Welcome to the second edition of the Investment Challenge, brought to you by  Reply, in collaboration with with Banca Generali, MIP Politecnico di Milano, CFA Society Italy and Main Street Partners.

A team of investment experts from Reply (the Titanium Team), have designed our maiden challenge for finance lovers to teach you how to invest sustainably.

The challenge involves trading 1 million $ combining profits and sustainable investment strategies.

Learning is key and that’s why Reply, Banca Generali, CFA Institute and MIP have put together some useful content on finance basics and ESG ratings, along with some tools you can use to start trading.

Initially, you’ll be challenged to invest your pretend money (1,000,000$), on the US market, maximizing your profits and sustainable choices: your profit will be weighted on the ESG Ratings provided by Main Street Partners.

After that, we’ll invite the best 100 players to the finals with the chance to win a Mac Book Pro, iPad Air, or Apple Airpods Pro.

This is an individual challenge, and registration is open until 16th April, with the online challenge starting on 19th April.

REGISTRATIONS OPENING SOON

Access exclusive contents made for you by Reply Experts, CFA Institute and MIP, to learn more on financial strategies and tools.

Have a look here at the archive of the Reply Investment Challenge. 

• Participants & Registrations
• Communication
• Reply Challenges
• Training Phase
• Investment Challenge: Online Round
• Final Round
• Winners and prizes
• Technical requirements
• Reply Titanium Team and Fair Play

• Terms&Conditions

• Whitelist Products - Excel format

Participants & Registrations

Who can take part?

The Investment Challenge is a competition open to finance and investment passionates from 16 years old, from all over the world. Financial professionals cannot take part in the competition.

There will be two challenges, one dedicated to externals and composed of an online round and finals and one dedicated to Replyers composed of an online round only.

Can I play as a team?

This is an individual challenge only.

If I register on the platform, am I registered for the competition?

No, you need to join the Investment Challenge. By registering on the platform, you’ll get updates on upcoming online challenges.

Is there a registration fee?

No, this challenge is free.

When do the registrations close?

You can register until 16th April, 21:59 CEST.

How do I change my registration details?

To update your details, log into your profile and click “Edit profile”, or follow this link.

How do I cancel my registration?

You can send your cancellation request to challenges@reply.com.

Is it an online-only challenge?

Yes, both online and final round will take place online.

Communication

How will we get updates about the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge?

You’ll get some emails before, during and after the challenge, so check your inbox regularly. If you have a question during the challenge, you can message the Reply Titanium Team via chat.

If you have technical issues on the trading platform please write to the support on the trading platform specifying your ID.

Which language(s) do I need to speak?

All communications will be in English.

Will Reply Titanium Team reply real time?

Please consider we’ll take your request in charge but not necessarily in real time.

Reply Challenges

What browsers are supported?

The platform supports the latest version of Chrome, Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari. If you’re not sure what version you have, you can check here.

Something’s wrong with the platform. What should we do?

Try reloading the page, then clearing your cache and cookies. If you’re still having problems, contact the Reply Titanium Team via chat or email challenges@reply.com.

Training Phase

Can I train for the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge?

We strongly recommend you look at the tasks in “Learning” and practice on the trading platform before the challenge starts.

How do I access the trading platform?

When registering for the Reply Sustainable Investment Challenge, you’ll get your ID on the platform and get an email with your password. You’ll need both to access the trading platform and you can access it during the training phase as many time as you want. 

How does the balance work during the registration and training phase?

From 8th March – 16th April you can trade your $1,000,000 across equities, bond, option (long position only) as much as you like. Whatever you did, we’ll restore your balance on 19th April at 15:30 CEST, when the online round officially starts.

Will there be a leader board in the training phase?

No, but you can access your wallet to check your performance.

Which financial instruments will be traded on the trading platform?

During the Training Phase, you can trade the following financial instruments: bonds, equities, options put. Only whitelisted tool will be counted for the challenge. How can you know? Check here

Which markets will be available on the trading platform?

U.S. market only.

Pay Attention! The options are European style only.

When does the U.S. market open and close?

The opening times are 9:30- 15:00 EST, which correspond to 15:30-22:00 CEST

Are all financial instruments traded in realtime?

Yes.

How to trade on the trading platform?

You’ll find most of the tutorials you need here, but you can also check on the how-to section of the trading platform.

What if I need more information about financial instruments and sustainability topic?

You can access all the educational contents in the Learning section to prepare yourself for the challenge. The materials have been created by Reply Titanium Team.

What browsers are supported on the trading platform?

