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I have read through a number of the post around this competition as suggestions are still being made for next years competition and what the rules should be. The previous competition was canned due to the fact that you selected 5 counters for the forthcoming month and hoped like hell that you chose the right shares - the reality was that it was nothing more than a lottery. This competition was to test peoples ability to invest over a longer period, but becomes a lottery certainly from about September onwards as you try and invest your monthly allocation in a manner that it gives you good returns over a diminishing timeframe - and its all our hopes that we still create a pile of wealth to win the competition at the end of the year. So in essence funds invested from September onwards are going to go towards more riskier counters to try and optimize returns to keep you in the competition - and at the end of the day a penny stock may just win it for a competitor. I have not been in favour of the monthly allocation primarily because it encourages risk taking which is beyond the bounds of what the competitor would normally have invested in - so the focus shifts from investing to speculating and in essence that is what a trader would do. So I believe that those people who speculate more are more likely to win the competition. So we need to be aware that if the competition allows for speculation and encourages it then we should not place restrictions on buying and selling orders - another scenario that could play itself out and we need to be aware of that is - I could sit in cash the entire year and then in December I pick one penny stock share when its price goes down and then wait out the month for the share price to move by even 1 cent and you would more than likely win the competition with a handsome return - if you are not convinced look at the leaders on the board currently to get my drift
So I would advocate that the rules of the competition be that you get your annual funds up front in January and you have the rest of the year to decide how you wish to allocate those funds to various counters. Then over and above that you may have as many purchases as you wish during a month ( you may want to take up small parcels of a share over time rather than going in, in a single purchase) but when it comes to sales maybe a restriction of only 2 sales per month are permitted, this will allow those who have made a poor investment decision to unwind their loss making shares, and then look to an alternative investment. There should not be a restriction on someone who sells a particular share, from, at a later stage, buying the same share again - this is nothing more than locking in some profits. This competition is over a year so buying and selling the same counter within this period puts one at risk of violating your tax status with SARS so we should ignore this aspect in the competition due to its short run period - if we end up running a competition like this over a 3 - 5 year widow I don't think we will attract many competitors and also it may start cloning the investors real portfolio - and I don't think I want to put my portfolio onto such a public forum as there may well be a couple of SARS lurkers around. So maybe we need to try and keep the competition as simple to ensure enthusiasm and interest and not clog it up rules and regulations. Also the competitors should be permitted to buy any share they wish but warrants, CFD's and SSF's and any other derivatives are excluded
So Patrick maybe what needs to happen is that all suggestions over the last 11 pages are summarized and then we can debate the outline and rudimentary rules of the competition for next year       

I tried to re-open my account,this was the second time I tried.They said that the account cannot be re-opened, even though its under 2 years old.I have to open a new account and I have to come into the bank.I did not disclose that I was out of the country.

So Im not too sure what to do at this point.Pretty frustrating,my money has been  depreciating over these 2 years.

Any suggestions at all?Im kinda stuck.

Also,any suggestions of what to do with money that I have outside of South Africa?

Delusion - most od the big 4 banks in SA have London offices. You could try and open a South African bank account with the London office on the basis that you want remit funds out of your contract salary back home for family support or whatever. If this fails enquire whether you can open a broker account with them and use your external funds to purchase SA equities. The last option I can think of is that your could open a U/T account with one of the funds and then you could transfer the SA held capital to them. When you return to SA on holiday then you could tackle opening a bank account - i.e. you may come back here between contracts and on holiday   

Patrick - are the shares prices updating - some seem to be out of since with my live prices - AVI is one

Quote from: Aragorn on August 01, 2013, 09:12:59 am

Purchasing "negative" shares.....
Naughty, naughty.

Well spotted, noddy badge is yours!

There is no such thing as negative shares - the minimum cost would have to be 1 cent; otherwise they would be suspended or delisted - but nevertheless at a nominal price

Perhaps not todays outlook but here is the chart of the ALSI.
If she breaks above the red resistance line at 41200 on good volume then the previous high will be the target.

Orca - if it breaks through 41200 and moves to previous high are you referring to the all time high of 42016.45 on 31 5 2013 or are you referring to the immediate past high?

Investing on the share market is a bit like surfing on a board, sometimes you struggle to get out beyond the waves, but once you have the principle of surfing is to be ahead of the curve to win successfully 

Delusion - I think you are going to run into a few problems opening an account in SA - for a start you will need to go through FICA and FIAS and one of the requirements is a municple account or a SARS ITR12 schedule with you physical address on here in RSA. Secondly your bank may well enquire under what circumstances you left SA did you just up roots and move on, did you inform SARS and as I recall to be classified as a citizen you need to show that you have resided in the country (SA) for 180 days; did you apply for dual citizenship i.e. Britain and SA. Also when you left the country was it your intention to live in another country or are you on a visa which is renewable annually, if you elected to live in another country did you apply for citizenship - has it been granted. If you are a citizen of a foreign country as far as I know you can open an account in RSA but you would require certain minimum criteria to be met for the Bank to open the account. I think you really need to do two things - read up on the SARS website what you can/can't do and check with a bank here in SA whether you can indeed open an account with them while you are sitting in a foreign country and what documentation they would require. What you don't want is to not be able to move your funds around internationally and here the operative factor may well be where are the funds coming from SA or outside SA if from within SA then you may well find that these funds could be blocked and you would not be able to remit them overseas but you could use the funds for gifts, holidays and other travel related expenditure while in SA 

Very interesting article on Moneyweb today on " The performance of alternative index EFT's" written by Patrick Cairns