THE FIRST EVER SEC INVESTACUP IS HERE!
In celebration of World Investor Week and Investor Protection Week 2022, Investagrams and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bring you the SEC Investa Cup!
Here’s your opportunity to learn more about the stock market, trade your way to the top, and win awesome prizes. This competition is OPEN TO ALL and will run from October 17, 2022 to November 9, 2022. Take a look at the trading rules and mechanics for the SEC Investa Cup 2022.
Trading Rules and Mechanics
1. Registration. The first 200 free users on Investagrams to register can join the competition for free. Once the 200 slots have been filled, the registration will be closed for free users. InvestaPrime subscribers can join the competition for free at any time up until October 17, 2022.
Important notes:
– Verification of ID is required to join the competition room. Please submit your Valid ID here.
– Only one (1) entry and account per person is allowed.
– If you have more than 1 account to join the competition, all accounts will be immediately DISQUALIFIED.
– You can change your Display Name, Username, and Profile Picture until THE DAY BEFORE the competition starts. Once the SEC InvestaCup begins, the system will not allow you to change the above-mentioned anymore.
2. Platform. The participants of SEC InvestaCup will use the Virtual Trading Platform of Investagrams which tracks the real-time stock price movements in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The system automatically calculates transaction fees to make it more realistic.
To know more about Investa vTrade, click here.
You can access the platform through the web, or download the app on Google Play or App Store.
3. Goal. The goal for the SEC InvestaCup is to trade your account for the whole competition period and aim for the highest profits. The participants with the highest rankings while playing within the rules will be recognized as winners.
4. Starting Capital. Each participant will start with PHP 100,000.00 virtual money to trade.
5. Trading Hours. Weekdays from 9:30AM – 3:00PM. You can’t trade during off-hours and on weekends.
6. Tradable Stocks. Participants can only trade the listed tradable stocks for this competition. The tradable stocks are filtered by our system and qualify as liquid and actively traded stocks. You will be able to access the whole stock list once you are added to the Competition Room. The initial tradable stocks list will be posted over the weekend before the competition begins.
Penny Stocks will NOT be included in the list of tradable stocks due to their susceptibility to rinse and repeat abuses. Stocks that have come from PHP 1 levels and close at .99 or lower by the end of the week will be taken out of the list. This is to avoid any rinse and repeat abuses and deductions/disqualifications.
7. Diversification. To promote diversification and risk management, maximum exposure in a single stock can only be 1/3 or 33.33% of the portfolio. This requires the participants to buy at least 3 different stocks should they want to fully invest in their portfolio. The system won’t allow you to allocate more than 33.33% in a single stock.
8. Buying and Selling Conditions (For LONG positions) Participants now have two options when transacting. The first option is to transact using the current price of the stock and use market orders to buy and sell specific stocks at their real-time prices. The second option is to transact using our CONDITIONAL ORDERS. By using Conditional Orders, you won’t need to watch the market the whole day in order to transact in the market, you can now set AUTO CUT LOSS, AUTO TAKE PROFIT, and AUTO BUY ON BREAKOUT. You can also set these orders to GOOD TILL CANCELED so that your order will remain active until your buy/sell price is hit. Watch this tutorial.
Buy – You can buy the same stock multiple times within a day.
Sell – YOU CAN SELL THE SAME STOCK SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.
In one stock per day you can sell TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
In one stock per day you can sell FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)
9. Holding period for all stocks. We will be applying the twenty (20) minute time lock for taking profits to ALL STOCKS to avoid widespread and rinse-repeat trades. There will be no time lock or restrictions when selling at a loss.
10. Revision of Tradable Stocks. Investagrams and the SEC Team has the right to remove any stock from the list should it suddenly become too illiquid, abusable and/or delisted. Furthermore, Investagrams and the SEC Team may also add new stocks on the tradable list as new stocks become more active and tradable in the market. All changes will be announced before implementation.
In such cases that a stock is to be removed, we will follow this process:
- Investagrams shall notify all the participants via the Investagrams Platform before the market opens.
- If you still have the stock in your portfolio, you can sell it at any point in time at your discretion.
11. Initial Public Offering (IPO). All upcoming IPOs that will happen while the SEC InvestaCup is on-going will be added on its SECOND (2nd) trading day.
12. On Dividends that will be given during the SEC InvestaCup
- Stock Dividends that will be released by a company will be credited at the MORNING BEFORE THE MARKETS OPENS of the ex-date. Please note that stock dividends will cause price adjustments, so be aware if a stock you’re holding will release stock dividends.
- Cash Dividends that will be released by a company will NOT be credited to your total equity as the current system is still not able to credit cash divs.
13. On SRO that may happen during the SEC InvestaCup
Stock Rights Offerings (or SRO) is offered to existing shareholders of a specific stock to purchase additional shares at a price lower than the current market price in addition to their current shares at hand.
SRO’s can be deemed good for longer-term investors. However, in the short term, may POTENTIALLY lead to a possible decline or gap down in the stock. So it’s important to always be aware of this.