• Pc: Windows 7 - IE11, Windows 8 - Firefox 52+, Windows 10 - Chrome 58+ and Edge
• Mac: OSX10.11+ - Safari 10.11+ and Chrome 58+
• Chromebook: Chrome OS61+ - Chrome 61+
• Linux Pc (Ubuntu): Linux - Chromium 55+, Firefox NOT supported
• Tablet: iOS11+ - Safari10+, Android 4.1+ - Chrome 55+
• Smartphone: iPhone - iOS11 - Safari 10+, Android 5.1+ - Chrome 56+

If you’re not sure what version you have, you can check here

Investment Challenge: Online Round

When will the challenge start?

On 19th April, when U.S. market opens at 9:30 am EST (15:30 CEST), and the challenge will officially start. You’ll have $1,000,000 to invest and Reply will publish the problem statement on the challenge platform and hints will follow every day until the end of the Challenge on April 30th.

What is a hint?

A hint is an investment suggestion or an educational tip Reply might publish on the Platform, on which players should base their sustainable investment strategy, using the financial instruments available on the Trading Platform

All inputs will trigger a notification, so that you’re always up-to-date with what’s happening on the Challenge platform.

Is it mandatory to follow the hints?

No, it is not strictly mandatory to follow each single input, but it is strongly suggested for two reasons: first it allows you to improve your sustainable investment strategy. Furthermore, we will ask you to provide a report with more details on your trades and investment strategies related to the hints if you will be among the finalists. The reason why you decided to follow or not to follow each hint shall be explained in your final report. (e.g. why in that specific market condition you deemed more opportune to do or not to do something, doesn’t matter it turned out right or wrong at the end of the competition.)

Am I supposed to invest as requested in a limited time (like 1 hour) or all along this day?

No, you can invest all day long, of course when the market is open. Mind that the U.S. stock market opens 9:30am-16:00pm EST (15:30 – 22:00 CEST).

How many trades can I place?

In total, you can do up to 350 trades during the online round.

Are there any product type or concentration limits?

Yes, you can have in your portfolio max 10% of portfolio value for Shares and Bonds and max 1% of portfolio value for Option.

Also, you can have max 10% of your portfolio value on options. There are no limits for stocks and bonds.

Do we need to close our position before the end of the challenge?
It is not necessary to close them unless you want to do so to take a market position. All open positions will be valued at the mark to market on April 30th 22:00 CEST.

When is the leader board updated?

We update the leader board daily by 13:00 CEST, to show how players are performing. We base the rankings on players’ balances, and will show daily ranking and global ranking.

Why do I see a different value in the Ranking and on the trading platform?

Trading platform only takes in account profit and losses; our Ranking is based on players’ balances and weighted on our algorithm. We will show you a daily ranking and a global ranking. The Reply ranking counts for winning the Challenge.

What are Daily and Global rankings?

Each day we show rankings based on previous day individual account balances at 22:00 CEST and weighted on our algorithm.

This means that on Tuesday 20th April you’ll see how well you performed on the first day of the challenge and so on.

You’ll find your personal ranking and the overall players’ ranking divided in:

• Daily Ranking: considers the Performance based on trading activities done during a working day (Monday to Friday), weighted on our algorithm, until 10:00 pm CEST and weighted on our algorithm.
• Global performance: considers the Performance based on trading activities, weighted on our algorithm, and done from the beginning of the Online Phase.

What happens on the Online Round weekend?

Any trading activity placed during the weekend, when market is closed, will be shown on Tuesday 27th leaderboard, together with Tuesday 26th trading activities. Below you find a scheme:

Trades From/to -  Daily Ranking report on, CEST time

• Trades from Monday 19/04 h15 / to Monday 19/04 h22 - Report on Tuesday 20/04
• Monday 19/04 h22 / Tuesday 20/04 h22 - Wednesday 21/04
• Tuesday 20/04 h22 / Wednesday 21/04 h22 - Thursday 22/04
• Wednesday 21/04 h22 / Thursday 22/04 h22 - Friday 23/04
• Thursday 22/04 h22 / Friday 23/04 h22 – Monday 26/04
• Friday 23/04 h22 - Monday 26/04 h22 - Tuesday 27/4
• Monday 26/04 h22 / Tuesday 27/04 h22 - Wednesday 28/04
• Tuesday 27/04 h22 / Wednesday 28/04 h22 - Thursday 29/04
• Wednesday 28/04 h22 / Thursday 29/04 h22 - Friday 30/04

How do you calculate the final scoring?

