Portfolio League rules

What it is

A free monthly competition with fictitious money. No real money is invested, there are no cash prizes and it has no economic value. Its purpose is educational: learning to build and manage a portfolio. It is not financial advice or an investment recommendation.

Seasons

• Each season lasts one calendar month. Everyone starts with €100,000 of fictitious money.
• Sign-up is open until the 5th. Anyone who joins later plays unranked that month and enters the next season.
• If you played last month and have visited the league in the last two months, your portfolio renews itself on the 1st with the same weights.
• Portfolios are built at the close of the first trading day of the month.

Portfolio and orders

• Universe: S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 stocks with daily prices.
• At least 5 stocks, at most 25% in one and at least 90% invested. No shorts or leverage.
• Each order sets the target weights of the whole portfolio and is filled at the closing price of the next trading day. There are no intraday prices.
• You can make 3 changes a week (Monday to Sunday). Building the first portfolio of the month doesn't count, and neither does modifying a pending order.
• If a stock stops trading (merger, delisting), it turns into cash at its last price. That cash is not penalised; your next order must invest at least 90% again.
• Valuation uses adjusted closing prices: dividends count.

Scoring

Points = return of the month − 0.5 × maximum drawdown of the month, in percentage points. For example, +6% with a maximum drawdown of −4% gives 4 points. Ties are broken by return and then by who signed up first. It is calculated every night after the Wall Street close.

The big funds

The ranking includes the portfolios of big funds, built from their latest published 13F and valued with the same prices and the same formula. The 13F is published up to 45 days after each quarter, so it is a delayed snapshot. If a fund files a new 13F during the season, its portfolio changes at the next close. Only its stocks in the league universe are used; each fund shows what share of its declared portfolio they represent.

Badges and private leagues

When each official season closes, badges are awarded: champion of the month (with at least 3 players in the ranking), podium (with at least 10), top 10 (with at least 30), beat Buffett, ahead of every fund, 3 positive months in a row and first season.

Every month there is also a boss of the month: one of the big funds, announced when the season starts. Whoever finishes the month with more points than it wins its limited-edition coin, which can only be won that month.

Fund collection: every fund you beat on points when an official month closes is added to your collection. Gather 10 different funds and you win the Fund hunter badge; gather them all, Collector.

You can create private leagues of up to 50 members with an invite code; everyone plays with the same portfolio as in the general ranking.

Fair play

• One account per person. You need a verified e-mail to appear in the ranking.
• We record the IP and device in hashed form to detect multiple accounts; suspicious cases are reviewed by hand.
• Offensive aliases, or aliases that impersonate other people or companies, are changed, and accounts that cheat are excluded.

Organiser

The league is run by Blackwall Capital SL, the company behind tradingstar.io. Personal data is handled under our privacy policy and use of the website, our terms. If there are prizes in the future (for example, months of Pro), specific official rules will be published first.