Participants in the SEC InvestaCup will not have an option to purchase additional shares from the SRO.
14. For stocks that will be detected by our WIDE-SPREAD DETECTION SYSTEM (WSDS). The Wide-Spread Detection System’s main condition is that the first (1st) best bid and ask should never be more than 2% at any moment during open market session.
Fig 1. Real-time Market Depth / Orderbook showing the first (1st) best bid-ask data.
Example: $ATN (Refer to Fig. 1)
Given:
1st best bid = 1.11
1st best ask = 1.14
Formula:
X = (1st best ask – 1st best bid) / 1st best bid
Condition:
If X is greater than 2% then WSDS detects that the stock is wide-spread and can be abused.
Solution:
X = (1.14 – 1.11) / 1.11 = 0.02700 x 100% = 2.70%
Verdict:
Since X is greater than 2% then the stock is wide-spread as computed by the system.
- The participant will be given a prompt that the detected stock is not tradable upon executing a buy or sell transaction.
- The stock will again be tradable once the system detects that the spread of the 1st best bids/asks are below 2%.
15. On Trading Abuses.
- Day trading opportunities on natural market moves are normal, but please take note that Investagrams and the SEC Team will be on full-guard against participants that abuse illiquid opportunities. We want our winners to show real trading skills that are applicable in the PSE. Abuse of intraday spread trades will NOT BE TOLERATED. These rules are set to protect against the usual ‘rinse-and-repeat’ abuses that are mostly used in virtual trading competitions like this.
- Read more about ‘rinse-and-repeat trading abuse’ here and why this is not characteristic of a realistic trading strategy.
- Any participants that have more than 10% of their profits from rinse-and-repeat wide spread, illiquid and other abusive trades will be penalized or DISQUALIFIED depending on the severity of their offenses. We will be able to validate this through our data and algorithms that verify the historical transactions of each participant.
- Any form of hacks, cheats, and abuses shall not be tolerated and will have corresponding repercussions. Suspicious behavior that may not be specified in the rules may also be flagged as ‘abusive’ trading behavior. Warning shall be sent after Investagrams has reviewed and confirmed that the actions are against the integrity of the competition. All trade records shall be verified and those who fail to follow the rules will be disqualified.
- Participants will only be given ONE (1) warning, any participant who has constantly repeated any abusive trading behaviors (whether illiquid stocks, system abuses, loophole abuses) will instantly be DISQUALIFIED. Investagrams and the SEC Team has the right to review any suspicious activity, and if the behavior is deemed inconsistent with real life trading then the said participant shall be disqualified.
- Questionable Transactions. Questionable transactions will be cross-checked through the buy and sell transaction time and the traded stock. Stocks that have more than 2% consistent gaps in the one (1) minute timeframe within the transaction period shall be deemed invalid and Investagrams and the SEC Team has the right to deduct the profits from the said transactions. It is normal to trade natural intraday moves and gaps can really happen, but if a participant is constantly trading stocks that have gaps within one (1) minute timeframe and their profits from these kinds of scenarios make up more than 10% of their total profits, then he/she will be automatically disqualified.
Fig 2. Example 1 for one (1) minute time frame gaps with buy (green arrow) and sell (red arrow) transactions
16. Trading halt. Stocks that are on a trading halt will not be tradable during the halt and will be tradable again during the announced lifting time.
17. Participant rankings. This is constantly updated every 10-minutes and automatically ranked by Investagrams system according to net profit gain/loss.
18. Deliberation period and the announcement of winners. At the end of the competition, at least one (1) week deliberation period shall be given to Investagrams and SEC’s team of moderators to verify trades and the confirmation of winners. The participants with the highest net profits will win. The resulting Top 1 to 10 participants after deliberation will be announced as the official winners.
19. Unexpected events. In the case of an unexpected event that interrupts the operations of PSE or the system of Investagrams, the competition shall be frozen and paused. Further notice shall be given and trading will resume once everything is back to normal.
20. Modification and adding of rules. Investagrams and the SEC have the right to modify the rules of the competition and add protective measures against any future abuses that may arise to ensure the integrity of the SEC InvestaCup. Announcements shall be made if there are any changes. Rest assured, we prioritize keeping the competition as FAIR as possible to all participants.
21. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. All participants are expected to have read and understood the rules and mechanics of SEC InvestaCup. These are published for the participants’ information and protection. Ignorance of these rules and mechanics is not an acceptable excuse for violation.
22. Sponsors. Apple is not involved in any way in this competition. The sponsor(s) is/are solely responsible for providing the prize(s) listed herein. The prize(s) won are not apple products, nor are they related to apple in any way. The responsibility of organizing this competition and distributing the prize(s) are the sponsors’ responsibilities. Apple does not sponsor this competition in any way.
23. Joining the SEC InvestaCup means that you agree with all the clauses mentioned above.
JOIN THE SEC INVESTA CUP 2022 TODAY
