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Looking to top the CNBC Portfolio Challenge leader board? The following links will help; Week 10 Final Portfolio, Contest Wrap-up and Thoughts • July 18 Bonus Bucks Answers |
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July 18 CNBC Daily Bonus Bucks Trivia Questions and Answers
Squawk Box
Question: In the July 17 Mad Money post, “Oil Down, Banks Up?” which fictional realm does Mad-man stock guru Jim Cramer reference?
Answer: Bizarro World
Squawk on the Street
Question: Which “eye-catching” word or phrase is NOT found in managing editor Allen Wastler’s Two-Way Street blog post of July 8?
Answer: “perp walk”
The Call
Question: In Bob Pisani’s “ETFs: An Investor’s Primer” which fund-accessible nations are named?
Answer: Brazil
Power Lunch
Question: In the Fast Money post, “No Guts No Glory - Pt. II” what animal metaphor is used to describe value investing?
Answer: head in a lion?s mouth
Street Signs
Question: In a July 15 CNBC interview, Jim Rogers used which metaphor in discussing a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout?
Answer: Band-Aids for cancer
Closing Bell
Question: In the feature, “Sucker’s Rally? Stock Gains Likely to Be Short-Lived” which analyst used the phrase, “sucker’s rally”?
Answer: Kathy Boyle
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e-mail alerts to ensure that you receive answers to the daily Bonus Bucks trivia questions and for tips about the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.Week 10 Final Portfolio, Contest Wrap-up and Thoughts
It’s been fun, but all good things must come to an end and thus the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge is coming to a close. Our goal was to crack the Top 25 leader board, and though it looks like we didn’t manage to accomplish that, we did well enough in finishing where we did at #129 (as it stands today) with about $1.9 million assets under management. But anyone who had a positive return (after subtracting out for bonus bucks, of course) with a long-only portfolio during this market environment should give themselves a pat on the back. Looking back over the contest time frame, what made it so exciting, and frustrating at the same time, was the volatility. And that is the understatement of the past ten weeks. Intra-day gains of 10-20% were commonplace over the time span (notably in the financial sector). But the inability to capture those gains was made difficult with the rules allowing trades to be executed only at 4 p.m. (maybe CNBC should replicate the Investopedia model). So the morning gap up that faded turned into a loss and the stock that you wanted to buy moved up and you ended up paying too handsome a price when the trade finally executed by the bell. Frustrating also was the bear market. Sitting idle was tough to do, especially when there was sometimes nowhere to put your money to work. With no short sales allowed, there was rarely a way to capitalize on the downside – or even hedge against it. All in all though, it was a lot of fun and besides, you can’t ask for a better way to compete for a half mil grand prize and the chance to drive a Bentley for a weekend or get a seat at the World Series of Poker. Congrats to the winners and to our new readers, we encourage you to stick around as we get back to our normal schedule.
Subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure that you receive the latest word on the street.July 17 CNBC Daily Bonus Bucks Trivia Questions and Answers
Squawk Box
Question: In the video feature, Best Trades Now: Healthcare, Energy & More, what does Edward Perks call “a tremendous performer”?
Answer: Canadian Oil Sands
Squawk on the Street
Question: In the post, “Crazy Money: Wells Fargo Options Rocket,” Matt Nesto reported that the August $27.50 call contract gained:
Answer: 933%
The Call
Question: In Carmen Wong Ulrich’s post, How to Know If Your Money Is Safe, what is her third piece of advice to depositors?
Answer: Know the guidelines
Power Lunch
Question: In the slideshow, “10 Recession-Proof Jobs,” what is the nurse doing?
Answer: administering an injection
Street Signs
Question: Cramer Flashback: In the Feb. 21 post “Stay In The Game” what does Cramer compare the excitement of speculation to?
Answer: Cheesecake Fantasy
Closing Bell
Question: CNBC Stock Blog: On Tuesday, Jim Rogers specifically said he has been short:
Answer: FNM
Subscribe to our RSS feed or get e-mail alerts to ensure that you receive answers to the daily Bonus Bucks trivia questions and for tips about the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.Financial Sector ETF (XLF) Call Buying All the Rage
Heading into the close, the Financial Sector ETF (XLF) is higher by 10.4% to $18.96 after hitting a 52-week low yesterday of $16.77 and traders are seeking to capitalize on a probable extension of the short term swing in by racing to pick up July calls, anticipating a further move by end of this week – remember there are still earnings reports due out from Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Citigroup Thursday and Friday. It’s worth pointing out that the weights are pretty hefty for JPM and C - 7.5 % and 5.86% respectively. The action is quite speculative in that it’s mostly all premium - the option at the $19 strike trades for half a buck and the $20 strike for a dime where the ETF needs to pop another 5% for that particular option strike just to get in the money.
