Macquarie Warrant Hotshot Competition

For those who have been trading options, you will realize that there are a lot of virtual trading platforms out there for you to practice your strategies and polish up your skills. Unfortunately, this is not so true for warrant trader. I do my own virtual trade on a spreadsheet I created but then it lacks the real time data feed.

Macquarie is organizing the second Warrant Hotshot competition which is a real-time simulated trading contest designed to improve your knowledge of warrant investing without risking any capital. In fact, you could stand to win the S$20,000 Grand Prize if you are crowned Singapore's Warrant Hotshot.

The Hotshot contest is suitable for investors of all skill levels from newcomers to experienced warrant traders. Participants will begin the contest with S$100K Hotshot dollars and prizes will be awarded to those who are able to generate the largest profits by trading Macquarie warrants in the simulated trading environment. Warrant prices in the contest will mirror the real warrant prices on the SGX.The competition will be segmented into four main categories: dealers, investors, media and students, with participants from each category competing against each other for the weekly and group prizes. There will also be a grand prize winner for the investor with the largest portfolio at the end of the competition.The contest is scheduled to start on 14 July 2008 and will run for a period of 8 weeks. Please click here to register.

You can register under the appropriate category. For convenient sake, I have re-posted the Rules and Regulations here for your reference.

Introduction

Macquarie is pleased to present the second Macquarie Warrant Hotshot contest to investors. The contest is designed to give new and existing warrant investors the opportunity to experience trading warrants in a real-time simulated environment. Live pricing for both warrants and their respective underlying will mirror those seen on the SGX main board.

Eligibility

• Participants must be aged 21 years or above at the time of registration.
• All staff and their immediate family members of Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited (Registration Number 198702912C) and Macquarie Capital (Singapore) Pte. Limited (Registration Number: 199704430K) and their related body corporate are not eligible to receive any prizes in this Macquarie Warrant Hotshot contest.
• Participants can be of any nationality.
• Participants must be residing in Singapore.
• To be eligible for any prize, the following conditions must be met:
1. The Participant must have complied with the rules and regulations stated.
2. The Participant must have completed at least one (1) buy trade (using the virtual cash in the Hotshot Account) during the term of the contest.
3. The Participant must not have been disqualified from the contest.

Registration

• Participants can sign up for only one Hotshot Account. Participants must register their own personal particulars, and not use another person's particulars to register for the contest. Participants must not trade using another participant's Hotshot Account.
• Participants must register using their names as stated in their NRIC or Passports. NRIC or Passport numbers registered must be valid and accurate to be eligible to win a prize. Participants who fail to produce a valid form of identification will not be awarded cash prizes should they be declared winners for the respective prizes. Driver licenses will not be acceptable.
• Participants must register in their appropriate category i.e. Remisiers and Dealers, Private Investors, Media and Students. Any participant competing in the Remisiers and Dealers, Media or Student categories will be asked for proof of their employment within these industries (or proof of study for the student category) before any prizes are awarded. A letter from their respective companies and institutes of learning, along with their NRIC or passport may be required for verification. Participants working in any publishing, or broadcasting company qualify as Media participants. Participants who have doubts as to whether they qualify for a particular category may contact the warrants team at 1800 288 880. Any participant competing in the wrong category will not be eligible for any prizes.
• Participants must agree to be bound by the Rules & Regulations set by Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited.
• Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited reserves the right to change the Rules & Regulations of the contest, and will disqualify any participants breaching the rules stated herewith.
• Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited also reserves the right to disqualify any participants attempting to tamper the trading system or influence the warrant prices by manipulating the underlying prices. Any breach of market misconduct will be reported to the SGX and / or the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
  Participants can sign up for the contest anytime from 30 June 2008 9am by completing the registration form online at http://www.warrants.com.sg/.
• In case of any dispute, Macquarie Capital Securities (Singapore) Pte. Limited will have the final discretion in the award of any prizes.

