1. Trading Dates & Initial Cash Balance
The initial cash balance is $100,000.
2. How To Trade
Before making any trades, you must have your account number, password, and the ticker symbols of the securities you wish to trade. Visit the home page to submit trades, review your portfolio activity, research stocks, obtain quotes, find ticker symbols, and review your ranking. This is the best way to trade because it is fast, accurate, and convenient.
Trading Stocks:
There are four basic ways to trade stocks: buy (BO), sell (SC), short sell (SS), and short cover (CO). When buying a stock, you are taking a "long position" with the hope that the price per share will increase. When you sell a stock, you close that long position. Selling short is selling a stock that you don't own (you actually borrow the stock from the broker) with the hope that you can later buy the stock back at a lower price. When you buy the stock to pay back what you borrowed, it is called "covering" your short position. To buy or short sell a stock, specify how many shares you want, rather than how much money you wish to spend. You may not be long and short in the same stock at the same time.
Trading Funds:
You may buy or sell mutual funds with the simulation. Mutual funds are bought and sold in dollar amounts not by number of shares. Mutual funds must be bought or sold in lots of $500. Like stocks, in order to invest in mutual funds you must have the ticker symbol. All mutual fund ticker symbols are five letters long ending in "X". A confirmation number will be provided on the confirmation page for every transaction. PLEASE TRACK YOUR CONFIRMATION NUMBERS.
3. Trading Times and Prices Received:
Stocks: Trades made via the web page will receive 15-20 minute delayed prices if placed while the market is open (generally 9:30 am – 4:00 pm ET). Trades placed after the market has closed will receive the next day’s open price.
Mutual Funds: Mutual Fund trades are always at the end of day price (NAV or net asset value). Trades received before market close will be placed at the closing price for that day. Trades made after market close will receive the next day’s closing price.
4. Splits and Dividends:
All stock splits and all dividend payments over $0.10 will be credited to your portfolio. Splits that have been credited to your portfolio have the appearance of a buy or short sell, but the price per share is $0.00. Dividends will appear in your portfolio with a “-DIV” attached to the ticker symbol to alert you to a dividend payment.
5. Securities that can be traded:
Stocks: You may buy, sell, sell short, and cover a short for almost all NYSE and NASDAQ-AMEX stocks (common and preferred) that are trading at $5.00 or more. IPOs are usually available the afternoon that the new stock starts trading on the exchanges. Stock trades may be in any whole number of shares greater than 25 (i.e., 25 share minimum but you can trade 26 shares or more).
Mutual Funds: All publicly traded mutual funds may be bought or sold.
6. Volume and Purchase Restrictions:
- Throughout the simulation, participants may invest no more than $50,000 in any one stock.
- You may not buy or short sell stocks trading for under $5 per share (no penny stocks).
- The maximum number of shares you may trade is limited to the volume of the stock that day.
- You may not hold a short and a long position in the same stock at the same time.
- Day trading is not permitted.
7. Ticker Symbols:
You need to know the ticker symbol for the security before you can trade it. Please note that most local newspapers show only the abbreviation of the company name, not the ticker symbol. The Wall Street Journal and the web page are two really good sources to help you find the ticker symbols you need. You can also find links on our research page that will help you find a certain ticker symbol.
8. Commission:
A broker's commission is applied to most transactions. The commission for stock and bond transactions is a flat fee of $25 on each transaction regardless of the number of shares. If you sell one stock or bond and buy another you will be charged two commission fees. The commission charged for all mutual funds is 1% of the purchase price. A commission is not charged when selling mutual funds.
9. Margin Requirements:
The margin requirement for the simulation is 50%. Initially, this means that since you are starting with $100,000, you may borrow another $100,000, making your total buying power $200,000. You may buy and short sell stocks on margin.
10. Interest Earned:
Interest will be earned on all available cash balances and credited at the close of each day. During the simulation, cash balances will earn 3% interest, compounded daily.
11. Interest Charged:
Interest will be charged on all loan balances and will be debited at the close of each day. During the simulation, loan balances will charge 8% interest, compounded daily.
12. Number of Transactions:
Each account is limited to 100 transactions during the trading period. Each buy, sell, short sell or short cover counts as a transaction. For example, if you buy a stock and sell another stock you will be charged with 2 transactions.
13. End of the Simulation:
You do not need to convert all of your investments to cash on the last day of the simulation. Your portfolio will be valued at the closing prices for that day.
14. Disputes and Errors:
If you believe an error has been made in your portfolio, you may call 1-866-SMS-DESK, toll-free, to discuss the problem. Please review your statements and report any problems right away. Stock-Trak is not responsible for trades or quote prices that are incomplete, incorrect, or not received. Stock-Trak may use various methods (such as time and tape analysis) to resolve disputes. The decision made by Stock-Trak is final. Stock-Trak has the right to adjust or delete trades that are believed to be incorrect, and the right to terminate any account that they believe may have attempted to exploit, manipulate, or sabotage any part of the Stock-Trak trading system and/or web page. Stock-Trak has the ultimate authority to settle disputes.