Where do I find the version #?

[Virgil Showlion]

Under Help (Question Mark Icon) > About Internet Explorer.

[rovo]

version: 8.0.7600.16385

[Virgil Showlion]

Hum. Same as my IE. And mine looks OK.

I hate these kind of bugs.

And the problem is persistent? It wasn't just a one-time thing?

[rovo]

I've tried to load it each time before posting on this thread. So that is 3 times and just now I tried again. Attempts = 4. Success = 0

[Virgil Showlion]

IE seems to intermittently not run the script. I'll take a look at it.

ETA: If you reload the MT board (by clicking "Refresh"), does it work after the refresh?

[rovo]

Tried to load the board and all I got was the "bar" for about 10 seconds. Clicked "refresh" and the game loaded.

[Virgil Showlion]

Good old IE.

It seems to be doing the same thing on mine--which is good news in the sense that I can debug it. Might want to include the "EE users beware" caveat in the notice. (Thanks for that, BTW, and helping me debug here).

[bimetalaupt]

Third time is a charm...
3/11/2011...
QQQQ long I play my system not as before bet against it..

Bruce

[texasredneck]

This message has been deleted.

[frankq]

T - Long

[Virgil Showlion]

texas--the game rounds off price to the cent to display it; the actual prices have sub-penny values though.
Frank--I'll give you Monday's open. Good luck.

[texasredneck]

This message has been deleted.

[Virgil Showlion]

FTI and Frank Q - I've got you in there. Good luck.

Texas - I know.

[ripvanwinkle]

SLX - Long. I've made money on this. My steel suppliers are saying increases of 3-5% per month due to Middle East turmoil and Japan events. ;D

[Virgil Showlion]

I'll put you in a tomorrow's open, van Winkle.

[tyfighter3]

I still can't get mine to come up. It just loads and loads.

[Virgil Showlion]

Sorry, Ty. It's a known bug with IE. You have to load the page then refresh the page to get it to work. I'll get around to fixing it soon.

[clarkrl2]

I would like long QID at Monday's open.

[uncle23]

may I enter TNA next open

[Virgil Showlion]

Sorry I missed you, clark. I've put you in there.

[workpublic]

TZOO 4/01

[frankq]

Congrats to clubv. Nice pick.