Yes. We want Stock-Trak to be as close to the stock market as possible. Professors and Individual Investors can edit the commission fees per security type and charge users per transaction or as a percentage. Trades on mutual funds carry no commissions.

Yes, we have certificates available that you can download and distribute to your class as you see fit.

Participation Certificate Download:
Participation Certificate

Winner’s Certificate Download:
StockTrak Winner’s Certificate

Yes, each day we receive an updated list of stocks that have split or have paid a dividend. The dividends and splits are then accounted for on the website. If we happen to have missed one, please fill the form below so that we can apply it.

Jensen’s Alpha is a risk-adjusted view of a user’s portfolio. At StockTrak, we include Jensen’s Alpha as a potential ranking type for each session.

To calculate a portfolio’s Alpha, we first calculate the Beta of the portfolio itself. Many other calculations will use the weighted Beta of each stock in a portfolio, but because users buy/sell shares constantly (and we do not necessarily know the beta for many international securities that may be part of a portfolio), we calculate Beta of the portfolio itself. The formula we use for Beta is:

Beta = (Covariance of the Daily Percentage Return of the portfolio and Daily Percentage Change of a benchmark index) / (Variance of the Daily Percent Change of the benchmark index)

Then we use the Beta to calculate the portfolio’s Alpha:

Alpha = (Average Daily Percentage Returns) – ((Risk-Free Rate / 252) + ((Beta) * ((Average Daily Percentage Returns) – (Average Daily Percentage Change of a benchmark index)))

Notes:

• We exclude weekends from the Daily Percentage Returns (both of the portfolio and benchmark index)
• The benchmark index may be different for different sessions (depending on the settings chosen by the administrator during set-up), but by default it is based on the SPY ETF (a proxy for the S&P 500)
• The Risk-Free rate can also be different per session, but we use 3% by default. You can confirm the risk-free rate for your portfolio on the Portfolio Summary page.

Jensen’s Alpha is a risk-adjusted view of a user’s portfolio. At StockTrak, we include Jensen’s Alpha as a potential ranking type for each session.

To calculate a portfolio’s Alpha, we first calculate the Beta of the portfolio itself. Many other calculations will use the weighted Beta of each stock in a portfolio, but because users buy/sell shares constantly (and we do not necessarily know the beta for many international securities that may be part of a portfolio), we calculate Beta of the portfolio itself. The formula we use for Beta is:

Beta = (Covariance of the Daily Percentage Return of the portfolio and Daily Percentage Change of a benchmark index) / (Variance of the Daily Percent Change of the benchmark index)

Then we use the Beta to calculate the portfolio’s Alpha:

Alpha = (Average Daily Percentage Returns) – ((Risk-Free Rate / 252) + ((Beta) * ((Average Daily Percentage Returns) – (Average Daily Percentage Change of a benchmark index)))

Notes:

• We exclude weekends from the Daily Percentage Returns (both of the portfolio and benchmark index)
• The benchmark index may be different for different sessions (depending on the settings chosen by the administrator during set-up), but by default it is based on the SPY ETF (a proxy for the S&P 500)
• The Risk-Free rate can also be different per session, but we use 3% by default. You can confirm the risk-free rate for your portfolio on the Portfolio Summary page.

A ratio developed by Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe to measure risk-adjusted performance. The Sharpe ratio is calculated by subtracting the risk-free rate – such as that of
the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond – from the rate of return for a portfolio and dividing the result by the standard deviation of the portfolio returns.

On StockTrak, we provide an annualized Sharpe Ratio as part of our session rankings. The Sharpe Ratio on StockTrak is calculated by:

1. Calculating your average daily portfolio return, excluding weekends.
   1. This can be found from your “Graph My Portfolio” page, exporting your historical performance.
2. Subtracting the daily Risk-Free rate of your portfolio. By default, this is the “interest earned on cash” (3% annual interest for most sessions)
3. Dividing by the standard deviation of your daily portfolio returns, excluding weekends
4. And annualizing this based on 252 trading days per year

Formally written:

(Average daily portfolio return – Risk Free rate) / (Standard deviation of daily portfolio returns) * 252^0.5

Note: When exporting your portfolio historical returns, we include weekends by default. However, weekends are excluded from the Sharpe Ratio calculation. We also only begin calculating the Sharpe Ratio 5 trading days after your first trade.

The Treynor Ratio is a risk-adjusted view of a user’s portfolio. At StockTrak, we include the Treynor Ratio as a potential ranking type for each session.

