With a hypothetical 14.6% return over a four week period, James Kim of Markham, Ont., has been named the winner of the Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner Competition, which was sponsored by Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Inc. and co-sponsored by National Bank Direct Brokerage Inc.
Kim’s performance earned him the grand prize of $10,000 in cash.
Nearly 1,200 people registered to participate in the competition, which ran from February 1 to 28. The competition used virtual online brokerage accounts, in which investors were able to buy or sell, on a hypothetical basis, any of the 76 exchange traded funds (ETFs) offered by Horizons ETFs, at any time throughout regular trading days. Each participant’s virtual trading account started with $100,000 in fantasy dollars. In aggregate, participants placed more than 18,200 trades during the course of the competition.
The runner-up in the competition, who generated a hypothetical 13.9% one-month return and earned a $5,000 cash prize, was Tacjanna Saunders of Vancouver. She was also awarded one of the competition’s four weekly prizes of $1,000.
Each of the top ten participants finished the competition with returns of 9.50% or greater.
“This is the second year that we have run the Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner Competition. This time around it was shorter, so it’s astounding to see that the top nine players were all able to generate hypothetical double-digit returns,” said Howard Atkinson, president & CEO of Horizons ETFs. “To put this in perspective, the S&P/TSX 60 Index returned only 1.65% over the same period.”
None of the competition’s winners were advisors or professional money managers. Ninety-two per cent of the participants described themselves as direct retail investors, and 62% having no previous experience trading ETFs.
In total, Horizons ETFs awarded more than $20,000 in cash prizes during the competition, including four weekly $1,000 prizes for portfolios with the best weekly returns.
The weekly winners were:
|
Week One |
Mike Chmielewski, Calgary |
6.92% one-week return |
|
Week Two |
Tacjanna Saunders, Vancouver |
6.03% one-week return |
|
Week Three |
Gary Way, Toronto |
8.33% one-week return |
|
Week Four |
Sherry Kegler, Leduc, Alta |
10.84% one-week return |