I feel like a punching bag...a certain anonymous loyal reader has beaten me senseless over the rules.

First and foremost, you can still play the easy way, as described in comment #5 of the initial contest rules. That is, you can simply pick two candidates now, I will add the resulting two default picks, and you can do NOTHING if you wish before the convention...and that strategy could *just as easily* win as someone who has a wily trading strategy to close out positions at certain times.

That said, the anonymous reader prevailed on me to make one more change, which I agreed to because it could make the contest a smidge more strategic and fun.

Instead of my "one transaction" rule, you can have four total transactions, after getting into your four initial positions tomorrow.

***However, all your transactions must be closing out your positions; you may *not* close out one position and add another.

Therefore, you can make from 0 to 4 transactions before the nominations, but again, each transaction must close out a position and no new position can be added. Each time you close out a position, you will lock in your gain or loss, leaving you with 3, 2, 1, or zero positions remaining.