With a hypothetical return of 17.9% over a six-week period, Anouchka Lemieux of Montreal, has been named the winner of the 3rd Horizons ETFs Biggest Winner Competition, which was promoted by Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. and sponsored by National Bank Direct Brokerage Inc. (NBDB).
Lemieux’s top portfolio performance earned her the grand prize of $7,500 in cash.
Nearly 1,400 people participated in the competition, which ran from October 7 to November 15. The competition used virtual online brokerage accounts, in which each participant started with $100,000 in fantasy dollars. Participants were able to buy or sell, on a hypothetical basis, any of the 73 exchange traded funds (ETFs) offered by Horizons ETFs, at any time throughout regular trading days.
The competition’s website received nearly 35,000 unique visitors and had more than 16,500 trades placed, making it by far the most popular Biggest Winner contest to date.
“Each time we run this competition, it gets bigger and better,” says Howard Atkinson, President of Horizons ETFs. “Participants seem to be getting better as well, since each of the top 20 portfolios this time around generated returns of 10% or more. This is a phenomenal achievement for a six-week investment period.”
Lemieux’s top trade came from a well-timed purchase of the Horizons BetaPro S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures™ Inverse ETF (TSX:HVI), which seeks to deliver the inverse performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index. She held that position for 41 days, generating a hypothetical profit of more than $9,700 for her portfolio.
None of the competition’s winners were advisors or professional money managers. Eighty-two per cent of registered participants described themselves as investors without financial advisors, and 65% said they had never traded ETFs before.