3SOF

Stock Picking Contest (2nd Edition - From 12/Dec/2005 to 10/Jan/2006)

To Submit your Selling Order, reply to this Topic following the Standard Layout:

1)   Selling Order
(Ticker & Name of the Company)

2)   Selling Reason
(a small text, featuring the reasons why you are selling your position).

-> Your selling order will be executed on the next opening price after the time stamp of your order

Important: Do not use this thread to another purpose rather than submitting your selling order. For organizational purposes, any reply that is not a selling order will be deleted.

1) MEADOW VALLEY CORP (NasdaqSC:MVCO) Sell price at $21.50

2) The $21.50 are the vertical objective price on the chart.

*********** Msg from Ramsburg ***************
Please read the rules (http://www.3stocksonfire.org/1000stockpickingcontest.php), no limit orders on this game,
all orders to be executed at the next opening price
******************************************

LVLT  -  LEVEL 3 COMM INC (NasdaqNM)
Sell price at $3.02

i think that tha failure of yesterday's pattern ( rising three methods)
and the most activity the last 10 minutes
take the stock down

*********** Msg from Ramsburg ***************
Please read the rules (http://www.3stocksonfire.org/1000stockpickingcontest.php), no short selling on this game.
This topic is only for closing position on the contest.
******************************************

Another good day for KNOL up 5.8%.

My target price for the contest was $4 which is a prior peak about a year ago. Though price action has had a really steep incline and it looks like resistence is beginning to build near that $4 area  around 3.85. As well the amount of volume is decreasing as pps gets higher indicating the bulls are running out of steam.

In light of this analysis i will be taking profits for the contest at tomorrow mornings open, currently with a 36% gain. Good luck all contestants. Hopefully im not getting out too ealry, everyone else will still have some time to catch up to me  ;) Hope PPS opens gapped up tomorrow to give me a little more % points   ;D

-fousc

*********** Msg from Ramsburg ***************
Executed @ $3.90 on the Open - Good Luck fousc !
******************************************

Not that it matters but yahoo has the opening price for KNOL at 3.85 this morning.  It makes about a 2% difference... not that I care or anything  :D.

gigm,
sell at close today at 3..78 or above


*********** Msg from Ramsburg ***************
Please read the rules (http://www.3stocksonfire.org/1000stockpickingcontest.php), no limit orders on this game,
all orders to be executed at the next opening price
*******************************************

noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! lol you cant sell at a close though rickjust. Your exit price is going to be mondays opening price which will be a gap down and you will lose >:D

lol jk i dont know, i hope so though, you snuck up outa no where on the last friggin day!!!

Good luck,

fousc

ok,
sorry,
i think it it will gap up a little on monday morning , so i will sell at the open. sorry fousc , i was watching in disbelief at the close with my calculator in hand .
really hope sify doesn't catch me from here,
good luck to all ;D
maxi :P

Well i dont know maxi? It appears that you did not fulfil the rules of the contest as metro pointed out that many of the top competitors will be disqualified from the contest. A minimum of 100 words for your entry was required, your post only had 83.  The rules are were simple, but a simple mistake you made could be costly. I guess its up to Ramsburg to decide whether or not you will be the winner or not regarding not fulfilling the requirements of the contest.

And we don't need to worry about SIFY Maxi, There disqualified from the contest as well ;)

-fousc

Quote from: fousc on January 07, 2006, 05:36:37 PM
I guess its up to Ramsburg to decide ...
-fousc

Actually the rules decide - that is the reason they are there

I see several who are disqualified as they for some reason did not follow or meet the rules.

There are some others also who did not meet the rules:

GIGM  - has only 83 words and minimum is 100
NMGC by Mixmaster has 49 words
DRL has 47 words
IINT has 74 words

Short 17 words LOL!!  Well, it's been said a picture is worth a thousand words, and rickjust did include a chart, so maybe his entry is 1,083 words? But seriously, that would be pretty cold to deny him the prize over 17 words! He could have included the company's profile from Yahoo Finance as filler. Seems that's what a lot of people do (I do!).

There is still time for Rickjust to get himself in compliance. He can edit his message and add some words.

Quote from: Lucas Scott on January 07, 2006, 10:33:54 PM


There is still time for Rickjust to get himself in compliance. He can edit his message and add some words.

