CNBC Announces Winner of the Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Saturday, 10 December 2011 14:40

Neighbors in Dieterich, Illinois have a new millionaire in their zip code. Gary Lewis was named the Grand Prize winner of CNBC’s “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge”.

Lewis’ portfolio had the highest aggregate value at the end of the “Challenge” and managed to outperform Redwood City, California’s Scott Cole by less than 1% to claim the top spot.

While not a millionaire, as the second place winner, Cole does get to drive away with a 2012 Maserati GranTurismo Convertible Sport.

During the “Challenge,” which ran from Monday, September 19 at 9:30 a.m. ET to Friday, December 2 at 4 p.m. ET, contestants all received a virtual million U.S. dollars to fictionally trade stocks and exchange traded funds on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ Marketplace, American Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and Australia Securities Exchange as well as currencies in real-time, in up to five separate portfolios.

This year, the contest for the first time went international and was open to permanent residents of the U.S., UK and Australia.

This was certainly Illinois year as last week, students from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business claimed bragging rights in CNBC’s “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge MBA Face-Off.” Competing against MBA students from Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Ohio State, University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame and University of Texas Austin, the Booth team had the highest average at the end of the nine-week challenge and each team member won an iPad 2.