Sponsored by OptionsXpress, financial television heavyweight CNBC concludes it's much publicized 10-week on-line stock trading sweepstakes challenge, with a final $1 Million prize, "Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, after it's first week seems to be dominated--some say "hi-jacked"-- by one very prominent registrant.
It's a fair assumption that for several thousands of NBC's registered participants, the million dollar question is: "Who is Nancy Beaumont, of California?"
A REPORT & COMMENTARY: [
Holy loopholes million-dollar gamesters! It would appear Nancy Beaumont (real name?) has found a very big loophole in the rules set-out in CNBC's current “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge”—a very big loophole, indeed.
As of 6:12:14 AM (Eastern Standard Time) on Saturday morning, March 10th. This image clip demonstrates that of the top 25 portfolios, Nancy Beaumont holds the top 3 positions, as well as spots: 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, and 17. In all probability, Ms. Beaumont (or the player registered as) has even more—albeit less successful—portfolios.
Well... it's doesn't take a master strategist to safely predict that this is a situation bound to cause a wee bit of concern, for several hundred thousand registered users—including me, since I took up the challenge as well. I suppose, however, the true number of actual players versus register participants is a much more dubious figure, now that Ms. Beaumont's apparent affinity for multiple registration entries has come to light.
Nevertheless, it's a safe bet a few corporate attorneys (between OptionsXpress and CNBC, to name a few) are not having a quite weekend; but the logic of the discussion, from the OptionsXpress, the official sponsor of the promotion, will likely go as follows:
Question: Was this entry a violation of the “letter of law”, or in this case “rules”?
Answer: No.
Question: Then, said Nancy B cannot be officially disqualified
Answer: Correct.
Question: How big of a situation is this?
Answer: Big, very big!
Question: Does this place our “promotion”--meaning the “Portfolio Challenge” in jeopardy? Jeopardy will probably mean two things.
1st – Legally. What is the legal exposure from any actions brought against the contest by participants (supportable or otherwise), as well as from terms of the contract with CNBC?
2nd – Public Relations & Images. What kind of fall-out is there likely to be?
Answer: (Hight Speculative): Your guess is as good as mine...
Of course, the smart solution will be the one that will that can resolve the dilemma to the satisfaction of to everyone involved. Only the parties and personalities involved know the true measure of what can and cannot be done, at this stage.
My suggestion, would be cancel the present game, rewrite the rules, start over, and use the ensuing press coverage over the controversy as a way of attracting an even wider audience.
Oh, and if this is a viable option, it would be prudent if a few process serfs should be pumping out press releases like mad to every news medium, chat forum, and blog across the seven seas, exclaiming the “Million Dollar Do-Over”
Finally. To Nancy Beaumont, I put my right foot forward and extend to you a gentleman's bow, simply to acknowledge a game well-played! In the real non-gaming world, that's the sort of smarts that really does win.
--
WHO ELSE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY? Here's a few links to some of the personal chatter on this topic around the Web:
As of today, Nancy Beaumont, although not in the top 10, but she has taken over 11 ... So today is the launch of CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. ... tycoonsrow.com/
CNBC 1 MILLION MANIPULATED I PERSON WITH 17 ACCOUNTS
Stockpickr! Your Source for Stock Ideas
For all of us here chatting about this million $ challenge, tell CNBC that there ... Also, ask them what they're going to do about one, Ms. Nancy Beaumont. ... http://www.stockpickr.com/allforum/478/2/
HERE ARE MY TWO POSTS ON THE "NANCY BEAUMONT" ISSUE THAT ARE ON DARRIN'S SITE AT TYCOON.
ReplyDeleteShe’s clearly in violation of the Rules and Dylan Radigan even said so two days ago. The Rules forbid “cheating” and “exploiting”. When you have 25 lottery tickets and everyone else has 1, your odds increase exponentially. It’s basic arithmetic.
However, even after Dylan said she had violated the spirit of the Rules if not to the letter, this Cheat, Nancy Beaumont, still has 10 of her 25 or more accounts in the Top 10. He suggested that CNBC would be checking IP addresses, but nothing seems to have been done.
I’m currently ranked 174 with one account. I can only wonder where I’d be if all the multiple account holders were weeded out.
I left a Complaint at CNBC 201-735-2622. Press “O” for Operator and ask to register a Complaint. You might also want to suggest, as did I, that GE/CNBC purchase some more bandwidth so the site doesn’t crash all day, and hire some more staff so that the Bonus Points are awarded by 8:30 a.m. instead of two-days later.
Hey guys,
Thanks for letting me participate on the site. The one trade that catipulted me was FMT (Fremont General), one of the subprime lenders, which was up 25% two days after its big gap down. I bought it at $6.78 on Tuesday just before 4:00 p.m. and sold it on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m at $8.53. I had my entire account invested in it after making 1.5% the first day on ASML.
