The UpDown community has thousands of college students and alumni, but up until now it’s been difficult to see how you’re doing among members from your school.

Now this is easy with the first phase of our Networks feature. If you have a verified e-mail address from a college or university, you can join a network.

Once you’re in a network, you can:

• See how all members of that network are performing on an annualized, monthly, and daily basis
• Read stock tips and picks written by members from your network
• Send messages to members of your network
• Add friends from your network

Over 1,000 schools are represented so far. Searching is easier than ever.

Go to UpDown Networks to find your school and get started.

Want some more stock tips from top UpDown members? Here is a list of the stocks bought and sold most by the top 100 investors on UpDown from market close on Friday, November 7th, through market close on Friday, November 14th.

Most Bought:

1. MS – Morgan Stanley

2. UYG – Proshares Ultra Financials

3. MER – Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.

4. QLD – Proshares Ultra QQQ

5. GGP – General Growth Properties Inc.

Most Sold:

1. SPY – SPDR Trust, Series 1 ETF

2. C – Citigroup Inc.

3. POT – Potash Corp.

4. LVS – Las Vegas Sands Corp.

5. BGZ – Direxion Shars Large BR 3X

We are half-way through November. How is your portfolio holding up?

The UpDown Team

UpDown has crossed the important 100,000 member milestone!  It’s been a rewarding journey since UpDown launched over a year ago.  Welcome and congratulations to our 100,000th member, fopso01!

I am thankful to all members who have contributed to our fast growth by inviting many of their friends -  moolanomy, lordelrond, darrenpa24, and aminash have invited the most.

We’re looking forward to improving the site and to adding exciting new features to make UpDown the best site to practice investing!

Michael, Co-Founder

Want some more stock tips from top UpDown members? Here is a list of the stocks bought and sold most by the top 100 investors on UpDown.com from market close on Halloween to market close this past Friday, November 7th.

Most Bought:

1. V – Visa Inc.

2. BAC – Bank of America Corp.

3. ABK – Ambac Financial Group

4. FXP – Proshares Ultra FTSE/X ETF

5. YHOO – Yahoo! Inc.

Most Sold:

1. SSO – Proshares Ultra S&P 500

2. WFC – Wells Fargo & Co.

3. QLD – Proshares Ultra QQQ

4. MGM – MGM Mirage Inc.

5. PMI – PMI Group Inc.

Also, if you have energy stocks on your mind, check out this insightful analysis from member “obns” on the future of First Solar (FSLR).

The UpDown Team

Congratulations to udfisher for winning the first Monthly Performance Contest for the entire UpDown Community! He masterfully navigated extremely volatile markets throughout the month and won $500 for his remarkable work.

Last night I caught up with our winner to learn more about him, his thoughts about UpDown and the new payout system, and his strategy for making money in today’s markets. Here’s what he said:

“I am a relatively new investor, only following the markets closely since joining Updown in September.  I enjoy challenges, and with the markets starting to collapse in September, I decided to challenge myself to beat the markets.  Being a student, I don’t have spare money to put into the markets for real, which is why Updown offers such an outstanding opportunity to learn some skills that I can employ once I graduate, and am able to set aside some money to put into the market.  I’m setting myself up with the challenge to continue to outperform the markets, and continue developing my market instincts.

“I am a short term value trader, typically holding stocks that I like for a few days, until they appear to have yielded what they are going to for the time being.  In October, I enjoyed big returns from stocks like General Growth Properties (GGP), AIG (in the early part of the month), and as the month ended, Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and MGM Mirage (MGM).

As far as my performance in relation to the others on Updown, I am proud of the fact that so many were able to outperform the markets.  I was impressed by the fact that all of the top 20 contestants in October beat the markets by 75%, or more.  I am humbled to lead such an impressive pack of investors for the month.

On the new payout system, I think in many ways, it is better than the previous method.  I still think it should be a little more balanced, because people who beat the market by 40%, like my brother, only get a fraction of what people who beat it by 75% get, even though both are incredible performances, and should both be rewarded.

Finally, I’d like to congratulate everyone on an outstanding October, and wish everyone a successful November!”

-Bryan “udfisher” Fisher

Here is a list of the stocks bought and sold most by the top 100 investors on UpDown from market close on Friday, October 24th, through market close on Friday, October 31st.

Most Bought:

1. AAPL – Apple Inc.
2. EEV – Proshares Ultrashort MSCI ETF
3. AIG – American International Group
4. DUG – Proshares Ultrashort Oil & Gas
5. DXD – Proshares Ultrashort DOW 30 ETF

Most Sold:

1. LVS – Las Vegas Sands Corp.
2. MS – Morgan Stanley
3. UAUA – UAL Corp.
4. FSLR – First Solar, Inc.
5. SSO – Proshares Ultra S&P 500

We hope that the list gives you some good stock tips for the coming weeks. Invest well!

The UpDown Team