And The TradingClue Winner Is...

Our second TradingClue competition has come to a close, with over 38,000 views of the first clue alone. Was it harder than last time? Well, by the end only 472 people were able to successfully find their way through the clues cunningly hidden by our Cluemakers: decrypting, unpicking, and puzzling their way to the final answer.

Well done to all who entered. 🏆 🏆 🏆

We know our TradingClue hunts aren’t easy, but neither is trading, so we hope our challenge reinforced the need to do your research, to look hard, and to persevere.

From the pool of correct entries we’ve drawn the winners completely at random, we’ve double and triple checked to ensure their entry followed our terms & conditions, and the winner of A DECADE of Premium access is...

🎉 Connor_Blewett 🎉

Huge congratulations! He was one of the many who correctly solved the clues and found that the final answer was PERSEVERANCE! Well done and superb detective work – a big round of applause! 👏👏👏👏

Next up are five lucky winners of a year’s Premium access – congratulations to:

astronomicalpalentology
dirtyoldrag
hoplabubba
kurtsmock
MF_Forex

And finally, 10 winners of our coveted TradingViewmug – well done to:

aacceessoorreemmootto
austinwhite96
hadestar81
cryptoking16
dRWarHead
impossibleSeah28567
liptonfung
Nickwarm
danieltruesdale
Steelfine

Special mention to Jakenfred, who submitted the first correct answer! They also win a year’s free Premium access!

We’ll be in touch with the winners!

Now - Show me the answers! Here’s the big reveal:

We said the star of our latest promotional video had the first clue on his profile page. The star of our video is of course the legendary Leo Houlding - and there was an idea posted on his account with the second clue.


Did you find it? It’s a straightforward deciphering challenge – the letters in the answer have to be worked out to spell a phrase:

THE NEXT CLUE YOU SEEK CAN BE FOUND IN A SPARK FROM THE RISE OF THE MACHINES

So you decoded the message, but what does that mean? The answer was in our new Sparks section. Sparks are individually curated lists of symbols around all kinds of topics, designed to give you that spark of inspiration for your next trade – they cover everything from vegan food manufacturers to female-led companies. So a Spark from the rise of the machines meant the next clue was hidden on the AI stocks: Rise of the Machines Sparks list...

There’s a symbol on this page you need to take a look at. To find out which one, break this code: 46 61 63 65 62 6f 6f 6b

Hexademicalisation! A simple enough code when you know it, it can be broken with a hexadecimal to text converter - the answer is one of the symbols in the Spark list: FACEBOOK.

Over to the Facebook symbol page and it’s an old trick from our first TradingClue competition - the next clue is hidden on Facebook’s extensive timeline at September 28, 2016 – five years to the day of the competition launch. If you found it, well done! This one was in Morse Code.

Solve this, then use the answer to search for the next clue:

--- -. / .- / ... .... .. .--. / - .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / - .... .-. . . / - .. -- . ... / .- ... / -- .- -. -.-- / -... .-.. ..- . / ..-. .-.. .- --. ... / .- ... / .-- .... .. - . / ..-. .-.. .- --. ... .-.-.- / - .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / . .-.. . ...- . -. / -- --- .-. . / .--. .. -. -.- / ..-. .-.. .- --. ... / - .... .- -. / .-- .... .. - . / .- -. -.. / ..-. --- ..- .-. / .-.. . ... ... / .--. ..- .-. .--. .-.. . / - .... .- -. / .--. .. -. -.- .-.-.- / - .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / -. .. -. . / .--. ..- .-. .--. .-.. . / ..-. .-.. .- --. ... / --- -. / - .... . / ... .... .. .--. .-.-.- / .... --- .-- / -- .- -. -.-- / -... .-.. ..- . / ..-. .-.. .- --. ... / .- .-. . / - .... . .-. . ..--..

Again, any online Morse Code converter could help you decipher the text. But there’s a twist here - now you have to use your brain to answer the question:

On a ship there are three times as many blue flags as white flags. There are eleven more pink flags than white and four less purple than pink. There are nine purple flags on the ship. How many blue flags are there?

Get it? The answer is: there are 6 blue flags.

Where next? Over to the Six Flags symbol page of course, and here is the final clue, hidden on the Timeline tab.

Well done, you’re nearly there! For the final answer, solve this and submit it here.

ZNKGTYCKXOYVKXYKBKXGTIK

This one was tricky, but many of you worked it out. Like last time, the final answer needed decoding then submitting on the form. But how? It needed another common cipher – the Caesar Shift. There are plenty of websites around that should have helped you out – you needed to use the number 6 to decode the message, which read:

THEANSWERISPERSEVERANCE

Perseverance - the backbone of success.

Congratulations to everyone who got that far! And don’t worry, we counted everyone who entered a variation of the answer in the prize draw - whether it was the whole text or just the word ‘perseverance’.

Did you enjoy TradingClue 2?

We hope you did! Let us know your feedback in the comments below.