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Can you beat the market in 60 minutes?
March 3, 2008
Professional traders sometimes hold a stock for less than a few minutes, gaining from its price fluctuations. Reaching this level of expertise is not easy nor simple and requires a lot of practice. Obviously, it is not wise to practice this ultra short trading technique risking your real savings.
This week we provide you with a unique opportunity to examine your trading skills against the clock; you have got 60 minutes to build and manage your portfolio in order to beat all the other traders. Beating everyone will award you the quickest $250 you may have ever earned!
This special event will take place on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, between 3:00-4:00 PM (EST). The competition rules and prizes are the same as any other daily competition, but the entrance fee is only $1…
It will surely be the most exciting and challenging 60 minutes in the history of Yalicoo’s competitions. So do not miss your chances to participate in this unique event, learn from great traders and win the cash prizes for creating the best portfolio.
Remember, the competition will last only 60 minutes, so we strongly recommend that you
JOIN
as soon as possible, before it closes…
In the news last week
The major indexes fell more than 2.5 percent during last week, completing a 14 percent drop since last October’s peak. Stocks fell sharply mainly on Friday after weak economic news and higher oil prices, which intensified fears of the beginning of a long recession. The disappointing quarterly results of American International Group (AIG), which said it had tumbled to a $5.29 billion net loss in the fourth quarter and would not make any further share buybacks in the foreseeable future, the continued inflation concerns due to increase in oil prices after rising above $103 per barrel for the first time, and the all-time low value of the Dollar versus the Euro, all continue to push the market further down.
The U.S. housing market continues to post disappointing results. This week it was Lowe's Cos. (LOW), the nation's second largest home improvement retailer, which said on Monday that the weak housing market drove its fourth-quarter earnings down 33 percent. The company also said it expects sales to drop at least 5 percent in the current quarter and over the entire year. But that would be an improvement over the 7.6 percent decline in the last quarter. Could it be that these are early signs of the market actually hitting rock bottom? Too early to say.
On the bright side of the news, Visa Inc. said on Monday that its planned IPO (Initial Public Offering) could raise up to $19 billion, making it the largest IPO in U.S. history. Despite the difficult times in the financial sector, Visa expects to see high demand for its stock since it is a card processor, not a lender, which also holds a strong presence in other countries where many people are just starting to use credit cards instead of cash. The proposed IPO range of $37 to $42 a share, disclosed in a filing last week, would make Visa less costly in comparison to last year's revenues. However, it seems that Visa's shares look cheap only by comparison with those of MasterCard Inc., its biggest rival among credit-card issuers; Discover Financial (DFS), for example, despite its smaller size, is considered to be more of a bargain than Visa, according to several analysts.
IBM (IBM) also posted good news, saying that its board has authorized a $15 billion share buyback program equivalent to about 10 percent of IBM’s market capitalization; if actually completed, this buyback could boost 2008 earnings by up to 5 cents a share (since there will be less shares in the market). Despite the recession threats, IBM is thus showing its confidence in its business and in its capability to generate a lot of cash even during difficult times for the stock market.
Getting back to the bearish symptoms of the current market, Home Depot Inc. (HD), the world's largest chain of home improvement stores, experienced a fourth-quarter earnings drop of more than 27 percent. Contrary to the somewhat positive forecasts by its rival Lowe's Co., which envisions improving sales on the horizon, Home Depot said that 2008 is expected to be even worse in terms of sales and profits from continuing operations caused by the decreasing consumption due to the decline in home values and sales.
To summarize, the blend of positive earnings of some companies combined with negative forecasts of others is quite confusing. However, an un-emotional and intelligent long term investor can surely take advantage of the substantial drops in stock prices, in order to increase the value of his portfolio with some excellent bargains (Read
more and learn
how to invest in a declining market).
Highlights of Yalicoo’s competitions
Almost 400
monthly competition traders saw iverson gaining 11.90% and winning the game. In case you did not notice, the NASDAQ declined almost 6 percents during February. This makes iverson’s results quite astonishing. Iverson numbers are very interesting, presenting a strategy built of making many short term trades.
ivesron traded 459 times, during which he sold 225 stocks. 172 of these stocks (76%) were sold with a positive return, gaining a total amount of $28,830, while only 53 of them were sold with a loss (total loss of $11,431).
Far behind, Blooskye66 (4.98%) was ranked second, performing 335 trades. The third place was realized by vargoyle (4.39%), who traded only 42 times during last month. Vargoyle is a new player in Yalicoo, and this monthly competition was only the second game he joined. Furthermore, yhjia (4th place) traded 1348 times (!) and UnderMiner (5th place) traded only 22 times…
This large diversification in the number of stocks each top seeded player has traded is one of the unique benefits of participating in
Yalicoo competitions; it gives you the opportunity to watch a variety of trading strategies by many excellent traders.
Besides sharing the excitement during the competitions, they can also assist you
in building and managing your real stock portfolio. This means that you can use the stock trading ideas and strategies from Yalicoo in your real portfolio, making it stronger, more stable and much more profitable, even during a declining market such as the one we are currently experiencing.
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