There are currently two divisions, stocks and enhanced growth, and two divisions in each of those divisions, $20,000+ accounts (United States Investing Championship) and $1,000,000+ accounts (Money Manager Verified Ratings). It is possible to enter the competition with less than $20,000 but in that case if you do not add money your profit will be divided by 20,000 to determine your percentage increase. Accounts that contain long options or futures positions (whether long or short), will appear in the enhanced growth division. In order to participate, you need to specify an account number for us to track (it doesn’t have to be your own account, it can be a client’s or relative’s), and pay an entry fee. You may specify more than one account number if needed to reach a certain threshold, such as $20,000, or $1,000,000, with no additional charge. You may enter two different divisions if you desire, with two different account numbers, but then you must pay two entry fees.

You may trade foreign securities, ETFs, trade long or short, and use margin. The competitions are open to everyone, in any country. Late entries are tracked from the close on the day they enter. In other words, if you enter on March 15, up 10% for the year, for the purposes of this competition, you entered as of the close on March 15, up zero percent. Your percentage gain from that point forward is what will appear in the standings.

If your account is denominated in a foreign currency and there is a substantial change in the value of that currency relative to the US dollar over the contest period, your percentage increase will be obtained by converting the starting and ending account values, and possibly also monies added and removed, into US dollars.

In order to appear in any of the monthly standings (which is optional – you could just appear in the quarterly or in the final standings if you desire), you must send an email to normanz@earthlink.net, providing the following information: How you want your name to appear in the standings, the division you entered, your percentage increase from the day you entered, a copy of your monthly brokerage statements from the time you started, and your start date if you entered late. Once you have sent a copy of your January statement, you don’t need to send it again. At the end of the competition, we will need at most one copy of each monthly statement.

Determining your percentage increase

This is easy if you use a brokerage house that computes time-weighed returns, like Interactive Brokers (there are others that do this also). In that case, in addition to your brokerage statement, you email to normanz@earthlink.net a page showing your time-weighted return, which your broker allows you to create. It’s that simple. If you entered after trading started in 2024, the report you provide should give your time-weighted return from your starting date to the end of the most recent month.

If you do not use a brokerage house that automatically computes time-weighted returns, the process is still easy unless you added or removed large amounts of money. If you just added or removed modest amounts of money, we need you to tell us the net cash added (or removed) and the dates when cash was added or removed. If net cash were added, we would compute your percentage return as your ending account value minus the net cash added minus the starting value divided by your starting value plus the maximum net new cash added at any point. So if you started with 100K, added 50K, and then removed 50K, your profit would be divided by 150K to get your percentage return. If net cash were removed, your percentage return would be your ending value plus the net cash removed minus the starting value, divided by your starting value. So if you started with 100K, removed 20K, and ended with 140K, your profit would be 140K + 20K - 100K = 60K. Dividing by 100K gives a 60% return.

If you have made at most two large additions or removals of cash and are not using a brokerage that computes time-weighted returns, you can request a compounding. In that case, we will need the dates when money was added or removed, the amounts, and a print screen or photo of the account value at the close on the day of any monetary addition or removal.