Deadline was long ago....

hi,
my chart has 25 words on it,!!
;D
maxi :P

hi,::
a picture is worth a thousand words? well at least it is worth 25.
gigm daily, bollinger bands(20), ema(20), relative strengh index (14), macd (12,26) macd ema(9),, divergance,  volume close up, close down, sma (50).

25 words, all good reasons to buy the stock. technical reasons. if you can copy and paste a description of the company from yahoo board then i must be able to include the technical indicators on the chart and not have to write them on myself. there is nothing in the rules that state the words on the chart are not included in the hundred words, or that says you can't copy someone elses words,(as is the case with copy and paste from yahoo finance) these tech indicators are descriptive of the the stock at the time of printing therefore they must be considered as part of the description and the reason for buying the stock.
       therefore 25 + 83 = 108 which puts me 8 words above 100 ;D
maxi,
all written in the spirit of good sport.....fousc great pick on knol!
i didn't expect gigm to catch you but friday was one of those days where green was the color of the day and there was no holding it back.
maxi

It's too bad it has to come down to this but rules #6 and #11 clearly state that the text of 100 words is seperate from the chart itself:

Rule #06 – No «Blind» Picks allowed. All players must publish along with their stock pick, the reasons behind their pick, either Technicals, Fundamentals, Psychologicals, or whatever they think is important for other users to understand the reasons of their pick. Along with the stocks pick, a text with at least 100 words and a stock chart  must be included with your pick, otherwise the pick will not be eligible for the contest.

This doesn't say "a text with the chart combined to equal 100 words."

Rule #11 – Stock Pick Standard Layout
When posting your Stock pick, try to follow the Standard Layout on your post:
• Stock Pick (Ticker & Name of the Company)
• Reason behind this pick (a Text with at least 100 words, featuring the reasons of your stock pick)
• Stock Chart  (Click in additional options, browse for your chart file GIF/JPG/PNG and add it to your post, if you don't have a Charting software, we suggest you copy a chart from www.stockcharts.com )

I have nothing to gain since I am far down on the list but as Metro said the rules are there for a reason.  And you are right, maxi, it is as easy as copying a yahoo paragraph or some other description on the company - as long as it says why you picked the stock.

hi basonista,
it is true, text is not a chart. seeing as we are quibling over technichalities, text on the chart is not a chart. when you want to write on your chart you have to hit the text tool not the chart tool. therefore words are part of the text wether i wrote them or not. a chart is symbols
ie: rsi is a word or text and the line that represents it is the symbol or chart.
lol ..how am i doin' so far :P
these words or text are descriptive of why i picked the stock. they just happened to be layered over the chart. to describe the chart.
thanks ,
maxi

Maxi,

I sympathize with you on this.  It sucks to have to deal with this sort of technicality.  You picked the winning stock and you have every right to claim the prize.  Fortunately, rules are there to govern and to resolve problems so in my opinion here should be no different.  I do have to say that I value your opinions on the 3sof boards and you are one of a handful of members that I scan for when I check for unread posts.  You always offer another way of looking at the stocks you discuss and have helped me to make trading decisions many times.  If Ramsburg doesn't give you 1st prize, at least you can feel good about your stock picking skills since you are the one who picked the winner in round 2.  8)  That should give you some bragging rights, even if it isn't accompanied with a check.

I don't care what anyone says, you da man!!!
Glenn

thanks basonista,
thanks for your kind words. (if only i took my own advice!) at first i was not going to respond to the contoversy and wrote to ramsburg and told him so. (he and david will decide the outcome). then i thought, why not argue my case and have some fun with it. given that the laws of man are totally arbitary and are subject to interpretation and the mood of judges , i figure i post a pretty good argument in my favor. 
it was also a pretty good horse race coming from behind like that.
happy trading,
maxi

Well we still have until monday to see what GIGM's opening price is, which will be rickjust's exit price. I think there could be some selling pressure on such a big gain, Maybe it will gap up? Gap down? who knows....... So there isn't yet a winner based on % points until we see mondays open. Once this happens i imagine ramsburg will fill us in with his opinion on this little fiasco of ours

