sporthunter's Blog : RESETTING THE BOARD

I agree with this idea. Sounds like we could make the game a lot more realistic,

Owltrades - My thoughts are that because we are not limited by a $$ amount when selecting stocks, that there should be a limit on how many can be selected. I personally usually hold between 5 and 10 stocks at any given time in my real portfolio. I think it would be rare for a trader or investor to hold more then 15 total stocks. I also think there should be some form of reward for dividend stocks that a trader holds. There might be, but I am not aware of points awarded for quaterly/monthly dividends for traders holding these type of stocks.

But we are restricted by how high the stock price must be to rate and put it in our portfolio. I'm not a fan of that but it's not my simulator.

I would like to see our yearly performance numbers saved and have the stock price that comparisons are being made to reset to the closing price of December 31st. That way people aren't living off the past of last year and you can actually see their performance year over year.

We are working on tracking real performance for discrete periods of time. The Portfolio Score is the first step in that process. For the record, the Portfolio Score does automatically rebalance your positions whenever you make a pick, so if you hold fewer picks, each will have greater weight.

Right now, we're importing historical prices back to 1/1/08 to get the Portfolio Score a broader sample of data and a more accurate reading. One of the things we'd like to do once that broader sample is incorporated is to chart your weekly, monthly and 12 month performance. Giving annual returns for each calendar year is a great idea to include in that process.

For a pure scoring mechanism per person, it might be more realistic to limit your holdings to a set amount of money. But remember, the other half of the website here is "picks." We want as many stock ratings as possible so the ratings we get are more useful for a broader universe of picks. That's why we decided not to limit the number of stocks you pick or provide an incentive so to do.

We keep talking about the best way to include dividends, but so far we haven't found the right answer. It's on the wish list, though.

If you want to try a different approach in the new year, you're certainly welcome to open another account. It's too late for us to implement multiple portfolios per user in time for the start of 2010, but you can use another email account to start anew.

Thanks for the feedback, and your continued contribution to P&P!

Thanks for the response.

Including dividends would be a great idea. If you could capture the dividend yield at the time of purchase maybe you could prorate that and gradually add it to the annual return %. I picked AIG.A preferreds when they were yielding well over 90% annually in dividend but it's not reflected anywhere. On the other hand, what's most unrealistic about the current setup is having to wait until the market close to see what price your pick starts at. I've had movements of over 10% between picking my stock and market close.

I was wondering why my picks have been pending for 2 days now. Some are there for 1 day. We all know that stocks are time sensitive so they must be put in on time. If I am doing something wrong please let me know. I love the site and look forward to getting this corrected. Thank you Goodlander