To calculate a portfolio’s Treynor Ratio, we first calculate the Beta of the portfolio itself. Many other calculations will use the weighted Beta of each stock in a portfolio, but because users buy/sell shares constantly (and we do not necessarily know the beta for many international securities that may be part of a portfolio), we calculate Beta of the portfolio itself. The formula we use for Beta is:

Beta = (Covariance of the Daily Percentage Return of the portfolio and Daily Percentage Change of a benchmark index) / (Variance of the Daily Percent Change of the benchmark index)

Then we use the Beta to calculate the portfolio’s Treynor Ratio:

Treynor Ratio = ((Standard Deviation of Daily Percentage Returns) / (Beta)) * (252^.5)

Notes:

• We exclude weekends from the Daily Percentage Returns (both of the portfolio and benchmark index)
• The benchmark index may be different for different sessions (depending on the settings chosen by the administrator during set-up), but by default it is based on the SPY ETF (a proxy for the S&P 500)
• The Risk-Free rate can also be different per session, but we use 3% by default. You can confirm the risk-free rate for your portfolio on the Portfolio Summary page.

Each year Stock-Trak works with over 800 professors from across the country and over 50,000 students. Our customers include colleges, universities, community colleges, private schools, and finance and investment clubs located in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and over 20 countries around the globe. Schools using Stock-Trak in the past have included Michigan, MIT, Northwestern, Penn, Harvard, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Cornell, and University of Chicago just to name a few.

Our customer service hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET. During these hours our email support desk will respond to any technical or support question about your account. In general most inquiries are responded to within a 24 hour period.

Essentially, Stock-Trak is set up as a discount stock brokerage office. When your students register, they receive a brokerage account with an imaginary cash balance. Once their accounts are activated, they can visit our web page to make trades or email support desk if they have questions about their account. Stock-Trak brokers DO NOT give advice.

Users can trade  stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX or NASDAQ, and OTCBB (excluding pink sheets) as well as stocks on most foreign markets such as Bombay, Brazil, Euronext, Frankfort, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kuala Lumpur, London, Milan, Mexico, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sidney, Canada, Taiwan, Vienna and Zurich.

Stock-Trak also supports trading of stock options, mutual funds, the most popular corporate bonds, treasury bonds, futures and future options.

We offer three types of accounts:

• Professor accounts: these are used by professors to test out the website and to register their classes.
• Student accounts: these are used by students to participate in the trading challenge, and are subject to a one-time fee.
• Individual investor accounts: which are for all other users and are subject to a monthly recurring fee.

If you are not a professor but would like to register a group, please contact our support team as we offer private group contests for additional fees.

Once your class ends, your students will not be able to place any additional trades into their class portfolio. However, all students also have the ability to add a separate “practice” portfolio, which will allow them to continue trading as long as they wish.

No, it is not necessary to liquidate the open positions. They are still factored into all relevant calculations at the end of the trading session.

Most settings can be changed by going to Admin > Edit Class Variables. If the setting you wish to change isn’t listed there, you can call us at 514-871-2222 or email us at support@stocktrak.com with your request and we’ll be more than happy to fix it for you.

Yes, we can manually reactivate a recently ended class. However, the system was not designed for this, so reports will cease to track data after the original end date and we cannot guarantee that students’ portfolios will not be affected. If you see that your class’ end date is incorrect before it has finished, notify us ASAP. If the end date is changed before the class closes, there will be no potential problems. Issues only arise if a class has already ended.

You have the flexibility to choose whatever size portfolio you want. We recommend an initial cash balance of $100,000 for undergraduates and $1,000,000 for graduate students.

The trading period begins and ends at your discretion. When you sign your class up for Stock-Trak, you will fill out a registration form that includes the start and end date of trading, as well as other relevant information.

If you want to know what is the start/end date of your class, you can click on Admin > Class Summary Reports:

Trading Notes are comment and explanations that can be added per each trade and order. Professors can see the reasoning of an action and the comments by adding a Note. To add/view a note, users can click on “Add/View Notes” in the Order History or Transaction History.

To export all users’ trading notes, Professors can access the Class Summary Reports located under the Admin tab. An Excel file will be generated when the Professor click on “Export Trade Notes”.

We actively encourage Professors to personally participate in Stock-Trak! The Professor’s account can also be part of the class, which means the Instructor can participate as well. Also, two free demo accounts are given upon registration. While the Professor account is primarily used to register the class and to view the students’ progress, the demo accounts can be used as a benchmark or can be given to a Research/Teacher Assistant. Professors often use these account as a benchmark for students to compare their returns to that account.

Getting your class registered on StockTrak.com is simple and takes only 3 minutes. To get this process started, you will first need your Professor Account. Once you log in, you can click “Register Class” at the top of the page to set all of your class parameters.

