Crafty ‘Challengers’ outwit CNBC game

Don Day June 10th, 2007

CNBC has been pumping up its online “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge” for the past several months. BusinessWeek notes that the gambit paid off for CNBC.com - with site traffic tripling over the course of the game. But, there’s a hiccup: BusinessWeek says a flaw allowed contestants to start the process of making a trade before the 4 p.m. ET trading day ended (companies reporting after hours earnings were top targets). A player could leave that browser window open - and see if the stock took off in after hours action. If it did, a contestant could execute the trade at the 4 p.m. close price. CNBC has promised to launch an “aggressive investigation,” and hasn’t yet announced a winner. As the name of the game implies, a million bucks are on the line.