Contest & Prize Details

• The contest will last for 8 weeks, starting at 9:00 am on 14 July 2008 and ending at 4:59 pm on 5 September 2008.
• Each participant will start the contest with an initial credit of 100,000 points, with every one point being the hypothetical equivalent of one Singapore dollar.
• There is a "reset" option (My Portfolio -> Personal Portfolio), where players can start over with a credit of 100,000 points, and have their previous trades deleted. They will not be eligible for the Weekly Hotshot Prize for that particular week. However, they will still be eligible for the Grand Hotshot Prize as well as the Category Hotshot Prize.
• There will be 4 categories: 1) Remisiers and Dealers 2) Private investors 3) Media 4) Students. Participants can track the names of the top 5 Hotshots in each category on the contest website.
• There will be four winners for the Weekly Hotshot Prize each week. The weekly winners will be the participants in each of the four categories with the highest percentage gain in his or her portfolio that week. The percentage gain in the portfolio is measured from the close of market on Friday that week, and comparing it to the Friday before. E.g. For the week starting 21 July 2008 and ending 25 July 2008, the percentage gains for that week will be calculated as:
  

  (P25 - P18)/ P18 x 100%
  

  where P25 is the total credits of the portfolio at the close of 25 July 2008 and P18 is the total credits of the portfolio at the close of 18 July 2008.

• For warrants over Singapore stocks, the market value of a participant's holdings will be calculated based on the warrant bid price at 4:59 pm.
• For warrants over Hong Kong stocks, the market value of a participant's holdings will be calculated based on the warrant bid price at 3:59 pm. For warrants over Hang Seng Index ("HSI"), the market value of a participant's holdings will be calculated based on the warrant bid price at 4:28 pm.
• After 8 weeks, there will also be one Category Hotshot Prize winner in each category. This will be the participant with the largest portfolio value in terms of credits from each category, regardless of when the participant joined the contest.
• After 8 weeks, there will be one Grand Hotshot Prize. This will be the participant with the largest portfolio value in terms of credits, regardless of when the participant joined the contest. Do note that the winner of the Grand Hotshot Prize will also be the winner of his or her Category Hotshot Prize, and could potentially be the winner of the Weekly Prize for the last week. However, only the cash value of the Grand Hotshot Prize will be awarded.
• The cash value for each of the prizes is stated below:
1. Grand Hotshot Prize: S$20,000 for the grand winner.
2. Category Hotshot Prize: S$3,000 per winner (total 3 winners)
3. Weekly Hotshot Prize: S$200 per winner each week (total 32 winners)
• Participants are allowed to win weekly prizes more than once.
• To be eligible for any prize, the following conditions must be met:
1. The Participant must have complied with the Rules & Regulations stated herewith
2. The Participant must have completed at least one buy trade (using the credits in the Hotshot Account) during the duration of the contest.
3. The Participant must not have been disqualified from the contest.
• In the case of a tie, the prize will be split equally among the relevant participants. For example, in relation to the Grand Prize, a tie for Grand Prize between two Participants means that both will share the cash prize of $20,000 equally between themselves i.e. S$10,000 each.
• All winners will be notified by mail at their registered address in Singapore. Prizes must be collected within a month from notification.
• If a participant's portfolio ranks among the top weekly or overall portfolios in each category in terms of performance, their registered name in their NRIC or Passports and/or their portfolio/holdings may be displayed on the contest website or in the newspaper. All Participants who win a prize shall agree to allow their names and photographs to be used in public communication medium such as, but not limited to newspaper, internet or television.

