An exciting nine weeks at CNBC saw the network's programs "duke" it out to see whose celebrity had the best stock-trading chops. And the winner is actor Jonathan Tucker who won the Trading with the Stars portion of the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. For his winning contest stock portfolio, Jonathan will get $50,000 to give to his charity of choice--The Pegasus Fund, which helps send underprivileged children to camp.
Trading with the Stars pitted CNBC program against program and 10 celebrities against each other to see which star could come up with the biggest portfolio value after "trading" with CNBC contest bucks. It was all for a good cause. Just for playing, each celebrity gets $5,000 for their favorite charity. Trading with the Stars was part of the on-going Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge--a contest to see which registered contestant can come up with the biggest stock portfolio value using CNBC contest bucks. The winner gets a cool $1,000,000.
The other celebrities playing in Trading with the Stars were actor Stephen Collins who came in second and actor Ernie Hudson, who came in third. Hall of Fame baseball player Johnny Bench came in fourth after spending much of the contest near the bottom. Comedienne and writer Judy Gold came in fifth place, while financial analyst/investor and inspiration for the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" Chris Garder came in sixth. Political analyst and commentator Lawrence O'Donnell took seventh place. Actor Willie Garson came in eighth place. Another actor, James Cromwell, currently in "Spiderman 3" came in ninth place. And world champion poker player Chris Moneymaker had a hard time living up to his name. He came in tenth-and last place.
Jonathan was on top of the celebrity leaderboard for much of the contest. He was no lower than 4th at any time. Many of the celebrities said they did call on some financial experts to help them in their choices--while actor James Cromwell said he and his advisor looked for social responsible stocks. And most agreed this was a lot of fun--and that their charities would be the winners.
Here's a final listing and the portfolio value for each celebrity. Each player started with $1M CNBC :bucks" to trade with. Only James Cromwell and Chris Moneymaker ended with less than they started.
Name Portfolio Value Charity
#1 Jonathan Tucker: $1,277,552.30 The Pegasus Fund
#2 Stephen Collins: $1,252,319.63 The Creative Coalition#3 Ernie Hudson: $1,134,863.10 The Creative Coalition#4 Johnny Bench: $1,104,261.28 Wounded Warriors
#5 Judy Gold: $1,039,103.58 Anti-Defamation League
#6 Chris Gardner: $1,033,935.00 The Glide Foundation
#7 Lawrence O'Donnell: $1,013,786.00 The Creative Coalition
#8 Willie Garson: $1,008,400.74 The Creative Coalition
#9 James Cromwell: $996,057.98 Screen Actors Guild Foundation
#10 Chris Moneymaker: $968,066.93 Wounded Warriors
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