Frequently Asked Questions

Contest statistics are updated on a daily basis and reflect account states as of the day in question. The following statistics are recorded for each contestant:

Portfolio Return

This value expresses a portfolios profit and loss with respect to their starting balance. This value is used as the ranking function for contestants.

Number of Trades

The number of trades made during the contest period. Note: BoxOptions are not reflected in this total.

Consideration of Trades

The value of trades made during the contest period. The value is expressed in GBP using the conversion rate for the account's currency to GBP at the time that statistics are computed.

Maximum Drawdown

The maximum drawdown of the contestant. The period over which the drawdown is calculated is delimited by the times when contest statistics are computed.

Sharpe Ratio

This is often regarded as a measure of risk to reward and attempts to quantify how much risk a user assumes to make their gains. This is measured as the ratio of the average interest free return as compared to the standard deviation of the interest free return. Return periods are delimited by the times when contest statistics are computed.

PR(t0,tn) = CPL(t0,tn) / NAV(t0), where:

t0

is the start date

tn

is day n of the competition

PR(t0,tn)

is the percent return of the portfolio over the period (t0,tn)

CPL(t0,tn)

is the cumulative sum of the realised and unrealised PL over the period (t0,tn)

NAV(t0)

NAV(t0) is the Net Asset Value on the account at time t0

The value of participants' portfolios in their marketindex accounts will be updated in real time based on the prevailing marketindex prices.

The contest league tables are updated once on a daily basis at midnight and top 10 results will be published on alternate days.

A final ranking will then be determined at the close of the game midnight 10th March to designate the overall prize winners. Potential prize winners with identical final scores will be ranked on the basis of the best individual weekly performance compared in descending order.

The P/L accumulated on any open trade placed before the contest begins will contribute to the CPL value used to compute your portfolio return. Note the change in P/L is not measured from the opening of the trade but rather from the start of the contest.

No, the statistics calculated by marketindex only indicate your trade volume, maximum daily drawdown, Sharpe Ratio and portfolio return. Individual trades and account details are not displayed to other traders in the contest.

If you are one of the weekly leaders you may be asked if you would like to publish your strategy for other contestants to aspire to.

You will not be able to add more virtual funds to your account for the duration of the game so make sure if you are an existing Demo account holder you top your account balance prior to the 11th of February. Under account Select Add or remove funds to top you your account balance.

If during the game you lose all of your account balance you can contact the marketindex Team who will create a new sub account for you. You then juts need to register your sub account for the game and you can start playing again.