SSKILLZ1: Always enjoy your writing. If Pick 4 contest provide the performance ranking based on the original picks, then we could know who are the most consistent great stock pickers for a few months, I will likely buy some of their pickers, and thus very valuable. With trading allowed, one could choose bad stocks but still win the Pick 4 contest with swift sometimes manipulative trading, and thus has no value for me. For example, Keith Gill—the trader, and de facto meme-stock leader, who goes by Roaring Kitty, made lots of money by manipulated and traded GME, even if GME was on decline.