The goal it to award the most conscious and profitable investment strategies. You should maximize your profit investing on companies with a high ESG rating and keeping them as long as possible. Only whitelisted issuers are considered.

Each day we’ll publish on Challenges.reply.com a ranking based on your profit and the following 2 rules:

1.ESG Rating – this awards the most sustainable investment choices:

• Choose an issuer with a good ESG rating on the Whitelist and you’ll get a bonus. Choose an instrument with a bad ESG rating, but still on the Whitelist, and you’ll get a malus. Be aware that if you take a position on a put option, the logic will be the opposite.
• Be careful if you choose an issuer outside the Whitelist [LINK] (only for bonds and options). You’ll get -15% for bonds (based on market value), -500% for options (based on premium price).
• Remember, the ESG Rating adjustment is applied only if the position-holding period is at least two working days.

2. Holding period – a coefficient based on the number of days an asset is held affects the good/bad sustainable investment choices of Rule 1 (ESG Rating). In other words, the longer you keep a good/bad instrument from a sustainability point of view, the more it will affect your performance.

*only greater

**only equal to

***only minor

****lower and equal

Which financial instruments will be traded on the trading platform?

During the Training Phase, you can trade the following financial instruments: bonds, equities, options put. Only whitelisted tool will be counted for the challenge. How can you know? Check here

Where can I find the ESG ratings?

We wont publish the Main Street Partners ratings, but you can find the Whitelist Issuers. The ESG ratings required for the assessment are provided by Main Street Partners, but are not distributed to participants. Being able to look for information regarding companies sustainability is part of the challenge goal: it is up to the player to do the necessary research and make the portfolio decisions.

What if we have a question about the problem statement?

You can message the Reply Titanium Team via chat. Please consider the Reply Experts will take in charge your request asap, but it won’t be necessarily in real-time.

Final Round

Which financial instruments will be traded on the trading platform?

During the Training Phase, you can trade the following financial instruments: bonds, equities, options put. Only whitelisted tool will be counted for the challenge. How can you know? Check here

What if we have a question about the problem statement?

You can message the Reply Titanium Team via chat. Please consider the Reply Experts will take in charge your request asap, but it won’t be necessarily in real-time.

Winners and prizes

Who wins?

At the end of the final round, on May 17th by 1:00pm CEST the Reply Titanium Team will apply the final scoring algorithm and publish the provisional leader board.

The best players will be asked to provide a Report explaining their investment strategies.

What are the prizes?

At the end of the challenge, the leader board will be ‘frozen’ while the Reply Investment Experts review and validate the best investment strategies from the top-three ranked players on the leader board. The first ranked will win a Mac Book Pro, the second will win an iPad Air, and the third placed player will win Apple Airpods Pro.

The Reply Titanium Team judgement is final and indisputable when enforcing competition rules and awarding prizes. We’ll send to the winners the details of how to claim their prize.

Technical requirements

What do I need to play the Investment Challenge?

You’ll need to register for the challenge to get your trading platform ID and Password. You’ll also need to check for challenge updates regularly.

Do I need to be a finance expert?

Nope, the Learning section is there for you to help you get started with Finance Basics and Sustainable Investments.

What are the computer/technical requirements?

You’ll need your own computer with an internet connection.

Reply Titanium Team and Fair Play

Who are the Reply Titanium Team Experts?

Reply Titanium Team is a group of Reply Investment Experts who devised the challenge and the educational contents. They’re also responsible for enforcing all challenge rules. They’ll review the submissions strategy reports from players and award prizes. They may exclude any participants at any time, for not following competition rules.

What do we do if someone’s cheating or behaving badly?

We want to make training sessions and the challenge fair for everyone. So never stop others from taking part – for instance, by overloading the challenge platform, or sending files containing malware, viruses intended to interrupt, destroy or limit operation of platform, software, hardware or telecoms equipment. This will result in instant disqualification. If you’ve spotted any cheating or unfair behaviour, email challenges@reply.com

• Participants
• Challenge platform
• Problem statement
• Limitations
• Rankings, scoring, and Finals
• Questions and Communication
• Winners and rewards
• Fair play
• Reply Titanium Team

Terms&Conditions

Whitelist Products - Excel format

Participants

This is an individual international online challenge for players aged 16 or over. Professional financial advisors cannot take part in the Challenge. This challenge is open to all Replyers.

+++BREAKING NEWS+++ Deadline extended to Sunday 18th April at 11:59pm CEST.

Challenge platform

The Challenge platform will publish hints throughout the online round and notify players by email.

The platform features a leaderboard updated daily, showing how players are performing globally. There will be a separate leaderboard for Replyers.