If you have any difficulty registering your class, you can contact our support team either by email or by phone (1- 800-786-TRAK or 8725)

Walkthrough Video:

StockTrak.com can be used in any class that mentions stocks, bonds, interest rates, currencies or financial planning. Have a look at our “New Professor” section to see how other professors use Stock-Trak!

Professors are finding that Stock-Trak can play an integral role in the success of their class. Stock-Trak allows you to blend classroom theory with real world experience, tailored to the level of your students. Stock-Trak is most effective when it is used to complement your lectures. For example, many professors of introductory investments and finance courses have the students make trades in each security discussed in class (in order to avoid confusing the students, many professors also limit the securities traded to those covered in class). Professors use Stock-Trak as a tool to introduce students to the stock market and to create an experience that will be useful outside of school.

When you register as an individual investor, you input your credit card number, and this credit card is charged at the same day of every month until you choose to cancel your account. When setting up student accounts for their class, the professors select whether the service will be paid for by the students or by the school. If student payment is selected, then students will be asked to pay with their credit card upon registration. If teacher payment is selected, then after all the students register, the school will be invoiced for the entire class based on the total amount of students registered. We accept the following credit cards: Visa and MasterCard.

The length of the trading period is up to you. We recommend that the trading period begin one or two weeks after your classes have started, and that it ends at least one week before your last class. This will give your students some time to write a summary of their portfolio strategy/return.

To edit the details of an account, users can click on Dashboard > Edit Profile. In this page, users can change their password, address, etc. If you are having issues editing your profile, please do not hesitate to let us know and we will take care of it!

Students have the opportunity to purchase a second practice account for $4, which they can use both before your class starts and after it ends. These are accessible the moment your students register, and remains open afterwards as well. We created these accounts so students could learn how to use Stock-Trak and try out new trading ideas without impacting their class performance.

While we can reset student accounts at a Professor’s request, this method is not the most practical way to get your students to practice. The reset process takes time, especially if a request is made in the middle of the school semester, which is our busiest time for support issues. Furthermore, the trades made on an account are not reset, so this method of practicing can also leave your particularly enthusiastic students with no trades left for the real class.

All Professors on StockTrak.com are automatically assigned to a “Stock-Trak Professors” tournament, where they can trade against other professors and practice their trading skills. Please not that you can change the active class/tournament that your account is viewing via the “Current Class” drop-down menu.

The cost per account varies depending on the number of trades required and the length of the trading period. Each service plan corresponds to a number of trades allowed and a trading period that you choose. Please note that costs for accounts outside of North America may vary, so consult the service plans listed when registering your class.

When you log on to your professor account, you can view your class by clicking on the “Admin” tab and then on “Summary Report”. Professors will be able to see the students’ rankings and other details such as their portfolio value and account records. You can also export these details to Excel by clicking on the Excel button.

Walkthrough Video:

Give the students a disincentive for losing money or under performing the S&P 500. For example, some professors tell their class that the top 3 performing students will get 5 extra credit points on their final exam grade, and the 3 worst students will get 5 points taken off their final exam grade (the professors then give the bonus points but do NOT take off points from the poor performers–just the threat is enough to make the students stay more conservative).

Also, remember that you have a good deal of flexibility when it comes to specifying the simulation you want for your class. You can limit the number of transactions, minimum prices, or type of security. We will work with you to make sure that your students get the most out of Stock-Trak. To force students to diversify their portfolios, and to make the students trade as if it was real money, students will not be able to put “all their eggs in one basket.” Stock, option, and future positions will be limited to 25% of their initial cash balance (note this variable may be adjusted). Accounts that begin with $100,000 will only be allowed to spend $25,000 on any given stock. (Without this position limit, we have seen some students buying on margin and spending $200,000 on one stock; now they can only spend 1/4 of that on any one stock, option, or future.)

Each student account can only be linked to one class and one tournament. Once that tournament ends the account is frozen and cannot be used for trading. Therefore, student accounts cannot be linked to any other accounts and the tournament registered to cannot be changed.

The cause of this is one of two things:

• Often students mistakenly trade on their practice account and do not realize this is completely separate from their real class account. Ask your student if he/she has been logging in and see “Practice-Portfolio” in the “Select Class” drop-down menu. If so, then that is why the portfolio in their class account is empty and/or why they have 0 trades and 0% gain/loss in the rankings.
• Another possibility is that the student placed orders, but none of them have filled. This does not happen often, but it is possible if a student only placed a few orders and they were for large quantities that cannot fill due to volume. This is a common issue with option orders.

To re-open the registration page, Professors can simply send us a message using the contact form or contact us directly via Chat or Phone. The Support Team will need two pieces of information:

1. The class name
2. The new trading end date