Here’s how it looks:
Strike Option Price Change Volume Open Interest
18.00 XLFGR.X $1.18 up 0.85 36,292 73,693
19.00 XLFGS.X $0.50 up 0.37 101,585 120,938
20.00 XLFGT.X $0.12 up 0.08 60,796 192,170
Subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure that you receive the latest word on the street.July 16 CNBC Daily Bonus Bucks Trivia Questions and Answers
Squawk Box
Question: According to the Stock Blog post, “Stocks That Gain on Hurricanes” which company had “just announced” a share buyback?
Answer: Toro Company
Squawk on the Street
Question: In the CNBC.com feature, “Can You Beat The Market With This ETF Portfolio?”, which ETF is weighted 30%?
Answer: SPY
The Call
Question: According to the Featured Slideshow, “10 World Famous Gemstones”, which ruler owned the “cursed” Koh-i-Noor diamond?
Answer: Queen Victoria
Power Lunch
Question: According to the CNBC.com special report, Powering the Planet, which is the “biggest” U.S. geothermal player?
Answer: all of the above
Street Signs
Question: According to a By The Numbers post, “Biggest One Day Drops in Oil”, how much did the S&P Energy Sector drop Tuesday?
Answer: nearly 3 percent
Closing Bell
Question: In the Cramer blog post, “How to Survive the Banking Meltdown”, which bank ranked “Almost as Bad as the Worst”?
Answer: Washington Mutual
Subscribe to our RSS feed or get e-mail alerts to ensure that you receive answers to the daily Bonus Bucks trivia questions and for tips about the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.Afternoon Reading: SEC Examining False Rumors, Short Selling
It’s about time. According to the newswires, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox told the Senate Banking Committee that the SEC will issue an order today imposing a “preborrower requirement” on short sales in mortgage-financing companies and Wall Street firms in order to prevent a practice known as naked short selling - a topic that we have frequently written about in the past in great detail. This comes just a couple days after the SEC warned broker-dealers, hedge funds and investment advisers to stop spreading false rumors and began investigating claims of illegal trading. The following is a full text of the Chairman’s testimony, just cut and paste the following link into your browser;
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1532421920080715?sp=true
Subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure that you receive the latest word on the street.Calendar of Events: A Volatile, Busy Week Has Just Begun
Mark your calendars. Here’s a brief look at some of the most crucial news, economic items and earnings events - most notably financials and tech, that we’ll see over the next couple of days that will likely dictate market action in a big way;
7-15 INTC earnings
7-16 CPI, Crude Inventories, FOMC Minutes, WFC and EBAY earnings (and on a leser note, AMR and DAL for the airline sector)
7-17 Housing starts, Initial claims, MSFT, GOOG, GILD, MER and JPM earnings
7-18 C, SLB earnings
Subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure that you receive the latest word on the street.Microsoft Call Option Activity Heavy Ahead of Thursday Earnings
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) option activity is heavy. The action is concentrated in the calls - the $25, $26 and out of the money $27.50 strike where in total about 92,000 contracts have traded. Call volume for the July options (which expire this Friday) has outpaced put volume easily by more than a 2 to 1 margin. The activity is curious because the stock has gained ground all day long, now up $.98, or 3.9%, to $26.13 despite an overall weak market and it is especially eyebrow raising because the software giant – which notably now trades for just 13x earnings, reports earnings on Thursday after the bell.
Subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure that you receive the latest word on the street.Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500 Pare Losses
Bernanke testimony that highlighted risks to growth and inflation concerns, financial sector woes led by Meredith Whitney’s bearish note on Wachovia and terrible price action yet again in Fannie and Freddie, and the market is rallying? Yep. Thanks to the price of crude oil which unexpectedly tumbled about $10 at its intra-day low, the major indices are managing to come off their lows, really catching a big break after dropping significantly with across the board 2% declines. The VIX saw a notable high of 30.81 earlier this morning, the first time above 30 since the market last bottomed in March. If there is a strong finish to today’s session, stocks seem well positioned for a multi-day rally in the short term. Finally.
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