INVESTAGRAMS TRADING CUP 2024: THE GLOBAL QUEST – RULES AND MECHANICS

by Investa

RULES AND MECHANICS

This competition is OPEN TO ALL and will run for three months from April 22, 2024 to July 26, 2024

1. Registration. The competition officially begins on April 22, 2024 (Monday). You will receive a notification once you have been automatically added to the Competition Room and the Trading Cup is about to begin. Click here to join the competition.

Important notes:

  • Verification of ID is required before the competition starts. Once you are verified, you will be able to access the learning modules via InvestaUniversity, and in addition, this ID will be used to verify the winner’s identity during the awarding of prizes. Winners who did not send us a valid ID will be disqualified.
  • Only one (1) entry and account per person is allowed. If you have more than 1 account to join the competition, you will be immediately DISQUALIFIED.
  • You can change your Display Name, Username, and Profile Picture until THE DAY BEFORE the competition starts. Once the Trading Cup begins, the system will not allow you to change the above mentioned anymore.

2. Platform. The participants of Trading Cup 2024: The Global Quest will use the Virtual Trading Platform or vTrade of Investagrams which tracks the real-time price movements in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), US Market, and Crypto Market. 

To know more about Investa vTrade, click here.

3. New Markets. For the first time in Trading Cup history, we will now add the GLOBAL MARKETS, specifically the US Market and Cryptocurrency, to the competition. Everyone in the competition will have access to this. 

4. Goal. The goal is simple – trade your account for the whole duration of the competition period and aim for the highest profits. The participants with the highest rankings while playing within the rules will be recognized as winners.

5. Multi Asset Portfolio. Each participant will have three (3) portfolios, one for each market (PSE, Crypto, and US) with 100,000 in buying power each.

PSE PortfolioUS PortfolioCrypto  Portfolio
₱ 100,000$ 100,000$100,000


You may opt to only trade one market, but this will put you at a disadvantage. So, it’s best that you take advantage of opportunities in all three markets. 

6. Trading Hours. 

  • PSE Trading Hours – 9:30am to 3:00pm
  • US Market Trading Hours (in PH Time) – 10:30pm to 4:30am
  • Cryptocurrency Trading Hours  – 24 hours 

7. Tradable Asset List. Participants can only trade the listed tradable assets for this competition. The tradable assets are filtered by our system and qualify as liquid and actively traded assets. You will be able to access the whole asset list once you are added to the Competition Room. This will be announced two weeks before the competition starts.

8. Diversification. To promote diversification and risk management, maximum exposure in a single asset can only be 1/3 or 33.33% of the portfolio. This requires the participants to buy at least 3 different assets should they want to fully invest their portfolio. The system won’t allow you to allocate more than 33.33% in a single stock.

The 33.33% rule applies to all portfolios. (PSE, US, and Crypto)

9. Trader Milestone. Participants can now receive rewards during competition by hitting certain milestones in their Trading Cup journey. Milestone rewards include:

  • Exclusive Trading Cup 2024 profile badges
  • Limited edition Investa Merchandise (for distribution after the competition ends)
  • InvestaGems
  • Exclusive Trading Cup Defense recording access

To claim the Milestones:

  • The collective profit across all three portfolios must reach the specified percentage.
  • Profit checking (for milestone unlocks) happens once a day only after the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) closes, not in real time.

10. Transaction Trading Fees (Long and Short Positions). To simulate real-life trading transaction fees on trading will apply with the following fee structure:

MarketTransaction Fees(long and short)
PSE Approximately at 1.20% transaction fees (following PSE Standard comms, fees & vat on online trading)
US0.25% per transaction
CRYPTO0.10% per transaction

11. Buying and Selling Conditions (For LONG positions). Participants now have two options when transacting.

OPTION 1: The first option for transaction in this trading competition is to utilize limit orders for buying and selling specific assets. Instead of transacting at the current market price as with market orders, participants will set their own desired purchase or sale price through limit orders. This method ensures that trades are executed only when the stock price reaches the predetermined level set by the trader, offering more control over the transaction price.

It’s important to note that while limit orders provide price certainty, they do not guarantee execution, as the market may never hit the specified price. This approach is ideal for participants who prefer strategic entry and exit points, and are willing to wait for their target prices.

OPTION 2: 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.

All these orders are by default GOOD TILL CANCELED, the order will remain active until your buy/sell price is hit or until the order is canceled . Watch this tutorial.

Buy – You can buy the same asset multiple times within a day.

Sell – YOU CAN SELL THE SAME ASSET SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.

In one asset per day you can sell TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.

In one asset per day you can sell FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)

12. Buying and Selling Conditions (For SHORT positions). SHORTING is now available for this competition. The same thing applies if you want to short an asset, you can transact using the current price or set conditional orders if you can’t keep an eye on the market. We understand that many may not know the concept of shorting which is why we created a video tutorial you can watch here: LINK TO VIDEO

  • Sell – You can open a short position on the same asset multiple times within a day.
  • Buy – YOU CAN COVER YOUR SHORT POSITION ON THE SAME ASSET SIX (6) TIMES PER DAY.In one asset per day you can cover your short position TWO TIMES (2) at a PROFIT.
    In one asset per day you can cover your short position FOUR TIMES (4) at a LOSS. (cutloss)
  • FEES / COMMISSIONS: Same as long positions in the specific market.