I played FMT for a bounce for a few reasons. First, my visceral reaction was to check to see which of the questionable subprimes had been around the longest and had a relatively large market capitalization. My instinct told me that those companies were the most likely to survive and have recoveries in their stock prices after the whole group got slaughtered on Monday. Fremont had been around longer than NEW and I believe it had a larger market cap. I then ran a few algorithms that I’ve been working on for the last few years to determine the likelihood that it would, in fact, bounce. It passed the test. This was also consistent with the likelihood that it would fill, at least, the last gap down at some point. I didn’t expect it to happen in one day, but when it did, I dumped it thinking it might come back down and test those lows again. I wasn’t going to look a 25% gift horse in the mouth because I knew that this trade was going to dramatically improve my odds of being competitive. What also happened that day were news reports that Fremont intended to get out of the subprime business and had 5 possible suitors. My instinct told me that after filling that gap, some news would be released saying that nothing was set in stone with those suitors and the stock would start to slip back a bit. They made that exact announcement the next day, the stock slipped, and now I’m not particularly comfortable with any of the subprimes. As you can see, for instance, the most highly traded stock in the contest is NEW, the most questionable of all of the subprimes, and people got hammered in it. Anyone who tried to bottom feed on NEW is basically out of the contest now because their accounts are severely drawn down. They’d have to win one of the weekly contests to get in to the finals.
Anyway, after the FMT trade I went from 54,645 to 190. I then bought PGNX and made around 1.3% or so. I didn’t make any trades on Friday and am in cash right now.
If they give me my $3,000 in Bonus Bucks from Friday, the portfolio will start the week at a $1,300,450, up a little over 30%. They apparently are having trouble awarding the Bonus Bucks by 8:30 a.m. as they say in the Rules.
I’m running my algorithms now looking for some candidates next week. I have to say, though, that I’ve been a little demoralized by the out and out scam that Nancy Beaumont and others are trying to pull. Actually, it’s not so much the scam as it is CNBC’s failure to address it (as Dylan Radigan said they would on-air Thursday). He suggested that they were going to check IP addresses etc. They need to kick the cheats out of the game. There is NO AMBIGUITY IN THE RULES yet Nancy Beaumont still has 10 of her gazillion accounts in the Top 25.
The Rules clearly state that each “participant” gets 1,000,000 and 50 trade orders per day–not $17,000,000 and 850 trades which she has been getting. The statistical probability of her winning the contest are exponentially increased because she can put one egg in 17 baskets and can be wrong 16 times and still be the winner. We get one shot. It’s a disgrace that CNBC hasn’t remedied this yet. In fact, as I check now, she’s still in the Top 3 places and 11 of her accounts are in the Top 25.
If I was running 17 accounts, or any of you were, we could all just put one earnings play in each account and would be guaranteed to have the one big winner each day in one of our accounts.
And, yes, for God’s sake, increase the bandwidth already. How could the largest company in the world, GE, and it’s subsidiary, not have enough bandwith or staff to keep the site from crashing and from weeding out the Nancy Beaumont’s of the world. Positively pitiful.
Dave
REPRINT: Here’s my comment posted elsewhere regarding the Nancy Beaumont issue. I thought I’d share those thoughts since you have a similar complaint. My current Rank is 174 and portfolio value is $1,303,450. I put alot of effort into preparing leading up to the contest, but I'm now quitting because it turned into a joke.
ReplyDeleteHey all,
Thanks. I’m thinking, however, of dropping out of the contest because of the Nancy Beaumont scam and the fact that there isn’t a single brain working in the Executive Offices at OptionsXpress or GE/CNBC. I don’t exaggerte. Get this–NB has 800 accounts with the potential of making 40,000 trades per day. I hope you’ll all join me now in getting out the word to other Press outlets how OptionsXpress and GE/CNBC let this contest spiral out of control.
I’m in shock and I trust that the rest of you are not going to believe this either. I just read the blog of the so-called Official Blogger, Mark Koba, at CNBC’s site, and he is stating, contrary to Dylan Radigan’s comments last week, that muliple [sic] accounts are, get this–within the Rules.
The Rules state, in no uncertain terms, that each “participant” is entitled to “1,000,000″ and “50″ trades per day, not $800 million spread over 800 accounts and “40,000″ trades per day.
This is an absolute joke. Any of you who understand statistics know that she is all but guaranteed to be the winner. There’s no sense going on with the contest.
I intend to contact other press outlets to expose how silly this is and how everyone fell asleep at the wheel at OptionsXpress and GE/CNBC. They encourage everyone to read the Rules, but obviously they forgot to read their own Rules.
Dave”
P.S. Unbelievable
WIKIPEDIA ENTRY REGARDING THE "MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS" SCAM
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNBC#Contest_.22Multiple_Accounts.22_Controversy
Contest "Multiple Accounts" Controversy
The Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, which is being sponsored by OptionsXpress,[16] 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 winning the $1,000,000 prize, and leading to her occupying no fewer than nine places in the Top 25 Leader Board. [17][18][19][20]
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.
[21]
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.
[22]
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.
The sponsor of the contest, OptionXpress has yet to make a statement regarding the controversy.