The Sun's Financial Diary » Contest

Winners of SmartyPig Gift Cards Giveaway

Sun — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:03:56 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Winners of SmartyPig Gift Cards Giveaway

are

From the comment list of the original giveaway post, they are George (comment #19) and Kay (comment #10). Congratulations! And also thank everyone who participated in the giveaway. I hope there will be more giveaways like this in the future

And if George or Kay decides to use SmartyPig for their saving goals, it would be great if they share their experience with us so we can all benefit from it.

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Holiday Giveaway Final Result

Sun — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:16:05 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Holiday Giveaway Final Result

So the holiday is almost over and it’s time to wrap up the giveaway started before the Christmas. Winners of the second part of the giveaway are selected randomly from 151 participants including email subscribers who automatically entered the contest. The two recipients of the two $50 Amazon.com gift cards were chosen by Random.org today are:

Congratulations to jwu97 and Jay. The gift cards will be sent out once the email addresses you provided are verified.

Again, thanks everybody who participated in this giveaway!

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Daily Giveaway’s Over

Sun — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:32:12 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Daily Giveaway’s Over

and we have our last two winners!

It was a fun week and the volatile market made the guess game even more fun. Yesterday, Chuck made a perfect a guess of the closing number of the S&P 500, 1460. Then today, when everybody least expected it, the Dow surged 200+ points. However, Steve did give his best shot when he predicted that the index would close at 13,420 when it actually finished the session at 13,450. Though it’s 30 points away the closing number, it’s enough to winner Steve a $20 Amazon.com gift card, along with Chuck who’s the winner of yesterday’s giveaway.

Now, the complete list of winner of this week’s daily giveaways:

Day 1: Super Saver, guessed 13,203, actual close of the Dow 13,167;
Day 2: Kris, guessed 13,250, actual close of the Dow 13,232;
Day 3: Chengdi, guessed 2,600, actual close of the Nasdaq 2,601;
Day 4: Chuck, guessed 1,460, actual close of the S&P 1,460;
Day 5: Steve, guessed 13,450, actual close of the Dow 13,420.

Now that the daily giveaway is over, the the second part of this event is still open. In fact, there are four more days available to participate and get a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, but you need to subscribe to the feed of this blog (see original post for details) to find out how to enter.

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Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Last Day

Sun — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:12:26 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Last Day

Well, the week-long daily giveaway is winding down and this is your last chance to win a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate. Yesterday, Chengdi Bao won the contest by making the closest call so far: 1 point from the actual closing number of the NASDAQ at 2601! Amazing. Maybe I should hire him to predict the market for me

Anyway, the last giveaway question is

What will be the closing number of the Dow Jones index on December 21, 2007?

The daily giveaway will be closed midnight tonight, but the second part is still open. To participate the second part of the giveaway and get a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, subscribe to the feed of this blog (see original post for details).

Thanks for your participation and good luck!

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Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 4

Sun — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:00:53 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 4

Two more days to go for the week-long 2007 Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Giveaway event and more and more readers are participating. So far two readers have won a little prize (a $20 Amazon.com gift card). Yesterday, Kris made the closest guess of the closing number of the Dow. His prediction was 13,250 when the index actually closed at 13,232, an error of only 18 points!

To participate today’s giveaway, please leave a comment with your best guess of

What will be the closing number of the S&P index on December 20, 2007?

Here are some clarifications on how to participate the contest:

Q: Can I participate multiple times?
A: Of course, you can as long as you have only one entry everyday. If you are lucky, you could win it all (though that’s not possible now ).
Q: Do you announce winner everyday?
A: Yes, a winner of the $20 Amazon.com gift certificate will be announced everyday and the gift card will be sent out once the email address is confirmed (you don’t want your money go to somebody else’s pocket ).
Q: Can I guess all 3 indices and win with the closest number to whatever index?
A: Sorry, you can’t. Only give your guess to what is asked for and other numbers won’t be considered (guessing all 3 indices won’t improve your odds to win ).

The giveaway will run throughout the week, so enter every day until you win. And to participate the second part of the giveaway and get a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, subscribe to the feed of this blog (see original post for details).

Thanks for your participation and good luck!

BTW, there was an error in yesterday’s feed. The problem has been fixed and feed readers should be able to participate the second part of this giveaway.

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Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 3

Sun — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:00:30 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 3

This is Day 3 of the first part of the week-long 2007 Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Giveaway event. The first two days of this giveaway went quite well and one lucky winner has already received a $20 Amazon.com gift card. To participate today’s giveaway, please leave a comment with your best guess of

What will be the closing number of the NASDAQ index on December 19, 2007?