And i know that would be pretty depressing to lose cause you didnt type 17 more words or so, but rules are rules, and im here to win just like you are, so im defending my first place prize ;D

-fousc

thanks fousc,
i thought about that myself, it could easily open lower and that is my selling price . so the point could be moot.
also at this point i have established enough of an argument in my favor so i will rest my case ;)
good luck
maxi

Hi SOFers,  
      Since I'm in the running,  and perhaps taking a position away from mix master.( Who I didn't know had picked NMGC when making my decision.)  I have just one question for the board.   If you had made a trade in the market, and on a technicality( wrong position size, wrong price entry, mistakes in decimal point, wrong timing) you ended up losing on the trade,  would you expect the market to be forgiving and give you credit?
      It may seem like a raw deal, and I'm confident this isn't getting under rickjust's skin.  But,  when we embark everyday in the jungle of the market, we understand that it is the technicalities that matter most,  the smallest mistake can cost you alot more than 250 bucks.  
       Good luck all!  It should be an interesting finish.  

hi shipman,
good point ~! but it works both ways, if you make a mistake in the market in your favor .,like ,say, buy 1000 instead of 100 and the stock goes up.  do you give  back the profits?. rules are arbitary. this really is creating some debate, which suprises me. :-\
happy trading ,
maxi
pull me up if starts getting under my skin.... would like to keep this board in the spirit that it was intended

Quote from: shipman on January 08, 2006, 04:07:49 PM
Hi SOFers,  
      Since I'm in the running,  and perhaps taking a position away from mix master.( Who I didn't know had picked NMGC when making my decision.)  I have just one question for the board.   If you had made a trade in the market, and on a technicality( wrong position size, wrong price entry, mistakes in decimal point, wrong timing) you ended up losing on the trade,  would you expect the market to be forgiving and give you credit?

You could look at the Japanese(?) trader that recently lost how much money for his company by reversing the price and quantity (if I remember right).  That company lost TONS of money on that tiny mistake.  That said, I have a trading buddy at work that claims to have been on both ends of the issue.  He made a mistake on price which immediately dropped his investment, called his broker and had it fixed.  He also put in an astronomically high sell price on a stock (way above the current bid/ask), was shocked to see it go through, and had it taken back.  If there is a lesson to learn, I guess it is that the markets are unpredictable in more ways than we think.  ;)

hi,
yes the trouble with using analogies is there is always the oposite thing that happens. there is always an exeption to the rule .  best to stay on topic.
:D
maxi

Hello !

This was really a difficult decision to make... I had to talk with David about this, and we both ended up with the same (hard) decision.

Well, facing the risk of being unfair, but taking into consideration that we are still building this contest's concept, our decision is:
Rickjust's pick will be valid and accepted on this contest.

But first of all, I have to assume the responsibility on this entire situation, basically because the rules should be a bit more reflective on some issues, giving no second interpretations on any matter. On that way I failed (since I've wrote those rules, and now we have this situation).

When I came up with rule #06; my intention was more like a guideline, to avoid a few words justification on the picks. What I just did in practical terms, was to read the pick's justification, and see if there was any relevant opinion behind the pick before I accepted, avoiding only the «blind picks».

There are a few things that have pushed us to this final decision on Rickjust's pick:
- If his pick was not illegible for the contest, we should have posted the regular (*) along with his username, showing that his pick was not valid for winning any prize. And that's the least we could do, before denying him the prize 1 day before he have the potential to win the contest's first prize.
- The «Text with at least 100 words» is a bit subjective, since we have many players that have included on their texts a copy/past yahoo company profile text, which works for the word counting in this situation.
- That situation with the chart's included text, can also generate some doubts... we didn't talk about that, but is also an uncertain situation.

But above all, we felt it was very unfair if we decided against Rickjust, not only because he made in fact a GREAT pick, and that's the main reason for this contest to exist, but also because we have a part of responsibility on this situation.

I know this decision is questionable, and will most probably generate some argues... it was a very rough decision to make...

The next contest should have more explicit rules, disclaimers, and also rules for the organization team, like a dead line before disqualifying a player.

My best regards to everyone !

Let the best picker win !

I think that's the right call Ramsburg. It's the whole spirit of the law/letter of the law thing. The letter of the law may be 100 words but the spirit is that participants give a justification for their selection, which rickjust did IMO.

