Contest - Frequent Questions

To participate in the contest, you must sign in or register and opt in to join the contest. Once you join, all your eligible predictions on PredictWallStreet during market hours (9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET) will count towards the contest.

The general idea of this contest is to see how much money the stocks on which you've made predictions would have made in simulated trading.

To play, you must make at least 10 eligible predictions throughout the week. These stocks can be any that are listed and traded on U.S. exchanges, but must be at least $5 per share at the time you predict, and must have a daily volume of at least 1,000,000. Throughout the week, you may make predictions at any time during U.S. trading hours (9:30 AM - 4:00 PM ET). After-hours predictions, while valuable to our stock prediction community, will NOT be counted for the purposes of the contest. Every eligible prediction you make is entered in the contest immediately, and then evaluated at the end of the following market day.

Your contest score is based on profits that would have been made in simulated trading. When you predict, we record your prediction (UP or DOWN). Because all stock prices on our system are delayed, your prediction will be held for a period of time until the actual price at the moment you predicted - your Actual Baseline Price - is reported to us. During that period, or at any time until close of market on the day you make the prediction, you may change your prediction.

After market close on the following market day, we determine how much (in terms of percent) the stock price changed since you predicted. Here is the formula we use to score each prediction:

(Closing Price - Actual Baseline Price) / Actual Baseline Price = Prediction Score

Your score is positive if you got the direction right. That is, if you predicted UP and the stock went UP or if you predicted DOWN and the stock went DOWN.

To determine your overall score for the contest, we average all of your eligible prediction scores (percentage gains/losses). You will need to make at least 10 eligible predictions. The top scoring predictors are eligible to win our cash prizes. Good Luck!

Every week we will award 3 prizes: $300, $100 and $25 for the first, second and third prizes respectively.

Click here to join the contest, then make predictions.

A new contest starts every week. Predictions are normally tallied and judged at market closing Monday through Friday (Market holidays will mean a shorter contest week). Because this contest is based on your predictions for future days, predictions for any Monday's close must be made by 4:00 PM ET on Friday. Predictions created on the last day of the contest (Friday) will be evaluated after market close on Monday. "Unofficial" results will be made available sometime on Tuesday of the following week. "Official" results will be released after scores are verified and we are able to confirm a winner.

It means we don't have the results from your predictions yet. Standings are updated every day at 8:30 PM ET.

When you make a prediction, you are predicting the closing price for tomorrow (or the next day that the markets are open). For example, if you make a prediction on Thursday any time before 4:00 PM ET, you are making a prediction for market close Friday. These predictions will be evaluated after 8:30 PM on Friday. Note that our system is on Eastern Time (ET).

Because of discrepancies in our after-hours data, we are currently unable to record an accurate price on stocks in after-hours trading. To eliminate the potential advantage a contestant may receive with access to more accurate prices, we have decided to temporarily disqualify predictions made during off-market hours.

PredictWallStreet provides industry-standard stock quoting capability. This means that all our prices are delayed by 20 to 30 minutes. To eliminate the possibility that contestants with real-time stock quotes might be able to capitalize on stock movements that others do not know about, we have decided to record baseline prices only after we receive the actual price at the moment the prediction was made. This means that all predictions will be "held" for approximately 30 minutes to ensure a level playing field for all contestants.

Yes. Predictions created when the markets are closed are not counted in the contest. In addition, price predictions, which can be input using our Graphical Prediction Interface (GPI), are not counted in the contest. These predictions are made on a graph for a specific time and a specific price and are often for several days in the future. If you would like us to have a separate contest for these predictions, please contact us.

PredictWallStreet, Inc., processes all predictions made on our site (those for the contest, as well as others) to generate forecasts. PredictWallStreet or its affiliates may use these forecasts to make trades. Making a prediction constitutes acceptance of the terms of use and consent for PredictWallStreet or its affiliates to use your predictions and the resulting forecasts. Please see our terms and conditions for more details.

Starting May 21, 2007, ALL predictions (Initial prediction and all subsequent predictions) made on a single symbol within a Market day (9:30am ET to 4:00pm ET) will be evaluated. In other words, if a prediction is changed after the initial prediction, the difference in price between the two predictions will be evaluated as correct or incorrect and the change will count towards the player’s score on that symbol. Each prediction after the initial prediction will create a new baseline price and be evaluated as a new prediction for the following day’s close within the contest. Additionally, revised predictions made after Market close (4pm ET) will be ignored for the purposes of the contest, though they will continue to be important to users’ overall accuracy ratings within the community.

This change in contest rules was implemented to give contestants the opportunity to "lock in" strong intra-day gains or minimize losses when an initial prediction is appearing to be incorrect.

PredictWallStreet was founded on the belief that everyone has something to contribute to our Collective Intelligence. We continue to encourage all our users to share their knowledge and opinion by making thoughtful predictions on as many stocks, indices and ETFs as they wish. Whether it’s just a hunch, a premonition or an idea based on available information, it’s a "good" prediction!

However, there may be situations where some predictions and predictors are not considered useful to our community. As part of our efforts to protect the quality and clarity of our data pool and maintain a good experience for all users, we reserve the right to take action if a user or users are, in our judgment, deliberately making haphazard, conflicting or contrarian predictions in an effort to impact our data or our contest. In such cases, we may choose to eliminate specific predictions from our database without notice, disqualify users from receiving prizes and recognition in our Predict for Profit contest, or, in extreme cases, block or remove users from our community. We thank you for your continued efforts to provide useful and valuable information for all our users.

Predict Wall Street usually finalizes contests within a week or two after the close of the contest. Finalizing means that all predictions have been evaluated, outstanding issues resolved, and winners determined.

At times there are issues (i.e. missing data from vendors, adjustments to rule changes, etc.) that need to be resolved before we can finalize the contest. We reserve the right to delay finalizing contest results and subsequent payments for up to three months. Once a contest is finalized, results will not be modified even if new insights occur.

Once the contest is finalized, prizes are usually paid within 7 days. Prizes cannot be awarded to any player unless PredictWallStreet has a social security number on file for the winner. Although we make every reasonable effort to collect missing information, it is the contest winner’s responsibility to make sure we received it. Contest winners have three months after the finalizing of the contest to submit their social security number and collect their prize.