Join me for a bit of silly fun in the CNBC “Million Dollar” trading contest, which starts on Monday. The prize is a “million dollars” paid in an annuity, but heck, I’ll still take it if I win.

The basic rules:

  • You can only buy and sell stocks at the closing price of the day (market orders only)
  • No short selling, no options, no leverage
  • Mergers and share splits apply, but dividends don’t
  • Stocks must have a $500 million market cap as of their closing price on Friday March 2nd (you can use the Yahoo Stock Screener to find all 2,723 tickers that should be elligible for the contest)

One of those crafty folks over at Fool.com has discussed the way to win the contest… He basically points out how to win any trading contest — take the biggest risks that you can and hope that you’re one of the lucky winners. A sound, safe, low risk strategy does not win contests.

It should be very interesting to see how the first week of the contest fares if the market continues to behave like it did last week…