Take part in #shipmeme - shipping's funnest (free) game!

Announcing a weekly contest: Best guess on how three key ship indexes move week on week! 

By Ryan Skinner (email)  

So you fancy yourself a shipping superman? Can you make the best prognosis for how key freight rates will move week-on-week? Meet #shipmeme - an exciting (free) contest to make the best guess at how shipping's fortunes fare in the marketplace.

Here's how:

First, you must use twitter. Registration is free and quick. If you're not already on twitter, do it here.

Second, you must send a tweet (twitter message) by Monday at 6 P.M. GMT in exactly this format:

#shipmeme BDI ????? - CNTX ????? - BDTI ?????

Where it says "?????", you write either UP, DOWN or STAY and a number. This corresponds to how you think the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), Containership Time Charter Assessment Index (CNTX) and Baltic Dirty Tanker Index (BDTI) will develop between the close of business on the preceding Thursday and business close on the coming Thursday.

Here's a real example then:

#shipmeme BDI UP 5 - CNTX STAY - BDTI DOWN 15

That's all. It's that easy. Four winners will be announced every week! A "BDI" winner, a "CNTX" winner, a "BDTI" winner and a composite winner.

How are winners calculated?

For each index, the winner is calculated by dividing your distance from the actual index result by the actual index result. The lowest percentage error for each index is a winner. And the lowest sum of all three percentages is the composite winner.

How do I know if I've won?

Results and winners will be published via twitter (@rskin11) and at the blog 5956n.typepad.com, where there will be more analysis of the week's developments and the performance of the #shipmeme group.

What do I win?

Fame, fortune, honor, a shower of job offers from Fearnley's, Clarksons and the like, the love of your peers, a handsome plaque in the #shipmeme hall of fame (to be constructed later) and untold other prizes.

That's it?

Um, yes. Also, via the results, we may discover some interesting trends. Is combined wisdom really accurate? Does the average even out? Does the group's ability to predict movements accurately improve over time? And what other commodities might we track?

The #shipmeme benchmark

For any brokers, owners or market pros who are gutsy enough, you may take part in the #shipmeme benchmark. This is an expert pool of players, who may (or may not) perform far better than the average Joe and Jill. To be considered a #shipmeme benchmark player, send me an email and explain why you're a bigger expert than the average shipping bloke. The average cumulative #shipmeme results will be compared to actual market movements, and to the cumulative #shipmeme benchmark prognosis, each week.

NOTE!

Any #shipmeme tweets sent AFTER 6 P.M. GMT Monday and BEFORE 6 P.M. Thursday will not be assessed. #shipmeme tweets sent AFTER 6 P.M. Thursday and BEFORE 6 P.M. Monday will be counted towards that week's contest. Only one #shipmeme entry per week (the first) will count. Any evidence that people are creating mirror twitter accounts to make multiple guesses will result in disqualification. Incomprehensible, incorrectly formated #shipmeme entries will be ignored.

Comments

[James Tweed]

Great game, great initiative... Well done...

[Mark Warner]

Brillant idea and I presume that sponsorship is only a matter of time......

[Ryan]

Thanks, guys! I'm glad you like it. I thought it would be:
a) fun, and
b) educational (shipping markets and how #hashtag memes work)