Official Game Rules

Version 1.10 - effective August 27, 2026

Diamond Hands Fantasy (DHF) is a fantasy game in which players draft publicly traded stocks and earn simulated fantasy points from market-price movement. DHF does not buy or sell securities, connect to brokerage accounts, provide investment advice, or award cash or cash-value prizes.

These rules are the controlling player-facing description of standard DHF leagues. In-app quick rules summarize this document. When short copy and this document differ, this document controls, subject to the Terms of Service.

1. Eligibility and league access

• Players must be at least 13. A player under 18 must have permission from a parent or guardian.
• Standard league sizes are 8, 10, or 12 teams.
• Pending leagues are open and browsable by signed-in players. Each league also has a shareable invite code that opens its join page directly.
• A league must be full before its draft can begin. A host may fill remaining seats with computer-managed teams.

2. Virtual coins

• Each new account begins with 100 free virtual coins. One automatic daily login claim adds 10 coins per Eastern calendar day.
• A league may require 0 to 100 virtual coins to join. The host and every human joiner pay the same displayed amount. Computer-managed teams pay zero.
• A non-host who leaves before the draft starts receives exactly the amount that membership paid. A host cannot leave their own pending lobby through self-service.
• A league's coin entry amount cannot change after creation.
• Coins cannot be purchased, transferred, cashed out, redeemed, or awarded as a cash-value prize. League results award standings and bragging rights only.

3. Draft

• The draft has 12 snake-draft rounds. The initial order is randomized; the direction reverses each round.
• A league configured for automatic start begins as soon as it is full. A scheduled league begins at or after its selected time once it is full.
• A human manager has 90 visible seconds to pick. The server allows a short processing grace period before autopicking.
• An autopick takes the manager's oldest available queued stock first, then the highest-market-cap available stock. Computer-managed teams pick automatically.
• Every stock is unique within its league. Draft picks are final and the draft is not rewound.

4. Draftable stocks and corporate actions

• The standard universe combines the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and a DHF-curated list of high-interest stocks. Overlapping constituents appear once.
• DHF may update the universe as index membership and the curated list change. A stock removed from the active universe cannot be newly drafted or added.
• A previously rostered inactive stock remains on that roster until dropped. It scores only on sessions for which DHF receives a valid official bar.
• DHF uses split-adjusted price history so a stock split does not create a false scoring move. Cash dividends are not separately credited as fantasy points.
• For ticker changes, mergers, splits, suspensions, halts, delistings, or other corporate actions, DHF may map or retire a stock to preserve fair scoring. A result remains provisional while required data is unavailable.

5. Rosters and executive positions

Each team carries exactly 12 stocks: nine scoring starters and three non-scoring Interns. A free-agent move always adds one stock and drops one stock, so roster size remains 12.

• CEO, CFO, COO, and CTO are the Core Four.
• Interns are the bench and score at 0x until promoted into a starting slot.
• A stock may be moved among eligible slots only while the lineup is open. Slot changes do not spend a free-agent add.

6. Scoring

For each scored session: points = ((current official close - previous official close) / previous official close x 100) x 10 x position multiplier. A negative move produces negative points.

The close-to-close move includes the overnight or pre-market gap before the session. A stock in a scoring slot when the lineup locks at the market open receives that session's entire close-to-close move. Live extended-hours quotes may be shown for planning but do not become final scoring prices.

• Daily: one trading session is one matchup window.
• Weekly: each trading session is scored separately from its previous official close and the daily results are added together. The game does not measure one compounded Monday-to-Friday move.
• A lineup or roster change made after a session closes applies beginning with the next session's opening lock. It never rewrites a previously scored day.
• Live scores are provisional. A matchup becomes Final only after every scoring starter has an authoritative daily bar. Missing data delays finalization instead of scoring as zero.
• Leagues created before Version 1.9 keep their original open-to-close scoring basis for their full lifecycle. A league's scoring basis cannot change after creation.
• DHF may administratively correct a Final result only to remedy a manifest market-data or calculation error.

7. Market calendar and locks

• All gameplay clocks use US Eastern Time and the official US-equities calendar.
• A normal session runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET. On an official half-day, scoring and lineup locks end at the published early close, normally 1:00 PM ET.
• Weekends and full market holidays do not create separate scored sessions. Their net price movement is included in the next trading session's previous-close-to-close move. They remain available roster-management time where otherwise permitted.
• A Weekly window begins at the first actual market open of its calendar week and ends at that week's final actual close. A Monday holiday therefore begins the window on Tuesday.

8. Lineup management

• Before the first scoring session, a completed draft's opening lineup may be arranged freely.
• Daily lineups, including the Core Four, lock at that session's open and reopen after its close.
• In Weekly leagues, the Core Four lock for the entire scoring week. Non-Core-Four slots may be rearranged after any session closes until the next session opens.
• The Weekly Core Four reopens after the week's final session closes and stays open until the next week's first actual open, including a holiday Monday.

9. Free agency

• Free agency is first come, first served. DHF currently has no trades, waiver claims, waiver priority, or FAAB bidding.
• Each human manager receives one add in each calendar-day budget window. The budget resets at 4:00 PM ET every calendar day, including weekends and holidays. Unused adds do not bank.
• An add may execute only while the market is closed and must include a drop. A dropped stock becomes immediately available to other managers.
• In Weekly leagues, a Core-Four stock cannot be dropped until the week's final market session has closed.
• All teams, including teams outside the playoffs or eliminated from them, may continue managing through the championship while the normal locks and budget apply.

10. Regular-season schedule

• Daily leagues play eight regular-season matchup windows across eight trading days. Weekly leagues play eight regular-season matchup windows across eight calendar market weeks.
• The schedule is a deterministic round robin created when the draft finishes. In an eight-team league, eight windows require one opponent to repeat once; larger league sizes may not face every opponent during the regular season.
• A win and loss are awarded from each decided regular-season matchup. An exact unresolved dead heat is recorded as a tie.

11. Standings and matchup ties

• Standings are ordered by wins, then regular-season Points For.
• If wins and Points For are exactly equal, the randomized draft order is the final standings and playoff-seeding tiebreaker.
• If a regular-season matchup score is tied, the team with more season Points For entering that matchup wins. If those totals are also exactly equal, the matchup remains a tie.
• Bench or Intern performance is not a matchup tiebreaker. There is never a coin flip.

12. Playoffs

• The top six teams qualify after regular-season window 8. Seeds 1 and 2 receive first-round byes.
• Window 9 is 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5.
• Window 10 is reseeded: seed 1 faces the lowest remaining seed, and seed 2 faces the other quarterfinal winner.
• Window 11 is the championship. Every round is single elimination.
• If a playoff score is tied, the higher seed advances. A playoff matchup always produces an advancing team.

13. League and account lifecycle

• A non-host may leave only while the league is pending. No manager may leave after the draft starts because rosters and the schedule are then load-bearing.
• If a pending league's host deletes their account and another human manager remains, the longest-standing remaining human manager becomes the host.
• If a pending league's host deletes their account and no other human manager remains, the league and its computer-managed teams are deleted.
• After a draft starts, account deletion does not delete the league. The departed manager becomes an anonymized 'Deleted user' entry, and the league's roster, picks, matchups, scores, and results remain intact.

Questions about an unusual market event or league result may be sent to hello@diamondhandsfantasy.com. These game rules do not replace the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.