Thanks for your participation and good luck!

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We Have Our First Contest Winner!

Sun — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:42:04 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

We Have Our First Contest Winner!

Congratulations go to Super Saver who made the closest guess of today’s closing number of the Dow Jones index in the first $20 daily giveaway contest.

Today is another volatile day of the major indices and the Dow finished the session down another triple-digit. Looking back the trading days in the past couple of months, 100+ points either way seem to the the norm of the daily movement of the Dow, which closed at 13,167 today, losing almost 173 points. Super Saver’s winning guess was 13,203, only 36 points away from the actual number!

Super Saver, please check the email you provided at the contest for the $20 Amazon.com gift card. Hope you enjoy the contest and the little prize!

There is still time to enter today’s contest, which will be closed at 12:00 pm EST and be sure to subscribe to my feed to have a chance to win a $50 gift card!

*Photo from wneo.org

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Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 2

Sun — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:00:14 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway: Day 2

This is Day 2 of the first part of the week-long 2007 Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Giveaway event. To participate, please leave a comment with your best guess of

What will be the closing number of the Dow Jones index on December 18, 2007?

And to participate the second part of the giveaway and get a chance to win a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate, subscribe to the feed of this blog (see original post for details).

Thanks for your participation!

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Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway

Sun — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:37:37 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Celebrating the Holiday with $200 Cash Giveaway

To celebrate the holiday and appreciate the support from everybody who read, comment on, and link to the posts in the past year, I am running an annual giving away of $200 Amazon.com gift certificates in the coming week, from December 16th to 22th.

The giveaway consists of two parts:

The first part is a daily $20 giveaway for guessing the closing number of the Dow Jones/S&P/NASDAQ index of the following day from December 16th to 2oth. Winner will be chosen from those who makes the closest guess. Very simple! This part is open to everybody and entries can be made by leaving a comment with a guess number to the posts published at every midnight. Enter every day until you win

The second part is, however, is available to feed readers only and the prizes are two $50 Amazon.com gift certificates. The method to participate this part of the giveaway will be delivered via the feed of this blog and winners will be chosen randomly. Existing email subscribers automatically receive an entry to the drawing.

Want to have some extra cash to get a holiday gift for yourself? Leave your guess for tomorrow (12/17/07)’s closing number of the Dow and have a chance to win a $20 gift certificate delivered to you by email tomorrow. The first contest will be closed at 12:00 pm EST tonight. And to participate the second part of the giveaway, subscribe to the feed of this blog.

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Congratulations to WH

Sun — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:52:43 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Congratulations to WH

winner of the Lunar New Year celebration give-away!

The post has received a total of 33 comments and a random generator picked comment #16, WH from My Personal Finace Blog. WH, please check your mailbox for the $28 Amazon.com gift certificate. Meanwhile, I’d to thank everybody who stopped by and left a comment, making this the best Chinese New Year celebration I had in years!

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Join the Celebration of Lunar New Year and Win a Prize

Sun — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:55:38 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Join the Celebration of Lunar New Year and Win a Prize

In a couple of hours, Lunar Chinese New Year will arrive and 2007 is the Year of

That’s right, it’s the Year of the Golden Pig, the symbol of good luck and fortune. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everybody, especially readers of this Diary, a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2007!

And to show my appreciation of all the supports (reads, comments, and links) this Diary has received in the past six months, I offer those who leaves a comment on this post before February 24th a chance to win a prize of $28 Amazon.com gift certificate. To win the prize, all you need to do is leave a comment (whatever you want to say, or let us know your zodiac symbol) with your name and email address (will not be published) before 0:00 am February 24th. On February 24th, I will pick randomly one lucky winner and the gift certificate will be sent out via email.

Finally, do you want to know your zodiac symbol?

Zodiac symbol	Birth years
	Mouse: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996
	Ox: 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997
	Tiger: 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998
	Rabbit: 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999
	Dragon: 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000
	Snake: 1929, 1941, 1953 , 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001
	Horse: 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002
	Goat: 1931, 1943, 1955 , 1967, 1979 , 1991, 2003
	Monkey: 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 , 1992, 2004 (This is the first zodiac stamp issued in China in 1980 with a face value of 8 cents. The latest market value of a signal piece of stamp is RMB 2880 to 3200, or more than $400. What investment can be that?)
	Rooster: 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005
	Dog: 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 , 1994, 2006
	Pig: 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007

Don’t want to miss future contests or give aways? Subscribe to the RSS feed or get the announcement via email delivery?

