Issues with the competition simulator

[lehayes]

So far, I am not impressed.

Issues:
1. I tried to post to register for the prizes and it will not allow me to post.

>>> I found out that I needed to click on a link in the email from the system to fix this problem. Issue resolved now.

2. I tried to submit the full $100,000 on an investment and it does not like the idea that I do not believe in diversification... totally against the phelosophies of Warren Buffet, which I agree with.

>> Still an issue.

3. I submitted a single order for 500 shares of a stock (less than half of my pot to comply with diversification ruling), darn thing timed out, I clicked to re-submit the entry and it went through, but entered me with 2 transactions on the same stock, essentially, I am invested into the same stock for 500 shares each for a total of 1000 shares. (Cool, I still get my desired full investment).

>> It finally sent me an email notification and rejected both transactions.


4. The submition on both of these investments are still pending more than 20 minutes after the initial posting. Still waiting on the non-pending status.

>> finally rejected both transactions. So I posted again this time, only a single transaction. Below is the information it provided to me:

Note: You may trade a maximum of 49 shares of HANS at the current price of $90.91. The number of tradable shares may change with the price.


Error: Diversification Rule
This transaction cannot be made as it violates the simulation's diversification rule.
The diversification rule limits the percentage of any one security in the portfolio to 50% of your game starting cash of $100,000.00. The rational for this is to make the game more realistic. Let's face it, putting your entire portfolio into one security is unlikely to happen in real-life!

Go back to change your order.


Transaction Quantity Symbol Stop/Limit Duration
Buy Market 500 HANS n/a Good till Cancelled

Current Price Commision Est. Total Order
$90.91 $7.99 $45,462.99


Now according to my calculations, and I may be wrong, but 50% of $100,000 is $50,000, the total order is $45,462.99, if I subtract $45,462.99 from $50,000 I get some loose change. Why does it say a maximum of 49 shares???

[lehayes]

Wierd, I just went back to the program and views my portfolio, now it shows me in at 500 shares on the stock. Ok, I will enter some more trades and see what comes of it.

[Stocktrading101]

Lehayes, I thank you for posting up your concerns. I will handle each comment individually.

1. I tried to post to register for the prizes and it will not allow me to post.

Are you speaking of posting in this thread, http://forums.r3illc.com/showthread.php?t=217 ? You cannot post unless you are a member of the forums. The reason we do this is so that we can confirm you are over the age of 18, or have parental approval. Also by registering, we can contact you if you are declared a winner of one our prizes.

tried to submit the full $100,000 on an investment and it does not like the idea that I do not believe in diversification... totally against the phelosophies of Warren Buffet, which I agree with.

This rule was added for Falkin IV after no diversification rules in Falkin III created some complaints. In Falkin III we had a few contestants who decided to put most of their portfolios in options, which ended up destroying their account when they were incorrect. Most competitions utilize a 25% diversification rule, so we decided on 50%. If there are more complaints, we may change it back to no diversification. The reason we created this was to keep participants from betting all their money on a high risk investment such as options.

I submitted a single order for 500 shares of a stock (less than half of my pot to comply with diversification ruling), darn thing timed out, I clicked to re-submit the entry and it went through, but entered me with 2 transactions on the same stock, essentially, I am invested into the same stock for 500 shares each for a total of 1000 shares. (Cool, I still get my desired full investment).

We cannot control these types of errors through investopedia.com sadly. We have heard of this type of complication before. What the simulator program most likely did was cancelled both because it would break the diversification rule to allow 1,000 shares of that particular stock. I would suggest visiting the following page at investopedia.com to explore for more answers:

http://simulator.investopedia.com/help/

4. The submition on both of these investments are still pending more than 20 minutes after the initial posting. Still waiting on the non-pending status.

>> finally rejected both transactions. So I posted again this time, only a single transaction. Below is the information it provided to me:

Note: You may trade a maximum of 49 shares of HANS at the current price of $90.91. The number of tradable shares may change with the price.

The reason I am guessing it posted this error is because you at that point of time did actually have your 500 shares of HANS. So, to stay within the 50% diversification rule, you could only buy 49 more shares to add to your 500. The Simulator will automatically calculate how much you can buy in relation to the rules set forth by the competition.

Now according to my calculations, and I may be wrong, but 50% of $100,000 is $50,000, the total order is $45,462.99, if I subtract $45,462.99 from $50,000 I get some loose change. Why does it say a maximum of 49 shares???

49 shares of Hans would be equivalent to less than the last $4,537.01 you had to stay within the diversification rules. The simulator I am assuming already had you for 500 shares of Hans at this point in time.

I hope this helps you lehayes, and I again apoligize for any confusions the simular has caused you during your experience thus far. Investopedia.com works daily to improve their simulator from small errors and complications. If you have any future comments or questions please feel free to post them up here or go to the help page at investopedia.com for answers.

[lehayes]

All the issues are resolved, less the 50% diversification rule. I can live with it. At this point, I am $140k invested and already seeing profits. Just a bumpy start.

Thanks for taking the time going over this with me.

[lehayes]

Help!!! I cannot do a Buy To Open (call) on my underlying existing stock purchases.

How is this handled on this simulator?

I already own the stock, and I would like to write some covered calls on the existing stock. I noticed a help statement that says covered calls is not available, but you could or should be able to do a Buy To Open. When I do the following steps I get a enrror page 404 not found...

1. Select to Trade Options
2. Enter SHLD
3. Select the YQH AE or YQH AY or YQH AX or YQH AW

[FirstConsul]

Yeah, that's a big problem.
I was selling my XLE calls today at open, half of them. XLE was at $53.90/80 when I started.
It was at 53.30 before my order got executed, I lost $3000 . Not to mention XLE is over $54 now . It wasn't funny at all.
You can't write options in the simulator.. the guys who built it still haven't figured out how to handle this. Otherwise we'd write so many puts and calls for years later and they'd never expire within the three month period.
Maybe we really need a high stakes competition. $5000 real money in an Interactive Brokers account that you can trades stock futures forex and buy/write options with .

[lehayes]

But the guy at the top of the list has been doing options from the minute the competition started. There has to be some way to do this.

BTW, to beat the delay on the simulator, I use my real time program to watch the real stock values. When I see my sell flag, I enter it in on the simulator as a sell at that specific price. Although I have not sold anything yet... holding out for the 20%.

[FirstConsul]

Well that's the problem. I have real time quotes as well(Inet). But still, sometimes investopedia is slower than 20 minutes.. And although real time quotes tell me XLE is at 54, maybe my orders get executed when XLE is at $53.75