| The North Carolina Stock Market Simulation for the Spring 2008 semester begins on Feb 4 th and ends on Apr 11th. Each team will begin with $100,000. |
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| Before making any trades, you must have your team number, password, and the ticker symbols of the securities you wish to trade. |
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| There are two ways to make a trade: |
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| A. North Carolina SMS home page (www.ncarolinasms.com) |
| Visit our home page to submit trades, review your team's activity, research stocks, obtain quotes, lookup ticker symbols, and review your team's ranking. This is the best way to trade because it is fast, accurate, and convenient. |
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| B. Fax Line Toll-Free: 1-888-275-0969 |
| Your teacher may fax in your trades 24 hours a day. All faxed trades must be on the form provided to your teacher. The information requested on the form must be filled in completely in dark ink. This includes your team number, password, your teacher's name, signature, and phone number with area code, as well as the ticker symbol and other information on the trade. |
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| Trading Stocks: There are four basic ways to trade stocks: buy, sell, short sell, and short cover. When buying a stock, you are taking a "long position" with the hope that the price per share will increase. When you sell a stock, you close that long position. Selling short is selling a stock that you don't own (you actually borrow the stock from the broker) with the hope that you can later buy the stock back at a lower price. When you buy the stock to pay back what you borrowed, it is called "covering" your short position. To buy or short sell a stock, specify how many shares you want, rather than how much money you wish to spend. You may not be long and short in the same stock at the same time. |
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| Trading Commodities: You may buy or sell commodities with the SMS. Commodities (such as gold, orange juice, and corn) are traded in contracts/units not by number of shares. Commodities must be traded in whole units. |
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| Trading Funds: You may buy or sell mutual funds with the SMS. Mutual funds are traded in dollar amounts not by number of shares. Mutual funds must be traded in lots of $500. Like stocks, in order to trade mutual funds you must have the ticker symbol. All mutual fund ticker symbols are five letters long ending in "X". |
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| A confirmation number will be provided on the confirmation page for every trade. Please track your confirmation numbers. |
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| Stocks: Trades made via the web page will receive 15-20 minute delayed prices if placed while the market is open (generally 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET). Trades placed after the market has closed will receive the next day's open price. Trades made via fax and received by market close will be executed at that day's closing price. Fax trades received after market close will receive the next day's closing price. |
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| Commodities: Trades made via the web page will receive end of day prices if placed while the market is open (generally 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET). Trades placed after the market has closed will receive the next day's closing price. Trades made via fax and received by market close will be executed at that day's closing price. Fax trades received after market close will receive the next day's closing price. |
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| Mutual Funds: Mutual funds are always traded at the end of day price (NAV or net asset value). Trades received before market close will be placed at the closing price for that day. Trades made after market close will receive the next day's closing price. |
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| All stock splits and all dividend payments over $0.10 will be credited to your portfolio. Splits that have been credited to your portfolio have the appearance of a buy or short sell, but the price per share is $0.00. Dividends will appear in your portfolio with a “DIV" attached to the ticker symbol. In order to receive a split and/or dividend, a team must have a current open position in the stock by the Ex-Date (The ex-date is usually two business days before the record date. It is indicated in newspaper listings with an x.). Splits and dividends will be posted in accounts by the "Ex-Date." |
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| Stocks: You may buy, sell, sell short, and cover a short almost all NYSE and NASDAQ-AMEX stocks (common and preferred) that are trading at $5.00 or more. IPOs are usually available the afternoon that the new stock starts trading on the exchanges. Stock trades may be in any whole number of shares greater than 25 (i.e., 25 share minimum but you can trade 26 shares or more). |
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| Commodities: You may buy and sell commodities. A list of the commodities available to be traded is listed on the Commodities Order Screen. All commodity trades must be made in a whole number of contracts/units. |
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| Mutual Funds: All publicly traded mutual funds may be traded. |
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- Throughout the simulation, teams may invest no more than $50,000 in any one stock.
- Teams may not buy or short sell stocks trading for under $5 per share (no penny stocks).
- Day Trading is not permitted.
- The maximum number of shares a team may trade is limited to the actual volume on the stock that day.
- You may not hold a short and a long position in the same stock at the same time.
- Mutual funds must be traded in lots of $500.
- Duplicate trades on the same day are not allowed.
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| You need to know the ticker symbol for the security before you can trade it. Please note that most local newspapers show only the abbreviation of the company name, not the ticker symbol. The Wall Street Journal and our web page are two really good sources to help you find the ticker symbols you need. |
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| A broker's commission is applied to most transactions. The commission for stock trades is a flat fee of $25 on each transaction regardless of the number of shares. If you sell one stock and buy another you will be charged two commission fees. The commission charged for all mutual funds is 1% of the purchase price. A commission is not charged when selling mutual funds. |
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| The margin requirement for the simulation is 50%. Initially, this means that since you are starting with $100,000, you may borrow another $100,000, making your total buying power $200,000. You may buy and short sell stocks on margin. |
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| Interest will be earned on all available cash balances and credited at the close of each day. During the simulation, cash balances will earn 3% interest, compounded daily. |
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| Interest will be charged on all loan balances and will be debited at the close of each day. During the simulation, loan balances will charge 8% interest. |
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| Each team is limited to 100 transactions during the trading period. Each buy, sell, short sell or short cover counts as a transaction. For example, if you buy a stock and sell another stock you will be charged with 2 transactions. |
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To be eligible for awards winning teams must meet the following guidelines:
- A. Each team must place at least One trade in at least 4 Different Weeks of the S.M.S..
- B. Each team's portfolio must have included Ownership of at least 3 Different Stocks during the 10 week trading period.
- C. Position Limit: Teams may invest no more than $50,000 in any one stock at a time.
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| You do not need to convert all of your investments to cash on the last day of the simulation. Your portfolio will be valued at the closing prices for that day. Stock-Trak, Inc. will announce the official winners of the simulation, usually within two weeks after the last day of trading. |
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- If you and your teacher believe an error has been made in your portfolio, your teacher may call 1.866.SMS.DESK, toll-free, to discuss the error.
- Please review your statements and report any problems right away.
- Trades that result from cases of stolen passwords, those submitted by a team member without the consent of his or her team mates, and/or trades that result due to human error will not be deleted from accounts.
- The management of Stock-Trak, Inc. is not responsible for trades or quote prices that are incomplete, incorrect or not received.
- The management of Stock-Trak, Inc. may use various methods (such as time and tape analysis) to resolve disputes.
- The decision made by the management of Stock-Trak, Inc is final.
- The management of Stock-Trak, Inc. has the right to adjust or delete trades that are believed to be incorrect, and the right to terminate any account that they believe may have attempted to exploit, manipulate, or sabotage any part of the SMS trading system and/or web page.
- The management of Stock-Trak, Inc. has the ultimate authority to settle disputes.
- The management of Stock-Trak, Inc.'s liability is limited to the fee paid for the service.
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