• About
• How To Play
• Challenge Rules

The Stockscores Trading Challenge is an engaging and educational way to participate in the stock market without risking your capital. Use it to develop your trading skills, develop new strategies and test your market acumen. The Stockscores Trading challenges lets you see how your trading skills compare to the community of Stockscores traders.

It is important to know that the Stockscores Trading Challenge is a stock picking game. Each trade that you make will earn a TradeScore and the individual TradeScores are compiled to create your ranking in the game. This means you can join the game at any time and still have the potential to be on the Leaderboard.

We encourage you to view the short videos shown here which explain how to play the Tradescores Trading Challenge and to understand how the TradeScores and rankings are calculated.

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The Tradescores Trading Challenge is a stock picking game. It does not consider overall portfolio performance but instead, rates the quality of your trades based on:

• reward gained for risk taken
• percentage return
• hold period.

The game is designed to be ongoing; a player who joins six months after another is not at a disadvantage. It is your most recent trades that determine your ranking in the Challenge. Since your average Tradescore ranking is based on at least 15 trades, a good ranking will need to have at least this many trades completed.

To play the game you simply need to make simulated trades using the Trade Ticket which is accessed from the Make Your Trade tab on the menu bar.

This game requires that you use stop loss points for every trade. You can put the stop loss at any price you wish but where you place it will have a significant effect on your TradeScore. Set your stop too tight and you might get taken out before the stock makes its move. Set the stop too wide and you lose valuable points in the calculation of your TradeScore. See the "Measuring Performance" area of this How to Play description for more on how the TradeScores are calculated.

Practicing in the Trading Sandbox

We strongly suggest that you practice before you play the Tradescores Trading Challenge. When placing a simulated trade, you have the choice to make that trade in the Trading Sandbox by selecting it from the pull down menu on the Trade Ticket.

Trades made in the Trading Sandbox are tracked for your own purposes but they are not included in the actual trading challenge that you are participating in.

You can see the practice trades you make in the Trade Tracker by selecting the Trading Sandbox from the pull down menu shown below:

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All trades for the Stockscores Trading Challenge are made through the Trade Ticket. This can be accessed from the Make Your Trade tab in the menu bar or from a Stock Report.

The Trade Ticket

This is the Trade Ticket. You will use this to make any trade in a Trading Challenge or the Trading Sandbox.

1. Enter Order

The first step is to enter the symbol of the stock you wish to trade. Once the symbol has been activated, there are three pull down menus to use to define your order.

• Buy the stock
• ell the stock (this will only appear if you already have a bought position in the stock)
• Short the stock
• Cover the short (this will only appear if you already have a short position in the stock)

• Market - enter the trade at the market price at the time. Although the Trade Ticket will display a delayed price quote, you will actually be filled at the real time price at the time you make the trade.
• Limit - enter the trade at a specific price that you select. For a limit order to be filled requires that the market trade at the limit price.
• Stop - enter the trade if the market comes to the stop price you enter. For example, if the stock is trading at $10 and you enter a Buy Stop at $10.50, the trade will only be entered if the stock rises in price to trade at $10.50.

This pull down menu determines how long your order is valid for. You can select until the end of today, until filled or a specific date. Once the Good Until threshold is hit, the trade will either be executed or deleted.

2. Trading Challenge Details

This is the other mandatory part of the Trade Ticket. Here you can select the Trading Challenge that would like the trade applied to and enter your stop loss price and risk multiplier.

This is the price where your trade will be exited at a loss. A stop triggers an exit if the stop loss price is hit.

The Stop Loss is required because it plays an important role in the calculation of the TradeScore. Risk management is an essential part of trading and traders will earn a higher TradeScore if they manage risk effectively. The more reward (the difference between a profitable exit price and your entry price) you earn for the risk (the difference between the entry price and the stop loss price) you take, the higher your TradeScore. This is discussed in more detail in the Measuring Performance Section of this document.

3. Journal Entry (Optional)

The Journal Entry section of the Trade Ticket is optional. It allows you to enter comments to be reviewed by yourself and to be shared in the Tradescores community. This is a good place to write your reasoning for making a trade, define the style of trade, the strategy or include an image that you want to include.

Your comments and images entered here will form an entry in your Trade Journal so that you can go back and review the trade later. You will also be able to add comments to your Trade Journal once you are in a trade.

Place Order

Once you have filled out the Trade Ticket, click on the Place Order button to execute the trade.

When the order is filled, it will be listed on the Current tab of the Trade Tracker, found in the My Trading Desk section.

Remember that your fill prices are based on the real time pricing at the time you make the trade. We are unable to display the real time quote when making the trade but you will be filled at the prevailing price in the actual stock market.

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The trades you make in the Trading Challenge or the Trading Sandbox are tracked within the My Trading Desk section.

There are four functional areas of the My Trading Desk section.

Trade Tracker

The Trade Tracker provides a table view of your Current, Closed or Cancelled trades. Here you can see the TradeScores and other performance metrics for the trades you are in or have completed.

There are two view types for the Trade Tracker which can be selected from the pull down menu in the upper left of the screen.

