Did somebody see the actual, unambiguous method of determining the winner posted on this thread before the contest started?
Is it
a) add up all 5 stocks' percentage gains and divide by 5 (the method used in all other contests I've seen since this shows the performance average of your stocks)
b) add up all 5 stocks' percentage gains and use the total (that equals case "a" times 5)
c) total RETURN for your stocks (with or without dividends?) Note that this would be a dollar amount, and would give $25000 and greater portfolios a massive advantage over those with $100 and smaller portfolios.
d) % return of the entire portfolio, giving the exact same weight to a $1 stock that rose to $901 (up over 90000%) as Berkshire Hathaway A stock which today rose from $68200 to $69100 (up 1%).
C & D of course would be rather silly, a way to play a game that doesn't reflect much of anything in the real world, since when you pick 5 stocks in the real world, you have to decide on a dollar amount first.
In the future, it would be helpful to know if it's A or B, where I'd pick stocks that I though would individually appreciate in percentage terms, regardless of starting price, and thus simulate the real world of getting rich; or C or D, relatively meaningless metrics that pit high priced stocks versus penny stocks in an effort to produce a great "score" but which have little relationship with how you get rich in the real world.
So far, Scott has said the contest winner would be determined these two ways, which appear to be mutually exclusive:
The winner is based on total return not the average.
Message 15283212
Percentage gain will determine the winner.
Message 15272331
Anyone else catch a more specific explanation? It must be posted in the rules somewhere but I can't find where it is explained (very odd for a cash-paying contest!). It does sound like it might be case D above. If that is true, then what is the point? |