I'm ready for the 3rd Edition to get started!! 

 :'(

Im just hoping for a gap down tomorrow for GIGM ;) . I really wanted to win! Damn GIGfM snuck up on the last day. I wish i was holding though i didnt pull the trigger cause because a bearish divergence, but like i mentioned on the GIGM board. When a divergence of the MACD histogram goes in the opposite direction of its intention it means the bull/bears are especially strong, In GIGM's case the bulls are in full force after fridays rally on heavy volume. But i also agree with ramsburgs decision. It would be unfair to take away rickjusts winning pick because of a small mistake.

It would also take away from the glory if i were to win even though i didnt have the best performance. I'd like to win fair and square with the best performance. Best of luck for tomorrows open Maxi. I look foward to outperforming you on the next contest ;D And applause for your pick on the contest.

Also i will be happy to see in the future from Ramsburg and David a set of rules for the contest that must be obided by. No sense in rules if you can break em.

-fousc

I believe its a matter of a .055 or so gap down, if my math is correct, open on GIGM for me to take 1st. Lets see what happens............................

-fousc  ;D

thanks fousc,
yes no sense in winning if it is based on performance and you win based on a tecnicality,
so, i haven't won yet.
david and fred made a tough decision but that is what you love about this site and these two . they take responsiblity,
good luck today fousc,
may the highest percentage yield win :o
maxi

Congrats fousc!!! You won!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Literally last minute photo finish!!! GIGM gapped down SECONDS before pre-market closed!

Well............... Looks like im gonna win on performance after. I wouldnt like to have it any other way. As long as NMGC doesnt do something crazy today. And again great pick rickjust(applauds), unfortuneatley GIGM did gap down this morning to open up at 3.73.

It must have been cause i changed my name at about 4 am this morning to GapDownGIGM  ;) My plan succeeded >:D muahahahaahahaha. lol jk. Good luck on the next contest.

-fousc

congats!!!!!!!!!!!! to fousc,
pipped at the post :o
i saw it coming when i saw the pre market. got a good selling price at 3.75. but not good enough.
spend the money wisely,.........have a drink for me,
maxi

Congratulations to all those that played this month and the top pickers especially. It i s a nice feature to look at charts and ideas in one place then see which ones make the cut.

The fat lady does not sing until opening tomorrow so we will see if there is some late news today or in pre market that will change the current positions.

I played several of the picks and am sure that many did - thanks for sharing!

hi,
yes shoulda wouda coulda held for one more day, really thought it might retrace today and tomorrow.
oh, well rock and roll
maxi

rickjust ,
Why did you not hold until tomorrow.... ???

because ,
i put my sell order in thinking it would gap up this am . it was too late to change it.
it's ok ,
that's the market :D
maxi

Quote from: rickjust on January 09, 2006, 04:03:38 PM
because ,
i put my sell order in thinking it would gap up this am . it was too late to change it.
it's ok ,
that's the market :D
maxi

I suppose that explains it.
It was a nice pick. Better luck on the next contest !
I applaud your work..... ;)

Quote from: rickjust on January 09, 2006, 04:03:38 PM
because ,
i put my sell order in thinking it would gap up this am . it was too late to change it.
it's ok ,
that's the market :D
maxi

I would of done the same thing maxi, nice trade.

-fousc

Good pick Fousc !
I guess you are going to win by the hair on your beaver tail..... ;D
Or is that a Duck feather ? :D
I still say if SIFY was eligible, it would overtake 1st place tomorrow on the open!!
But that is water under the bridge.
Applaud your work Fousc .....a nice pick, keep up the good work. Congrats!  ;)

hi,
gigm open 3.70 this morning,
maxi

Congratulations fousc. Good pick. Now I wanna know did you own it in your own portfolio?

Quote from: ultra1066 on January 10, 2006, 01:45:30 PM
Congratulations fousc. Good pick. Now I wanna know did you own it in your own portfolio?

thanks ultra. Unofortunatley i didnt own it, i was fully invested in other picks when the time came to pick KNOL. Would of been nice to make that 40% quick gain though :)

-fousc

I echo everyones comment as well.  Nice pick and congrats on the win! 

What a great finish at the finish line!!

Thai