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So We Have a Winner!

Sun — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:09:29 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

So We Have a Winner!

Early this month I ran an Investor Psychology Contest for this Thanksgiving Holiday. The contest was to make a guess of today's closing value of the Dow and winner with the closest guess will get a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate that I bought with the $20 INGDirect bonus from two unknown referrals. The contest received 8 entries when it closed on November 10th. Today, as the Dow closed at 12326.95, the winner of the contest emerged and it's Robert, whose entry 12313 is the closest guess. Robert, I have emailed your the gift certificate. Please check your email.

Also I thank Trent, Finance Buff, Binary Dollar, Jonathan, everysec, Dave, and Michelle for their participations.

Finally, wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving!

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So the Contest Is Over

Sun — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 22:10:08 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

So the Contest Is Over

And we have the following entries (the projected change was based on the closing value of the Dow on November 6th, at 12105 points):

Trent	12304	Up 199 points
Fiance Buff	11989	Down 116 points
Binary Dollar	12105	No change
Jonathan	12247	Up 142 points
everysec	12232	Up 127 points
Robert	12313	Up 208 points
Dave	12200	Up 95 points
Michelle	12178	Up 73 points

It seems that we are very optimistic about the market. Let's wait till November 22nd to see how close we close we are.

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Investor Psychology Contest Reminder

Sun — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:22:47 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Investor Psychology Contest Reminder

Since now the election is (almost) behind us, at least an uncertainty is removed for the stock markets and that may make guessing where the markets will go two weeks from today a little easier. So if you do have a number on your mind and like to share with us whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about the stock markets in the very short run, you can use your number to enter the Investor Psychology Contest. Best of all, that number may put extra 20 bucks in your pocket.

Sounds sweet? Then say it here.

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Investor Psychology Contest: Make A Guess, Win A ($20) Prize

Sun — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:27:35 +0000

Original post on The Sun’s Financial Diary

Investor Psychology Contest: Make A Guess, Win A ($20) Prize

First, the question:

What’s your best estimate of the value of the Dow Jones one month from today? Next pick a high value such that you are 99% sure that the Dow Jones a month from today well be lower than that value. Now pick a low value such that you are 99% sure that the Dow Jones a month from today well be higher than that value.

This actually is the first question asked in the paper titled "Aspects of Investor Psychology", by D. Kahneman and M. Riepe (published in 1998 in Journal Portfolio Management) that I read in September. The paper, whose target readers are financial advisors, offers some insights on the decision-making of investors and the above question is to assess whether or not you are overconfident in making financial decisions. If you carry out as instructed for the above question, your probability that the Dow will be even higher than your high estimate should be 1%, and your probability that the Dow will be lower than your low estimate should also be 1%. This means that you are 98% confident that the Down Jones will be in the ranges you picked one month from today.

If you have a good judegment of your knowledge and are not biased, you can expect that for 98% chance, the closing value of the Dow falls inside your estimates, and the probability of high surprises (the real value is higher than your high estimate) is 1%, the same of low surprises (the real value is lower than your low estimate). If the Dow Jones value indeed falls inside your estimated range one month from today, you are well-calibrated in your judgments of probability and not biased toward overconfidence in making financial decisions. However, for many people, there are too many surprises. In other words, investors are often overconfident about their abilities to make unbiased judgments.

Now, the contest:

Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog currently has a Thanksgiving giveaway contest. The contest is to leave a comment with a number between 0 and 99 and the winner will be picked by matching the last two digits after the decimal point of the closing value of Dow Jones Industrial Average on November 22nd against your entry and if you make the closest guess, you will be the first to choose the prize.

Now I'd like to add a little twist to Jonathan's contest and offer my own prize. Based on yesterday's closing value of DJIA (12105.55), make a guess of what the value will be when the market closes on November 22nd and leave the integer part of your guess here (and don't forget to give Jonathan the last two digits he wants, the number may be small but the prize could be big :D). The closest guess will get a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, which is as good as $20 cash except that you can only spend it at Amazon.com (the prize money is from the two INGDirect sign on bonuses I got last month from unknown referals). If there is a draw, the first to comment will be the winner. Because of the nature of this contest, your entry must be received before the market close (4:00 pm) of this Friday, November 10th, to be eligible for the prize.

So make a guess, leave your number here before 4:00 pm, November 10th, then come back on November 22nd to see whether you are overconfident or not, and win a prize!

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