Last week’s launch of the FT’s annual stock picking contest prompted a flurry of emails from readers. The purpose of the competition is educational — we want to encourage more people to get into investing. However, some of you are (quite rightly) concerned that trying to select the best or worst performing shares in 2024 encourages investors to favour short-term gambles over investing wisely for the long term.
As a committed index fund investor myself, I know that winning a competition and devising a winning long-term investment strategy are two very different things — but I wanted to devote this week’s column to exploring this further.
To win a stock picking contest, you have to go for death or glory. We ask readers to go long or short on the five shares they think will rise or fall by the greatest amount by the end of the year.