How do you improve your trading game performance?

TL;DR: How do you improve in a month-long trading game?

Hey guys. I am a complete novice at portfolio management / equity trading. Recently I joined a trading simulation game, and I noticed the huge gap between my returns (I am about 20ish in rank) and the top return achieved by the guy ranking number 1. He has around 6% return in the Europe market, but the contest only started 4 days.

- I have 3 more weeks left for the competition.
- Equity only competition, with the ability to long and short.
- you can not take a position in a single stock that is more than 10% of your portfolio value.
- no day trading

I was wondering, what is the ideal series of trades in this scenario? i.e. do I take a lot of small positions, or several big positions, or another strategy? When do I exit my trades? how severe a loss should I take (like, do I cut losses once the stock falls, or wait a few days if I think its just noise?)

Any help/opinion would be appreciated. Thanks

In a game, there is no downside to losing, it's just a game. And if you're not No.1, you're a loser, so it doesn't matter how badly you lose. Therefore, if you're not using this to simulate future investment management, just go for the most volatile smallcaps, takeover situations, rumour-driven gaps you can.