COMPUTATION OF PROFITS: (Sell price – cover price)*shares – fees

For those who are not familiar on how to trade SHORT POSITIONS, here’s a STEP-BY-STEP guide to short-selling assets for this competition:

1. Choose your position from the market order type (long or short).

2. Upon choosing the short position, input the initial number of shares you want to sell.

Note: To short an asset, you have to SELL it first. Then to cover your position, you will need to BUY the shares back. To learn more please watch the tutorial: LINK

3. For closing the short position, select the short option in the market order type and input the number of shares you want to buy to close your short position.

 Holding period for all assets (For both LONG and SHORT positions).

  • We will be applying the twenty (20) minute time lock for taking profits to ALL ASSETS to avoid widespread and rinse-repeat trades.
  • There will be no time lock or restrictions when selling at a loss.

13. Revision of Tradable Assets. Investagrams has the right to remove any assets from the list should it suddenly become too illiquid, abusable and/or delisted. Furthermore, Investagrams may also add new assets on the tradable list as new assets become more active and tradable in the market. All changes will be announced via the InvestaGroup and the Facebook Group upon revision of tradable assets.

In such cases that an asset is to be removed, we will follow this process:

  • Investagrams shall notify all the participants via the Investagrams Platform through an automated notification blast if there are any changes in the tradable assets list.
  • If you still have the asset in your portfolio, you can sell it at any point in time at your discretion.

Note: It is the participants responsibility to stay updated on the tradable assets list.

14. Initial Public Offering (IPO). All upcoming IPOs (in the PSE) that will happen while the Investagrams Trading Cup 2024 is on-going will be added on its SECOND (2nd) trading day.

15. On Dividends that will be given during the Trading Cup 2024.

  • Stock Dividends that will be released by a company will be credited at the END OF THE DAY 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.

Dividends whether stock or cash divs are only applicable to PSE.

16. On SRO that may happen during the Trading Cup 2024. 

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 Trading Cup 2024 will not have an option to purchase additional shares from the SRO.

17. For stocks in the PSE 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. This is only applicable in the PSE. 

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%.

18. On Trading Abuses.

  • Day trading opportunities on natural market moves are normal, but please take note that Investagrams 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 and Global Markets. 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. 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. All trade records shall be verified and those who fail to follow the rules will be disqualified.
  • Any participant who has constantly repeated any abusive trading behaviors (whether illiquid stocks, system abuses, loophole abuses) will instantly be DISQUALIFIED. Investagrams 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. 
  • A warning may be given, however, if the total profits of a participant have already reached 10% from rinse and repeat abuses upon initial review, an automatic disqualification will happen with no warning. 
  • Questionable Transactions. Questionable transactions will be cross-checked through the buy and sell transaction time and the traded stock. Assets that have more than 2% consistent gaps in the one (1) minute timeframe within the transaction period shall be deemed invalid and Investagrams 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 assets 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

Fig 3. Example 2 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps

Fig 4. Example 3 for one (1) min. time frame abusable 2% gaps

Investagrams will disqualify any participant that is proven to be constantly transacting with illiquid assets with 2% one (1) minute gaps. Basically, any asset that has 2% spreads and does not really have a trend is included in this definition. Any participant that is proven to repeat this kind of behavior shall be disqualified.

19. 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.

20. Participant rankings. This is constantly updated every 10-minutes and automatically ranked by Investagrams system according to net profit gain/loss.

21. How winners will be identified. To identify our Top 40 winners for the Investagrams Trading Cup 2024, the percentage gain of all three portfolios will be taken into account. The Top 40 participants with the highest average (equal weighted) percentage gain across all three portfolios will be our winners. 

22. Top 10 Winners. Those who make it to the Top 10 will be REQUIRED to do a defense of their trading strategies used during the competition. This is basically a presentation where you will share your biggest winners, losses, and learnings during the Trading Cup. This has been the tradition of the Trading Cup for the past few years where the winners will share with the community how they made it to the top.

NO DEFENSE = NO CASH PRIZE.

23. 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.

24. Modification and adding of rules. Investagrams has 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 Investagrams Trading Cup 2024: The Global Quest. Announcements shall be made if there are any changes. Rest assured, we prioritize keeping the competition as FAIR as possible to all participants.

25. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. All participants are expected to have read and understood the rules and mechanics of Investagrams Trading Cup 2024: The Global Quest. These are published for the participants’ information and protection. Ignorance of these rules and mechanics is not an acceptable excuse for violation.

26. If you are part of the Top 40 winners, the FINAL DEADLINE to claim your cash prize is on July 31, 2024. The cash prize will not be given anymore past this date.

27. 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.

28. Prizes from Partners. Some of our partners will be giving out prizes (in cash or in kind) which may be distributed on a different timeline or date depending on the partner. But rest assured that we will make sure that they will be provided.

29. Ultimate Pioneers. The Ultimate Pioneers will get free access to the competition and the trading cup defense. A special email will be sent to all Ultimate Pioneers to claim your free slot to the competition. You will have until March 31, 2024 to confirm your participation.

30. Joining the Investagrams Trading Cup 2024: The Global Quest means that you agree with all the clauses mentioned above.

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