VirtualSHARES Stock Trading Challenge

Here are all the rules you need to know about when trading in the VirtualSHARES Stock Trading Challenge competition:

GENERAL TRADING RULES

Once you have registered, your starting 'virtual' portfolio amount is $100,000 cash.
Trading commences on Monday October 20, and concludes on Friday November 28.
You may purchase ordinary shares in any of the companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
There is a 'virtual' brokerage fee of $29.95 per transaction, up to the value of $10,000. All transactions over $10,000 will incur a brokerage fee of 0.31% of the order amount. All fees are inclusive of GST.
Uninvested cash will earn an interest rate of 6.00%pa. The interest is calculated and added to your overall equity and portfolio on a daily basis, within a few hours of the market closing each day. Remember, you must have traded on the market in order to receive a ranking and be eligible for the main prize.
In order to create a diversified portfolio, you may only spend up to 20% of your portfolio value on any given stock (approx. $20,000). If your order order exceeds this limit, it will only be filled to this maximum. If you invests in a stock that rises in price and exceeds this 20% initial limit, you will not required to sell that stock. There is no limit as to the percentage of a stock that may be sold.
Your orders in any of the stocks for the number of shares cannot exceed the volume being traded for the day.
If the value of a buy order exceeds the available cash you have on hand, the order will be partially filled up to the maximum amount possible, and confirmed.
Orders will not be partially filled in any other circumstance not detailed above. All 'at market' and 'limit' orders will remain open until such time as the order request is matched or exceed by the volume being traded for any particular stock. You must adjust your order if it fall outside the trading rules to avoid order processing delays.

ORDERS AND MARKET HOURS

Buy and Sell orders can be placed at any time. The actual ASX is open for trading from 10:00am to 4:00pm EST on business days.
The competition is based on a 20 minute delayed feed. For the purpose of the competition, the market hours are approximately 10:20am to 4:35pm EST on business days.

TYPES AND PROCESSING OF ORDERS

All orders will be initially recorded as Open Orders on your portfolio page. All 'at market' orders will be filled and confirmed on a random basis between 20-35 minutes after being placed (to negate any advantage to those who may have access to live ASX quotes). Limit orders will be open for at least 20-35 minutes, and will remain as Open Orders until they are filled, when and if this Limit price is reached (unless otherwise cancelled).
You may cancel orders at any time out of market hours. While the market is open, all placed orders are subject to a freeze period of 35 minutes and cannot be cancelled in that time. You may cancel an order at any time after this period, assuming it has not been processed and confirmed. It is possible that during periods of extremely heavy trading on the ASX, some orders may take slightly longer to confirm.
Orders placed out of hours will be filled the following trading day, within 20-35 minutes of the market opening (usually between 10:00am and 10:35am EST).
You may place market or limit, buy and sell orders.
Market buy orders will be filled at the provided ASK price, based on the above delay and general volume trading rules.
Limit buy orders will remain as Open Orders, until such time as the ASK price has reached the nominated limit that you've set, based on the above delay and general volume trading rules (unless you cancel it in the meantime).
Market sell orders will be filled at the provided BID price, based on the above delay and general volume trading rules.
Limit sell orders will remain as Open Orders, until such time as the BID price has reached the nominated limit that you've set, based on the above delay and general volume trading rules (unless you cancel it in the meantime).
Stop loss orders and Shot selling are not possible in this competition.

DIVIDENDS

Dividends are provided and can be earned on held stocks in the competition.
For the purposes of this competition, dividend amounts are added to the cash holding at the end of day, on the date when the particular company goes ex-dividend. In order to receive dividends, you must have held the stock at close of trading the day prior to that of the ex-dividend date. Shares purchased on the day of the ex-dividend date do not receive a dividend payment. We will publish all upcoming companies and the dates they will be paying dividents on your Research page.

RANKINGS

Participants who have not traded will not receive a ranking in the competition and are not eligible for prizes.
Rankings will be updated on a daily basis, within a few hours of the conclusion of trading.
Your Portfolio value is calculated at the most current LAST trade price for each stock, which becomes the close price at the end of each day's trading.
You are ranked based on their total equity value and not on returns. The total equity value includes the last portfolio value including any dividends earned, and your most current cash position, including any interest earned and deduction of brokerage fees.

PORTFOLIO AND OTHER ADJUSTMENTS

The Promoter reserves the right to make any changes and corrections to portfolios at its discretion at any time.

OTHER EVENTUALITIES

Capital Returns and Bonus Shares
The competition does not take into account, or award capital returns or issue of bonus shares.

b) Company Takeovers, Share Splits/Consolidation and Other Reconstruction
Due to differing circumstances on the stock market, it is at the Promoter's complete discretion as to the course of action to be taken should any of these events occur, as to the terms received and compensation distribution, if any.

c) Suspensions, Delistings and Trading Halts
it is at the Promoter's complete discretion as to the course of action to be taken should any of these events occur, as to the terms received and compensation distribution, if any. Trading in the competition is limited by the volume of shares in any company being traded on any given day. A trading halt results in 0 volume being traded, hence market conditions are emulated in the competition whereby orders will not be completed.