Final Week, CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Readers of my blog will know that, for the last three months, I have been very engaged in CNBC's "Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge," a stock picking contest (with a million dollar grand prize). For the last two weeks now, I have had outstanding portfolios -- and have come very close to winning the weekly $10,000 prize and entering the finals. My previous blog post was about Week 8. I finished in second place that week, competing against about 1.2 million other portfolios.

So, it is very gratifying for me to see that -- in this final week of regular competition -- I have five portfolios listed in the top ten for the week (in fact, five out of the top six). And, I believe that there are now about 2 million portfolios entered into the contest -- representing hundreds of thousands of contestants.

These consistently good performances in the contest are largely attributable to the "short squeeze" strategy about which I have blogged extensively, as an invited guest blogger, on CNBC's "Million Dollar Buzz" blog site. Also, if you are reading this and would like to understand better how to pick stocks, I would recommend my Handbook for Contestants in CNBC's 2007 Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.

Of course, today is only Tuesday. Although I am currently the weekly front-runner, the final result for the week will only be known after the close of trading on Friday. In fact, it has been quite common for the early week front-runners to be overtaken by others before the week is over. So, it is good to have a detached attitude toward the contest.

I'll do my best, and if I'm lucky I might win. But, I have to say that the skills involved in stock market analysis are valuable life-skills. And, in fact, they can be worth much more outside of the contest than even the $1 million prize.

Soon this contest will be over. In fact, if I do not make it into the finals, it will be over at the end of this week. And, if I am lucky enough to proceed, it will still be over by the end of the month. In any case, life goes on.

I will return to my work as a teacher and writer, philosopher, investor, owner and co-owner of several businesses, husband, father, son, brother and friend.

The burst of inspiration that got me involved with this stock-picking contest has been a real adventure. Win or lose, I'm grateful that I listened to my inner voice on this one. (Actually, it's not as if I had much choice, my inner voice was quite strong and compelling.)

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