Virtual gains

A while back I posted about how I was entering CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Now, going into the last week of the competition, it's time to take a look at how well I have been doing.

So you see, all five of my portfolios funded initially with a million dollars of play money are above water, even despite the frightful bear market. A bunch of the bucks on each account were gained by answering trivia questions on the CNBC site, but even taking that into account, all of the five are solidly in the black, though not nearly to the extent of being anywhere near winning one of the prizes. It isn't as if one of the market strategies did a huge amount better than the other, even despite the great differences in maintaining the individual portfolios. I never did come up with the multibagger play in the Earnings reports, even though a few dozen stocks have come and gone through the process. Conversely, there were a few holdings which experienced wrenching falls (the rules of the game do not allow short selling), but there was enough money spread around so that the downside effect was also diluted.

The one addition to the mix of portfolios to round out the five came in late because it was a pure currency trading play, and this capability was not turned on in the contest at the very beginning. 10% of the initial stake was available for trading a number of European, North American, and Asian currencies during hours extended beyond the normal equity market hours.

Next week, all the pretend money goes away. I won't be missing it all that much, though it was fun to have while it lasted.