TL;DR - Five kinds of record prove a trading result to someone who does not know you, and they rank by how hard they are to fake. An audited championship placing (World Cup Trading Championships, U.S. Investing Championship) is the strongest and costs a real account and a year. A broker-verified track record (Myfxbook's two badges) is free and proves the history is real, not that it is good. A copy-trading platform score (eToro's risk score, Darwinex's D-Score) proves risk and consistency on the platform's books. An organizer-published tournament placing proves one window on one venue. A league rating such as PnL World's PWR proves placings against real opponents on a simulator. A screenshot proves nothing. Get at least one record, then get it recorded where it can be cited. Quotes are verbatim.

Every trader with an audience eventually has to answer "prove it", and most answer with a screenshot, which, as the P&L screenshot problem explains, proves only that a number was once on a screen. This guide lists the records that actually settle the question, what each proves and costs, and how to get one recorded so that other people can cite it. For how the systems behind these records work, see how traders are rated.

1. An audited championship placing

What it proves: net return on a real account over a fixed period, verified through brokerage records and published by an organizer with no stake in your result.

What it costs: a real account at the minimum ($10,000 in the World Cup futures divisions, $5,000 in forex, $2,500 and $500 for the quarterly and monthly events; $20,000 at the U.S. Investing Championship, which divides a smaller account's profit by $20,000 anyway) and a season of your trading on a public leaderboard.

Why it ranks first: it is the only record that a third party produces from your broker's data over a long window, and it is the one that follows a trader for a career. Brent Carlile entered the World Cup for a reason that had nothing to do with the prize:

"I thought jumping through some hoops to compete in a high profile competition might be a way to push myself into figuring out how to boost the offensive side of trading markets as well."

He finished second in 2020 and won the 2024 futures division. The Hall of Fame holds 97 such placings, 77 verified against the organizer.

2. A broker-verified track record

What it proves: that a trading history is real and that you control the account. Myfxbook's "Track Record Verified" badge means the history on the service matches what the broker reports, and a single mismatched deposit, withdrawal or trade removes it; "Trading Privileges Verified" means the person who published the account holds its master password.

What it costs: nothing but the investor password and the time the account has run.

What it does not prove: that the trading is good. The services say so themselves, and a verified account with a custom start date and a tiny initial deposit can display a gain figure that means nothing. Use the badges to answer "is this real", and the other records to answer "is this good".

3. A copy-trading platform score

What it proves: risk taken and consistency of the return curve, on the platform's own books. eToro's risk score runs from 1 to 10, is built from position sizes, instrument volatility and correlation, and is averaged over seven days so it cannot be reset by closing positions before a screenshot. Darwinex's D-Score measures the quality of a strategy's return curve over five years alongside twelve attributes scored 0 to 10.

What it costs: trading on the platform for long enough that the windows mean something, which for the D-Score is years.

Why it matters: it is the one record built by people whose customers lose money when the record is wrong, so it is designed to be hard to game, and it is the one most useful to someone deciding whether to copy you rather than admire you.

4. An organizer-published tournament placing

What it proves: a placing in one event, on one venue, over one window, under that event's metric.

What it costs: usually nothing; 144 of the 150 tournaments in this catalogue are free to enter.

What to check before relying on it: which metric the event ranked on. A top-ten by return in a 700-entrant audited field and a top-ten by volume in a free exchange event with bots in it are different credentials, and the reader cannot tell them apart from the placing alone. Keep the organizer's final publication of the standings, because the event page will not keep it for you; why tournament results disappear measures how fast they go.

5. A league rating

What it proves: placings against real opponents, weighted by format and field strength, accumulated over many contests on a simulator. PnL World's published rules award points for finishing places in rated tournaments, place a trader in one of eight divisions after five rated tournaments, require phone verification under a one-person-one-rating rule, and do not expire points.

What it costs: entry fees for the rated contests and the time to play enough of them.

What it does not prove: real-money results, since the contests are simulated on live prices, and standing outside the one platform, since no cross-operator rating exists yet. Within those limits it is the only record that behaves like a sports ranking rather than a single result.

Then get it recorded

A record that lives only on the organizer's page is a record that will disappear. Three steps keep it citable. Save the organizer's own publication of the standings, with its URL and date. Put the placing on a profile that links the source: on this site, the trader submission form takes a proof link and the placing goes through the Hall of Fame's verification order, organizer publication first, audited statement second, self-submission with proof last, and carries a verified mark when it passes. And say in public what you are accountable for. Sergey Shirko, who publishes his forex strategy and has two World Cup podiums, found that the accountability itself improved the record:

"I've noticed that when I openly share my knowledge and trading strategies with my audience, I always get better results than when I'm only accountable to myself."

What not to do

Custom start dates, a deposit small enough to make a modest profit look like a large percentage, a window chosen after the fact, a screenshot of unrealized profit, a leaderboard sorted by the metric that flatters you. Each is visible to anyone who reads the record carefully, and the readers who matter do. Timothy J. Maxwell, who has entered the World Cup quarterly championships repeatedly, recommends the opposite habit:

"Keep a journal during the competition and review it afterward. You'll learn more about your trading in one quarter of competition than in months of trading alone."

A journal is not a public record, but it is where the public record starts.

Frequently asked questions

How do I prove my trading results?

With a record a third party produced: an audited championship placing, a broker-verified track record, a copy-trading platform score, an organizer-published tournament placing, or a league rating. Screenshots are not evidence. Then put the record on a profile that links the organizer's source so it can be cited.

What is a verified trading track record?

A trading history that a broker or platform has confirmed against its own data. Myfxbook's "Track Record Verified" badge means the published history matches the broker's; "Trading Privileges Verified" means the publisher controls the account. Neither badge says the trading is good.

Is a trading competition result proof of skill?

An audited championship placing on a real account over a year is the strongest proof available. A placing in a free exchange event proves one window under one metric, and its weight depends on whether the metric was return or volume and how strong the field was.

How do I get my tournament placing listed on trading-tournaments.com?

Submit it through the trader submission form with a link to the organizer's publication of the standings. Placings are verified in order: organizer publication, audited statement, self-submission with proof; verified placings carry a mark, and 77 of the 97 in the Hall of Fame have it.

Related

• The P&L screenshot problem for why screenshots fail.
• How traders are rated: every ranking system for the systems behind each record.
• How to evaluate a trader for the reader's side of the same question.
• From newcomer to verified: public trader brand 101 for the career progression.

Sources: World Cup Trading Championships, U.S. Investing Championship, Myfxbook: why verify, eToro Risk Score, Darwinex D-Score, PnL World divisions.

Last reviewed 2026-10-20 by the trading-tournaments.com editorial team. Quotes are verbatim from published interviews; corrections via the Suggest a change form.