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Revision as of 14:12, 16 April 2007 by SmackBot (talk | contribs) (Date/fix the maintenance tags &/or gen fixes)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)OptionsXpress Holdings, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is a retail, online brokerage firm offering a platform that provides brokerage services for options, stock, futures, mutual funds, and fixed-income investments in the United States and internationally. Its browser-based technology provides trading tools, enabling retail and professional investors to identify, analyze, and execute a range of investment strategies..
Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge
OptionsXpress, in conjunction with CNBC, are sponsors of the so-called Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge contest, which began on March 5, 2007, and continues until May 25, 2007. The Official Contest Rules are set forth in full on the contest's website. .
Contest "Multiple Accounts" Controversy
The Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge has become embroiled in controversy after just its first week when it was revealed that one participant, Nancy Beaumont from California, registered 800 separate portfolios in the contest, exponentially increasing her probability of gaining admittance to the contest Finals and winning the $1,000,000 prize, and leading to her currently occupying no fewer than nine places in the Top 25 Leader Board.
The express terms of the Rules, however, provide in material part:
Description of the Contest:
The contest is a stock trading game that provides Participants with a fictional trading account, One Million (1,000,000) fictional dollars ("CNBC Bucks") and the fictional ability to trade individual stocks on the NYSE, NASDAQ and/or AMEX exchanges.
The Rules further state:
Trading:
Each participant begins the Contest with One Million (1,000,000) CNBC Bucks to create a fictional portfolio of the NYSE, NASDAQ and/or AMEX-traded stocks.
...
Each participant can make a maximum of fifty (50) trades per Day, based on the time the trade is entered by the Participant.
As a result of Nancy Beaumont's registration of 800 accounts, therefore, she has $800,000,000 CNBC Bucks available to her in the contest, spread over 800 separate accounts, and the ability to make a total of 40,000 trades per day. Other participants who registered one account per the express terms of the Rules, by comparison, have $1,000,000 CNBC Bucks available to them and can only make 50 trades per day. As a result, the probability of Nancy Beaumont winning the contest is dramatically skewed in her favor.
OptionsXpress has yet to make a statement regarding the controversy.
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