TL;DR - A public leaderboard is a training device, and the traders in this site's interview series describe its effect in consistent terms: visibility makes them more selective, accountability makes them more disciplined, and a season of competition compresses learning. It also distorts. A fifth-place USIC finisher describes the last two months as the hardest stretch because nobody knows how the others are doing. A podium finisher at +299% says the pressure made him second-guess and has stopped competing. Both are in the record. The quotes below are verbatim.
The difference between trading and competitive trading is one number: the place. Everything else, the rules, the clock, the metric, exists in private accounts too. What a tournament adds is that the result is ranked against named people and shown to anyone who looks. The interviews on this site, with traders who have placed in audited competitions, keep circling back to what that visibility did to them. This article collects the answers, including the ones that argue against competing at all. Every quote is verbatim from the trader's profile interview.
Visibility makes you selective
Sergey Shirko, third in 2020 and fourth in 2021 at the World Cup Championship of Forex Trading, publishes his strategy and was asked how being watched affects his trading:
"You might be surprised, but when I feel accountable to my subscribers, I behave in a much more disciplined way. 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. I can always talk myself into being, say, more aggressive and daring, but if I know I'll have to explain every move to my audience afterwards, I become more selective, and that has a direct impact on my results."
Deepak Uppal, fifth in the 2023 U.S. Investing Championship at +259% and third in the 2024 MMVR $1M+ Division at +153%, was asked whether a public, verified account brings more motivation or more pressure:
"Both. You want to press good setups but you're constantly weighing risk, you can't blow up the account chasing rank. The hardest stretch is the last two months, you don't know how everyone else is doing and time's running out."
A season compresses learning
Timothy J. Maxwell, a systematic trader since 1994, on what a first quarterly championship is for:
"Treat your first championship as practice under pressure. Learn how it feels to have your results visible on a leaderboard, notice how that pressure affects your decisions, and focus on executing well rather than chasing a ranking. 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."
Pietro Valastro, second in the World Cup Quarterly Futures Division in Q4 2025 at +80.4% and fourth in Q1 2026 at +76.6%, was asked which was harder, the first result or confirming it:
"The first one was much harder, especially mentally. The psychological pressure was significantly higher."
"In that sense, the second result was not only another good result, but also proof that I had evolved as a trader."
Nanda Ferçal, a Brazilian index-futures trader who reached the top 100 of Copa BTG Trader 2025, is direct about what the format is for:
"I have participated in other competitions before and really enjoy being involved. Seeing my potential — that is what competitions are for."
"It did not influence my results because I was already making money before. But it inspired me to want to win another competition."
The ranking is a moment, and it can mislead
Prathamesh Dharmaraja, 2026 IQC India National Winner with Team Smoooth Operator, describes the moment the board and the strategy disagreed:
"The toughest moment came right before the Finals presentation. Despite ranking in the top 3 nationally on out-of-sample performance, we found ourselves sitting 8th on the leaderboard for the overall score, a gap that didn't reflect the strength of our underlying strategy, but still put real pressure on us heading into the final round."
John Tingoi, who started stage two of the 2025 IQC ranked last among Kenyan participants and finished third in the Global Finals, chose what to look at:
"However, I reminded myself that rankings only reflect a moment in time. Instead of focusing on where I ranked, I focused on learning, testing ideas and improving my alphas. What kept me going was the belief that consistent improvement would eventually produce results."
Brent Carlile entered his first World Cup Trading Championship in mid-May 2020, four and a half months into a twelve-month race, and finished fifth:
"It was a bit like starting a marathon when the pace setters are already more than 1/3rd into the race."
"What I did differently in the next competitions was show up on time!"
He won the 2024 futures division at 532.3%.
The opponent is not on the board
Muslim Abdullayev, a 2025 ICTC finalist, was asked what he fears most after a career that included a $200,000 loss:
"When I took part in trading championships, I was not afraid of the other traders, because every trader is really competing against himself, against his illusions, habits, and emotional patterns."
That is the most repeated idea in the series, in various words. The field is real, the ranking is real, and the thing being tested is the trader's own discipline.
The case against competing
The record would be dishonest without the trader who read all of the above, agreed, and stopped. Thawin Suksathaporn finished third in the 2025 USIC Enhanced Growth Division at +299.4%, the first Thai name on that podium, and does not plan to enter again:
"I don't plan on competing anymore because the pressure hinders my performance. I start second-guessing my decisions because I know the percentage will be shown on the leaderboard."
He is not against the format. Asked whether being a former Division I athlete made the podium feel like a responsibility: "Naturally I am competitive and want to know how I'd do in the vast world of traders." He found out, and the finding was that the public number costs him more than it gives. For a trader whose income comes from the account rather than from recognition, that is a legitimate answer, and it is in the interview for anyone deciding the same question.
What to take from it
If the leaderboard makes you more selective, as it does for Shirko, it is a free discipline tool. If it makes you chase rank, as Uppal warns, the fix is a sizing rule that does not know what the board says. If it makes you second-guess, as it does for Suksathaporn, one season is enough information to stop. The interviews do not say that competing makes everyone better. They say that competing shows you quickly which of the three you are.
The Hall of Fame holds the placings behind every name above. The competitions listing is where a first season starts.
Frequently asked questions
Does competing in a trading tournament make you a better trader?
The traders interviewed on this site say it makes them more selective and more disciplined, because every decision will be visible and will have to be explained. One systematic trader says a quarter of competition teaches more than months of private trading. One podium finisher says the pressure made him second-guess and he has stopped competing.
How does leaderboard pressure affect trading decisions?
Two ways, in the interviews. It pushes traders to press good setups and to size for rank, which a fifth-place USIC finisher calls the main risk, especially in the last two months when nobody knows the others' results. And it makes publicly accountable traders more conservative, which a two-time WCTC forex finisher credits for better results.
What should a first-time competitor focus on?
Executing well rather than ranking, according to a thirty-year systematic trader: treat the first championship as practice under pressure, keep a journal, review it afterward.
Is it a problem to be low on the leaderboard early?
A Kenyan trader who was ranked last in his national bracket at the start of stage two of the 2025 IQC finished third in the world. His view is that rankings reflect a moment in time.
Related
- How to start competitive trading, according to people who won the first season, step by step.
- Gut or data? Tournament champions give opposite answers how the same traders decide.
- The loss that almost ended it when the pressure wins.
- Tournament trading, explained what makes it a sport.
Standings for the championships quoted: World Cup Trading Championships and the U.S. Investing Championship.
Last reviewed 2026-10-13 by the trading-tournaments.com editorial team. Quotes are verbatim from published interviews; corrections via the Suggest a change form.