SMU sophomore John Tepichin created a buzz in national media when he became the youngest trader to win the weekly portion of CNBC’s Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Tepichin won the challenge with an impressive one-week gain of 64 percent. Most of Tepichin’s competitors are working adults or professional traders.
More than 500,000 adults are competing in CNBC’s “Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge.” Participants use one million CNBC Bucks to create a fake portfolio and trade on the stock market. The challenge lasts for 10 weeks, and the top investor of each week wins a $10,000 prize. At the end of the 10 weeks, the weekly winners and top 10 overall players play in a final round to compete for a prize of $1 million.
Tepichin entered the CNBC Money Challenge because he believed his skills were on par with other serious traders. He spends anywhere from two to 10 hours a day following and trading on the stock market.
“I change my investment style according to my school schedule. If I know I am going to be in school a lot one week, I don’t worry about my trades as much. If I don’t have anything to do that week, I will spend my day trading.”
Tepichin learned about stock market trading from a friend in his Cockrell-McIntosh dorm room in March 2006. He didn’t start winning money until last fall.
Tepichin credits his success to Jim Cramer’s show, “Mad Money,” and Cramer’s books. After he won the $10,000 on CNBC’s Million Dollar Challenge, he wrote Cramer a letter thanking him for his advice. The letter was then published on CNBC’s website.
Tepichin advises other student investors to watch “Mad Money” and “Fast Money” to learn how to effectively use the stock market to earn money.
“All it takes is five to six hours a week to earn a little bit of cash on the side.”
Tepichin was featured in a web cast video with Dylan Ratigan for CNBC’s Web site. The next day Sue Herrera, the host of “Power Lunch” on CNBC, interviewed him.
He said the most difficult part of the interviews was hearing the questions the anchors were asking him. “I was a little mad because I was using a broken earpiece. I’d be talking over Sue Herrera and not even realizing it,” he said.
When Herrera asked him what he’d do if he won the $1 million, Tepichin said, “I would give to my church and favorite charity, buy a gift for my mom and then put the rest into my trading account.”
Tepichin will compete in the final round of the challenge from May 14 through May 28.
“I think it’s possible I could win – especially since I don’t have school,” he said.
