Investing & Financing: 94% Growth in Semester Stock Game :)

Two of my business classes this last semester played a stock market game on Stocksquest.com. You receive $100,000 and trades cost an even $15. You can short sell, and buy on margin (up to $50,000 initially).

From September 1 through December 9, I've grown my $100,000 to $194,049.19. I'm wondering if this is just luck, or if my choices were consistently correct. I question if the trades I made were actually feasible -- what I mean is, I bought several times when I heard of mergers on say, a Sunday night. I'd buy as much as I could of the company being bought (because it gives the price and it jumps towards that price). But when the high volume of merger announcement day trades, would these really be possible?

List of hits:
10/10/05 Buy JP (Jefferson Pilot) 492 shares @ $50.79. Sold 10/11/05 @ $52.37. $747.36 gain not including trading costs. (Okay, risking ~$25,000 to make $747.36 isn't the wisest thing, but it worked.) 2.99% gain.

10/11/05 Short AAPL (Apple) - had plummeted in after hours trading because of Nano screen issues, iirc. Short 1,300 shares @ 51.59, cover @ 48.46. Risk $67,067 to gain $4,039 including trading costs. 6.02% gain.

10/17/05 Buy ANSI (St. Jude's offered to buy at $61.25). Buy 1,366 @ $46.98. Sell @ $60.94. Risk $64,174.68 to make $19,069.36. 29.71% gain.

11/14/05 Buy GP (Koch Industries offered $48/share). Buy 2,594 @ 34.65. Sell at $47.28. Risk $89,882.10 to make $32,762.22. 36.45% gain.

11/15/05 Buy IMDC (Allergan bid @ $84/share). Buy 100 @ $74.44. Sell at $81.28. Wasn't sure about the deal so I didn't go all out on this one. Risk $7,444 to make $684. 9.18% gain.

11/21/05 Buy MRX (Buy offer @ $34.81/share). Buy 1000 @ $27.75. Sell @ $31.49. Risk $27,750 to make $3,740. 13.47% gain.

12/5/05 Buy GDT (Boston Scientific offers $72/share). Buy 825 @ $61.82. Sell @ $67.98. Risk ~$51,000 to make $5,082. 9.96% gain.

The semester competition is over, but I can keep my main account to still test my trading skills. I've still got holdings, including:
MMM - 3M - 5.49%
AMD - AMD chip producer - (1.36%)
AT - Alltel - spinning off a business unit, 1.64% gain probably selling Monday
AAPL - Apple - 3.49%
BA - Boeing - 2.14%
CMP - Compass Minerals - 2.40%
DV - Devry - 17.55%
EEFT - Euronet Worldwide - (0.33%)
EEFT - Euronet Worldwide - (11.56%)
GOOG - Google - (0.35%)
IPCC - Infinity Property & Casualty - 8.21%
ILF - Latin 40 Markets EFT - 14.58%
TRID - Trident Microsystems - 27.36%
VCG - Valor Communications Group (merging with Alltel spinoff) - .57%
and I shorted LUV (Southwest) because of the crash, never good for stock price. 0.85%

I've also noticed there don't seem to be that many good places for young people to get solid investment advice. I read Money magazine and browse Morningstar.com's free sections, but I don't see any high quality forums out there for young people. Anyone?

Sorry this was a bit long... but I am enjoying myself with the investment 'game'. Especially now that my parents gave me a large chunk of change for graduation (invested in a mutual fund), I am trying to decide how to invest it for the future.

Cheers,
Kevin

i used investopedia for a while.

I'm game for a contest. Did this sort of thing a couple years ago for economics and got I think around 70% growth. Apple was one of my main stocks too.

Sounds like fun - who's going to setup the contest?

Exactly my thoughts

It should be noted that you can't put "stops" in on the game. It is also somewhat difficult to access during school semesters during the day, as many people login trying to make changes to their accounts. But I have still found it to be a fun exercise.

Dreamworks (DWA) is up .73 or 2.9% as of right now, and surprisingly Viacom (VIA.B) is also up .46 or 1.34% as well. I also got in on some Medimmune (MEDI) action as it was announced their nasal flu vaccine is better than injections. Up 2.10 or 6.15%. I also bought some Tommy Hilfiger this morning, as they are expecting 3 bids to be announced sometime this week to buy the company. It'll fluctuate until they come out, but it may pay off. I guess we'll see. :)

Can you do contests in investopedia.com? Perhaps we should use them because they don't get so bogged down with traffic. I've used stocksquest.com in the past (I just realized it's the site I tried to use before) and the lag is AWFUL during the day, pretty much renders it useless.

You can use investopedia.com for this contest if you would like.