By clicking on the small chart icon, , yyou can bring up a small chart of the stock that was traded. If you click on the symbol of the stock, you will go to a larger and more detailed chart view.

Trade Journal

The Trade Journal is an important tool for every trader. It allows you to keep a log of your trading thoughts, chart references and trade details. Images uploaded to the Journal form part of it, to be referenced any time in the future.

Plus, the trades that you make and the comments you post to the Journal form part of the Tradescores community discussion.

Charts

The charting section of Tradescores allows you to easily monitor the charts of stocks held in your Trade Tracker. You can also set up groups of stocks, called Watchlists, and monitor those charts using either the Gallery or Slideshow views.

Analysis

The Analysis section allows you to track performance metrics for your trades and do what-if analysis for the trades you have made.

Use the pull down menus shown below to alter what trades will be considered by the analysis tool.

There are three functional areas within the Analysis tool which each provide information on the trades determined by the filters you set. The Summary area shows the profit or loss and total capital required based on the filters you set. The Breakdown provides more detailed analysis of the trades made based on the filters. Details shows the specific trades and details for each.

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The chart watch section of Tradescores allows you to create groups of stocks called Watch Lists which can be reviewed using either the Gallery or Slideshow chart viewers. You can also view the charts of Sector groups that we have created for you.

Creating a Watch List

You can create a group of stocks to be viewed together using one of the Tradescores charts viewers. Once created, these Watchlists can be accessed from the right sidebar within the Charting section.

To create a Watchlist, click on the Create new watchlist in the right sidebar as shown below. This will bring up a window for you to enter a group, subgroup and the stock symbols to form the Watchlist.

Add symbols to the box as shown. Canadian symbols require a prefix, for stocks listed on the TSX, add a T. in front of the symbol. For the TSX Venture, add a V. before the symbol.

Using the Gallery Viewer

To view a Watch List with all your charts on one page, select the name of the Watch List from the sidebar and then click on Gallery View as shown below Small thumbnails of each chart will be shown, clicking on the chart will increase its size for more detail.

Using the Slideshow Viewer

To view a Watch List one chart at a time in a slide show, select the name of the Watch List from the sidebar and then click on Slideshow as shown below. To advance through the charts, use the navigation buttons above the chart.

Sectors

We have created groups of stocks, called Sectors, for you to consider. These Sectors can be accessed from the sidebar once you are in the Charting section of Tradescores.

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The simplest way to exit a trade is to initiate an exit order from the Trade Tracker inside the My Trading Desk section.

Go to the Current trades table and click on the Exit button:

This will bring up the Trade Ticket for the stock you have selected.

The Trade Ticket

Enter Order

Choose the Order Type and Good Until selections, enter any comments or images you wish to post to your Trade Journal and then click on the Place Order button.

Once your trade has been exited, it will appear in the Closed trades table in the Trade Tracker.

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The trades you make in the Trading Challenge earn individual TradeScores but they also contribute to your overall trader rank. You can join the game at any time and have a chance to sit atop the leaderboard in the overall Trading Challenge.

How the TradeScore is Calculated

The TradeScore is a rating system for your trades, put on a scale from 0 to 100. 50% of the Tradescore is based on the percentage return that your trades earn, multiplied by an annualization factor based on the hold period using the following grid:

Hold period adjusted percentage returns earn points using the following grid:

Reward for Risk

The reward for risk is the ratio of the amount of reward you have earned for the risk you have taken on the trade. The reward is the difference between your entry and exit price. The risk is the difference between your entry and stop loss price. A trade that is bought at $10 with a stop loss at $9 has a risk of $1. If that trade is exited at $14, the reward for risk ratio is 4. 50% of the Tradescore is based on the Reward for Risk multiple using the following grid:

Example:
A trade that gains 18% in 32 days with a reward for risk of 4.1 will earn a Tradescore of 44.
18% x a hold period multiplier of 5 = 90. A 90% return earns 23 points, a 4.1 reward for risk earns 21 points for a total of 44.

How the Rankings are Calculated

Your ranking in the Trading Challenge is based on at least 15 trades that you have made. If you have made less than the minimum number of trades, your ranking will be lower because we take an average of the qualifying trades.

Trades are included using the following logic:

Closed trades (those that have been exited) are included if they have not expired based on their hold period.

• A trade with a hold period of 5 or less trading days will expire 20 trading days after its exit date.
• A trade with a hold period of more than 5 trading days but less than or equal to 20 trading days will expire 40 trading days after its exit date
• A trade with a hold period of greater than 20 trading days but less than or equal to 60 trading days will expire 120 trading days after it is exited.
• A trade with a hold period of greater than 60 trading days will expire one calendar year after the exit date.

Open trades are included in the average if:

• There are less than 15 unexpired closed trades
• If the hold period of the open trade is greater than the average hold period of the unexpired closed trades

The Average TradeScore adds up all the applicable TradeScores and divides by the total number of applicable trades using a minimum of 15 trades to calculate the average. Thus, if you have only completed 10 trades, your average will be based on 15 and be lower than the arithmetic average of the 10 trades.

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