Trading Details

• Orders placed to buy or sell Macquarie warrants can be executed at any time of the day during trading hours (9:00 am - 12:30 pm, 2:00 pm - 4:59 pm). Participants will not be able to execute orders during the pre-open matching period (8:30 am - 8:59 am) and the pre-close matching period (5:00 pm - 5:05 pm).
• For warrants over Hong Kong underlying stocks, these will trade according to the Hong Kong market trading hours: 10:00 am - 12:30pm, and 2:30pm - 3:59pm. Participants will not be able to execute orders during the pre-open and pre-close matching periods also.
• For warrants over the HSI, these will trade according to the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index Futures trading hours: 9:45 am - 12:30 pm, and 2:30 pm - 4:28 pm.
• Price quotes for Hong Kong stocks will not be displayed on the contest website. There will be a link to take participants to the relevant webpage on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website, where prices are quoted with a 15 minutes delay. However, the price quotes for warrants over Hong Kong stocks will be live.
• Quotes for HSI will not be displayed on the contest website. There will be a link to take participants to the relevant webpage on the HSI website. The price quotes for warrants over the HSI will be live.
• All orders for the day will expire if they are not matched by the end of the trading day. However, orders placed after markets close will be saved in the system and matched at the first minute after the respective markets open.
• Should a participant execute a large order, such as buying 1 million warrants on the offer when there is only 200,000 on the screen, the contest trading platform will execute the order in multiples of 200,000 with a 2 second lag e.g. Buy 200,000 warrants, and the next 200,000 warrants will be bought only after a 2 second lag. This feature attempts to simulate the real world, where issuers will replenish the volume on the offer at the same price in the warrants should the underlying share price not move and there is sufficient volume in the underlying for issuers to hedge their positions.
• Orders executed in the contest will be done immediately to simulate real time trading. However, participants should note that if the bid / offer quote in the warrant is $0.20 / $0.205, and if participants wish to buy the warrant and get their order filled immediately, they should pay the offer and buy the warrant at $0.205. If they choose to bid at $0.20, their order will be filled only when the warrant ticks down to $0.195 / $0.20.
• Participants can cancel or reduce the quantity of their buy and sell order if such an order has not been filled, i.e. in the 'Pending Orders' section.
• To increase the quantity of an order, a new order entry has to be made.
• Once an order has been filled, the order cannot be cancelled or amended.
• No odd lots may be traded. The minimum volume is set at 1,000 warrants or 1 board lot.
• Short selling of warrants will not be allowed. Participants can only sell warrants which they own, as there will not be a buy-in market for participants with overnight net short positions for the duration of the contest.
• In the event that an underlying stock is placed on a trading halt, the corresponding warrants will be placed on a trading halt in the contest.
• If an order is placed for a warrant whose underlying is on a trading halt or suspension, the order will not be processed until the trading halt or suspension is lifted.
• If a Participant holds a warrant whose underlying is on a trading halt or suspension, the warrant cannot be sold until the trading halt or suspension has been lifted. If there is a trading halt or suspension on an underlying stock at the end of the contest, the last quoted bid / offer price in the warrant before the trading halt or suspension will be used for the final valuation of the warrant.
• If an underlying stock is delisted on the SGX market, the corresponding warrants will be delisted in the contest.
• If a company and its corresponding warrants are delisted, a Participant's warrants will hold no value and its value will be removed from the Participant's portfolio.

Payments & Sale Proceeds

• There are no brokerage commissions, clearing fees, GST and any other miscellaneous charges in the simulated trading environment of the contest. Participants' profits and losses will be based on the capital gains and losses from trading the warrants.
• There will be no margin financing option in the contest.
• There will be no contra period for any warrants purchased. The payable amount will be immediately deducted from the participants' 'Cash Balance'.
• When submitting a buy order, there will be a check for sufficient funds (credits) in the participant's Cash Balance. Once a buy order is completed, the required amount will be immediately deducted from the participant's Cash Balance. If the order is rejected because the participant does not have enough 'Cash Balance', the participant needs to adjust the quantity of warrants or the limit price.
• When the participant's sell order has been executed, the sales proceeds will be immediately credited into the participant's Cash Balance. Under Realized Profit/ Loss, the participant can monitor the amount of realized profits or loss, if any.

Adjustments to Warrant Terms

• Ordinary dividends are incorporated into the price of a warrant so that on the ex-dividend date when the share price falls by the amount of the forecast dividend, the warrant price should not change.
• Special dividends, capital reduction and or any other corporate measures undertaken by a company may affect the price of the warrants. Macquarie will issue an official announcement on the SGX, stating the details of the adjusted strike prices and entitlement amounts on both the SGX website and Macquarie's Warrants Homepage. The adjusted strike prices and entitlement amounts will be automatically updated in the contest.

Investment Warrants

• Investment Warrants are a new type of warrant that Macquarie introduced to Singapore early in 2008. Different from conventional 'trading' warrants currently traded on the SGX, which typically have a contract expiry of three to six months, Investment Warrants have lower exercise prices and longer expiry dates, therefore giving them lower holding costs and a lower risk profile than conventional trading warrants.
• Investment Warrants allow investors to receive net ordinary dividend equivalent payments. Thus if a company declares a 50 cent net ordinary dividend, the investor will receive the full 50 cent equivalent payment if you purchase the proportionate number of Investment Warrants to entitle you to 1 underlying share. For example if you were holding an investment warrant with a warrants per share number of 10:1 and the underlying share announced a dividend of 50 cents, each warrant that you hold would be entitled to 5 cents (i.e. 50 cents divided by 10)
• On the SGX these dividend payments are distributed to the holder within 5 days of the dividend payment date. In the contest they will be credited to the investors account on the day of the ex-dividend date as the contest will only last eight weeks while the dividend paid date may be longer than the duration of the contest.
• Special dividends, capital reduction and or any other corporate measures undertaken by a company may be adjusted in the same way as a conventional trading warrant (see section above)

All the best to those who are participating in the contest.