Online Investing Throwdown, $1k Buy In. You down? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

If your in the Fincon FB Group then you already saw this….

Who's up for a Investing Throwdown? Trying to get some bloggers to join me in an investing challenge. Here's the rules:

1. Open a new broker account of your choosing and deposit $1,000. 
2. On January 1st, you invest anyway you want (stocks, ETF's, mutual funds, whatever). No margin allowed. 
3. You can buy/sell as much as you want. (Calls, Puts, Options allowed)
4. Write a blog post that publicly shares what you bought. 
5. Track your return and report back to me so I can keep track of everyone that's taking part. 

What does the winner get?

Major bragging rights. What more do you need?  

What more do you get?

Hopefully some nice traffic and buzz for taking part. If you're an affiliate for the broker you're investing, even better. 

I have 13 bloggers in so far and aggressive soliciting more. Come join the fun….

Message me or email if interested (jeff@goodfinancialcents.com)

What's the contest's duration? If it's less than 10 years, count me out. 20 years would be even better. If you are talking one year or less, then your contest is essentially about gambling and not investing. I could take my $1000, put it all on 36 black and call myself a genius if it hit. If it didn't hit, I would call it a learning experience. IMHO, this is not a very good contest for personal finance bloggers to "prove" themselves.

That's exactly what I'm going to be doing. I was going to be doing it anyway, so why not take part in the contest?

bryce said:

The College Investor said:

bryce said:

What's the contest's duration? If it's less than 10 years, count me out. 20 years would be even better. If you are talking one year or less, then your contest is essentially about gambling and not investing. I could take my $1000, put it all on 36 black and call myself a genius if it hit. If it didn't hit, I would call it a learning experience. IMHO, this is not a very good contest for personal finance bloggers to "prove" themselves.

Bryce, you can invest in an index fund for the contest!  

I would/currently invest in the Total Stock Market index with perhaps some Small Value mixed in, but I doubt I could "win" against a lucky bet over the course of one year. I think I could be at the top after 10 years, and most assuredly would win after 20. That is what investing is about. Comparing gains after one year does not interest me, and it is a poor way to demonstrate good investing principles. What it would demonstrate is who got lucky.

The danger in doing this is that investing neophytes will look at the results and think that buying individual stocks and timing the market are better strategies than buying and holding low-cost passive index funds over the long term. Mathematically, this can be shown to be false, but participating in this sort of demonstration can send the wrong message.

Bryce,  I get it.  Trust me.   

Before you judge, read the post.

bryce said:

Jeff, I read your post. I still don't understand what you hope to prove. Sure, one of the accounts will come out ahead. Will it come from sound investing? Probably not.

I understand that competition can be fun. But I don't think investing for goals such as retirement, college savings, or just increasing wealth should be portrayed as a competition. Your two disclaimers in your post that your one-year throw down is NOT investing will probably be glossed over by many readers.

It's the same thing I have seen in econ classes where the teacher says we are going to have a competition to see who can beat the market on paper during the semester. It makes no real investment sense and teaches the wrong thing.

Wall Street brokers like these types of examples because they can say the person who won was probably the best stock picker. Then they will say check out the stock picks we made that beat the market. Of course they don't tell you about all the picks they made that lagged the market, or the active funds they closed due to poor performance. They are all about recency, and so is your throw-down.

Sorry, but I still would call it gambling.

No apologies needed.  This is my way of introducing the concept of investing to many that would typically care less about it.  

Cheers!