len: margin rules vary from broker to broker, so $5 is not necessarily a threshold of any major significance in that regard. However that's certainly a very remarkable differential in performance based on stock price .... very interesting and statistically significant, but difficult to explain.
How did you derive those figures ? Is it from the first day to the last day of the contest, regardless of when the stock was introduced ?
I can't believe that price is so predictive of future performance in the broader market, but perhaps it's a pattern somehow unique to our contests ....