Nicolas Benassi
🇧🇷Brazil· São Paulo
Theory shows you the map. The market tests whether you actually know how to drive.
Nicolas Benassi moves faster than most people his age have any right to. By the time he entered Copa BTG Trader 2025, he already held a CEA certification from ANBIMA, a trading credential from PUCRS, two years inside Toro Investimentos advising high-level traders on risk management and technical analysis, and an active MBA in scenario analysis and capital markets at USP Fundace — one of Latin America's most competitive postgraduate programmes.
He now produces content at Nelogica, one of Brazil's leading trading platforms, building market strategy and copy for a trader and investor audience. One detail from his Copa BTG experience stands out: Danillo Ramos Duarte, the competition winner, was his client at Toro Investimentos. Nicolas was the one talking to him about risk management. Danillo went on to win the entire competition.
Copa BTG Trader 2025 was one stop on a schedule that does not slow down. He studies, trades, advises, produces and surfs. The Adam Smith quote in his Instagram bio — the real value of things is the effort and trouble of acquiring them — is not decoration. It is the operating system.
Vitalii Kaminskyi · May 2026 · Portuguese, translated to English
You are studying economic analysis at USP and finance at FGV at the same time as trading actively. What does a normal week look like, and which of the three — USP, FGV, or the markets — teaches you the most right now?
My routine is basically a combination of study, market activity and networking. During the week I split my time between classes, reading on macroeconomics, finance and capital markets, and daily market preparation and monitoring. I also attend events, lectures and industry meetups because I believe learning does not happen only inside a classroom. USP helps me develop critical thinking and understand the economic fundamentals behind market movements. FGV, where I already graduated, gave me a more applied view of management, finance and decision-making. But today the market is still the greatest teacher. When there is real money, real risk and real emotion involved, you learn lessons no book can fully reproduce. Theory shows you the map. The market tests whether you actually know how to drive.
Copa BTG Trader 2025 drew over 100,000 registered traders. How did you find out about it and what made you enter while still mid-degree?
I have been following the trading ecosystem for some years, so Copa BTG Trader appeared naturally through the community and my work at Nelogica. I believe the graduation period is the best time to expose yourself to real experiences. Many people wait until they finish university before starting to test their knowledge. I prefer the opposite path: study and validate learning simultaneously. Participating in a competition of that scale is an opportunity to measure your execution capacity under pressure, something a written exam can rarely evaluate. One interesting detail: the winner of the Copa, Danilo, was my client when I worked as a trader advisor at Toro Investimentos. My role there was precisely to discuss risk management. It was good to see an old friend take the prize home.
You quote Adam Smith in your bio: the real value of things is the effort and trouble of acquiring them. How does that apply specifically to trading — is the process of learning to trade the point, or is the result the point?
I believe both matter, but the process comes before the result. Many people enter the market looking only at the profit, drawn by the promise. But profit is a consequence of a much larger construction. Trading requires study, emotional control, risk management, discipline and the capacity to deal with mistakes. These skills take time to develop. That is why I like that quote from Adam Smith. The value is not only in the financial result you reach, but in the transformation that happens along the way. The market constantly exposes your weaknesses and forces you to evolve. In the long run, results tend to follow the quality of the process. If you build a solid process, the numbers appear. The reverse rarely works.
You appear at the Profit Tour, at finance lectures, in the São Paulo trading community in person. Most retail traders operate entirely online. Why does the physical presence in the trading scene matter to you?
Because financial markets are made of people. The internet democratised access to information, but it does not fully replace in-person connections. When you attend events and talk to experienced professionals, fund managers, analysts and other traders, you gain perspectives that rarely appear in ready-made content. I like to be close to the discussions happening in the sector, to understand trends and exchange experiences with people facing similar challenges. Many of the best professional and learning opportunities I have had came from events, corridor conversations and in-person meetings. Networking in financial markets remains an extremely valuable asset.
What is the biggest gap between what they teach at USP and FGV about financial markets and what you have actually learned by trading with real money?
The main difference is that theory generally assumes decisions are rational. The real market does not work that way. At university you learn models, hypotheses and frameworks that are fundamental for understanding how the economy and financial assets function. But when you start trading, you realise that behavioural factors carry enormous weight. The greatest lesson I learned from trading was not about indicators or charts. It was about risk management and emotional control. You can have the best analysis in the world, but if you cannot manage losses, control anxiety or respect your plan, you will rarely find consistency. University teaches how the market should work. The market teaches how people actually behave when money is on the line. Understanding that difference is perhaps the most important skill for anyone building a career in this sector.