And the winner is...

With the end of 2024 came the finale of the first annual Brew Markets Fantasy Investing league. We laughed, we cried, and we sent an avalanche of gifs in the communal chat.

They say great minds think alike, and the winners of the league had one thing in common: They didn’t trade much.

Our first place winner, Dan S., took the allotted $100,000 and ended up with a net worth of $493,689 over the course of the game—but what’s even more impressive is that he earned those gains with only two stocks. He bet big on aerospace manufacturer Unusual Machines, and also bought shares of Real Brokerage Inc.

Ben M. took second place, with his two investments in quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum Inc and Canadian cannabis firm High Tide giving him a net worth of $366,483 by the end of the game.

And the bronze medal goes to Heaven W., who only bought shares of one stock over the course of the entire game: space firm Intuitive Machines. Heaven ended up with a net worth of $319,297.

The lesson? Companies with the word “Machines” at the end of their name ended up being a good play. But more importantly, you don’t need to be a frantic day trader to see gains. Making a few key, smart trades and letting time do the rest of the work for you can be more effective than monitoring your portfolio day in and day out. And it certainly helps when your picks catch the market’s momentum.

Race to the bottom

Let’s give a toast to our loyal readers who caught our eye for the amount they were able to lose over the span of the game.

Many of our players would have been better off putting their $100,000 into a high-yield savings account, but J M managed to take the cake by ending the game with just $6.70. How? It turns out buying one stock only works if it's a winning pick. J M picked a biotech play, Edgio, that unfortunately went bankrupt and got delisted from the Nasdaq in September.

To our winners—congratulations! And for those of you who lost money, keep on reading Brew Markets, and next year you’ll be on top.—LB