Our contest participants have been very patient as we have spent more time than usual in reviewing all the entries into the UCU Investment Challenge 2. The contest will run very similar to the first one which concluded on December 16th. The start date for UCU 2 was January 16th, with all portfolio positions priced as of the close of trading on January 13th. On February 17th, at 11:59pm will be the one opportunity to make trades, but the portfolio will have to have a minimum of 3 positions, with the smallest position to be 10% of the total portfolio. The UCU2 will conclude on Friday March 16th, with closing prices on that day as the price point for all positions.
This time around, we have 59 portfolios entered, about 10 more than in the first go around. This is great! We have many returning contestants, including those who one prizes in the first go around, but there are also about 1/3 new participants this time - word is getting out about the contest.
About 25% of the portfolios are using ETFs, which is considerably more than the first time, and most portfolios are structured in a concentrated manner, holding the minimum 3 positions, and about 1/2 of the portfolios are evenly balanced, and the other half have focused on weighting more heavily favoured positions.
The top three portfolios as of the end of Week One are: 1. Yuri B. with a 16.7% return after one week. Yuri's portfolio is focused on 4 penny stock positions, with heavy exposure to the mining sector. 2. Haresh P. has generated a 13.8% return so far, and has an evenly balanced 3 position portfolio, with exposure to dividend income stocks, consumer services and China. 3. Volodymyr V. has an evenly balanced 5 position portfolio, with a variety of exposures, including large caps, penny stocks, high risk (Greece exposure), China and energy. His portfolio returned 8.2% on the week.
If the previous contest is any indication, this one will see many twists and turns throughout the roughly 9 weeks, and portfolios will change places frequently. We hope that this time market sentiment will be better, and we'll be able to avoid general market sell offs, as we experienced in November 2011.
Good luck to everyone!
Are you still planning on posting the compositions of everyone's portfolio like last time?
ReplyDeleteYes we are. They will be up shortly. However, we wanted to send them first to all the participants. If you are a participant, you should be receiving an email with a pdf attached soon.
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