If you wish to leave the Challenge, please email challenges@reply.com.

Problem statement

We’ll publish the problem statement and any hints on the trading platform. The hints will help you improve your sustainable investment strategy. You can use the hints to help you invest when on the trading platform.

Using your USD$1 million, you can trade each day in the US market from 15:30 CEST to 22:00 CEST.

Limitations

• You can trade shares, bonds, options (long positions only). Pay Attention! The options are European style only.
• You must consider Whitelist issuers only. !WARNING! If you take positions on bonds or options related to issuers outside the Whitelist, you’ll get a 15% penalty on the market value (bonds) and a 500% penalty on the premium price (options). You can find the list of accepted issuers here.
• Concentration limits for a single position:
  • Max 10% (of portfolio value) per each issuer/security. (Eg. not more than US$100,000 of XYZ stocks or bond)
  • Max 1% (of portfolio value) for options. (Eg. the premium paid for a call option on XYZ stocks cannot exceed US$10,000).
• Concentration limits by product type:
  • Max 10% portfolio value on options
  • No limits for stocks and bonds.
• You can make a maximum of 350 trades during the Challenge – classification phase.

Rankings, scoring and Finals

The Challenge will last from 19th April 15:30 CEST to 30th April at 22:00 CEST. Each day of the contest (starting from Tuesday 20th April to Monday 4th May), we’ll publish daily and global rankings based on each player’s balance at 22:00 CEST of the previous working day. We’ll apply an algorithm each day as explained below.

Generally, financial markets are closed on weekends, so we’ll show any trading done from Friday 23rd April 22:00:01 CEST to Monday, April 26th at 22:00 CEST on the leaderboard on Tuesday 27th April.

Each day, we’ll apply the following rules to total profit or loss, so your balance on the trading platform might differ from the leaderboard:

1.ESG Rating – this awards the most sustainable investment choices:

• Choose an issuer with a good ESG rating on the Whitelist and you’ll get a bonus. Choose an instrument with a bad ESG rating, but still on the Whitelist, and you’ll get a malus. Be aware that if you take a position on a put option, the logic will be the opposite.
• Be careful if you choose an issuer outside the Whitelist [LINK] (only for bonds and options). You’ll get -15% for bonds (based on market value), -500% for options (based on premium price).
• Remember, the ESG Rating adjustment is applied only if the position-holding period is at least two working days.

*lower and equal

In addition:

2. Holding period – a coefficient based on the number of days an asset is held affects the good/bad sustainable investment choices of Rule 1 (ESG Rating). In other words, the longer you keep a good/bad instrument from a sustainability point of view, the more it will affect your performance.

*only greater

**only equal to

***only minor

****lower and equal

The leaderboard will show global and daily ranking values:

• The global ranking value equals the sum of Profit & Loss, Dividends, and Holding Period Bonus/Malus.
• The daily ranking value equals the difference between the global ranking value of yesterday and the global ranking value of two days ago.

To go more in-depth of the Algorithm, please check the T&Cs.

We’ll invite the top 100 players to the Investment Challenge Final Round on 12-14th May.

The final round will be similar to the qualifying round and we’ll tell players about the rules via mail.

Questions and communication

You can ask the Reply Titanium Team questions during the challenge via chat. Their response might not be immediate.

Winners and rewards

On the Challenge Final Round day, we’ll freeze the leaderboard while the Reply Titanium Team reviews and validates the investment strategies of the top-three ranked players on the leaderboard.

Replyers will compete on a different leaderboard.

The top player will win a Mac Book Pro. The second ranked will win an iPad Air, and the third placed player will win Apple Airpods Pro. The Reply Titanium Team decision is final and indisputable when enforcing competition rules and awarding prizes. We’ll publish the full results and notify the winners no later than one week after the day the Challenge ends.

Replyers will receive the same prizes, but the Challenge will end after the first round.

Fair play

We expect all players to have a positive attitude during the contest. No player should prevent others from taking part – for instance, by trying to overload the challenge platform, saturating the local WiFi, or interfering with other players’ devices. This will lead to automatic disqualification. Similarly, do not disturb or distract other players. You’re not allowed to receive any external help or support.

It’s strictly against the rules – and the spirit of the Reply Challenges – for Replyers involved in the competition to help any players taking part in the external challenge.

Reply Titanium Team

Reply Titanium Team are investment experts and are responsible for enforcing all rules. They will review submissions from players and award prizes. They may exclude any player at any time if they breach any of the rules.

You can also have a look at:

FAQs