AI Aided Trader Sets Record in International Investing Competition

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United States Investing Championship just announced the leaders for the first quarter of 2026. There were 647 competitors, each of whom selected a real money account to be tracked before the competition began. Prior top performers include Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan and his son Sean Ryan, Mark Strome, and Dr. Edward O. Thorp.

There are four categories based on account size and risk.

Leading the $1,000,000+ stock division after three months, + 26.7%, is Ron Bagley, of Bagley Capital Management in Bountiful, Utah. Ron finished + 61.6% in last year’s competition. Second + 23.9% is Steven McIntosh of Nighthawk Management Group in Jupiter, Florida. Steve finished + 70% in last year’s competition. Third + 20.5% is Jason Speziale, from Toronto, Canada.

In the $1,000,000+ enhanced growth division, which allows trading in futures and options and thus carries greater risk, the leader after three months is Icewater Capital, up 76.8%. Second + 52.3% is Baran Kayhan. Baran was born in Izmir, Turkey. He currently manages Euclid Technologies, a Toronto-based hedge fund. Third + 36.4% is Vikash Raniga. Vikash has an MBA from MIT and currently lives in Fremont, CA. Other participants reporting profits of 10% or more are Gravity Analytica (+26.9%), Tong Wang of Vizen Management (+16.1%), Chandrashekhar Nimbal (+15.8%), and Senthil Kumar (+10.8%).

Among participants trading between $20,000 and $1,000,000 in stocks or ETFs, the leader after three months, with a 396.6% return, is Jimmy Li from Hong Kong. Second + 190.5% is Dr. Tom Doub of Arcadia Analytics in Tennessee. Dr. Doub previously taught as a Clinical Psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Third + 186% is Heather Qi, currently from China and now living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Heather has a master's degree in computer science from Cornell. Other participants reporting gains of at least 40% are Gabriel Blanco (+135.7%), Martin Luk (+96.3%), Alexander Vargas (+90.5%), M Suk Capital (+67.5%), T. Garwe, Ph.D. (+59.6%), Anthony Derrer (+47.9%), Kyle Walter (+43.7%), and Emmett Iheagwara (+40.1%).

Among participants trading between $20,000 and $1,000,000 in the enhanced growth division, the leader after three months, with a 1,678.8% return, is Dr. Terry Potter of the AI Trading Academy in Hong Kong. This is a new record for three months in any division. Dr. Potter trades mostly commodities and relies primarily on price action. Dr. Potter’s roommate, Wind Win, who also uses AI, has made a combined 1,484% in the last five United States Investing Championships. Second + 798% is Omar Barkawi from Seattle. Mr. Barkawi has a master’s degree in systems engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Third + 197.2% is Ayomi Capital Management. Other traders with gains of 40% or more are Ash Kumar (+152.1%), Ryan Elshoubary (+141.5%), Greg Diamond (+140.8%), Alberto Zaldivar (+92.9%), Tito Adhikary, Ph.D. (+68.9%), Tushar Garg (+68.5%), KingdomOak Capital (+63.2%), Lai Lee (+62.1%), John Rodrigues (+54.6%), Paul Beall (+53%), and Baran Kayhan (+52.3%).

Since its inception in 1983, the United States Investing Championship has attracted legendary traders, including Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Sean Ryan, Louis Bacon, Dr. Edward O. Thorp, Mark Strome, Doug Kass, Sheen Kassouf, Marty Schwartz, Frankie Joe, Tom Basso, Cedd Moses, Gil Blake, Robert Prechter, Jr., and Bruno Combier.

The standings appear on financial-competitions.com along with articles about top performers from Business Insider, Institutional Investor, the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investor’s Business Daily, and Forbes, among others. The standings also appear on X at @USICOfficial.

Entries for the 2026 competition are currently being accepted at financial-competitions.com.

The contest coordinator, Dr. Norman Zadeh (aka Zada), is also president of the Lotfi Zadeh Foundation, a charity created to build thousands of ultra-low-cost ($5,000/unit) residences in sparsely populated areas and to fully care for the homeless. (Visit lotfi-zadeh.com for more information.) Dr. Zadeh taught Operations Research in a visiting capacity at Stanford, UCLA, UC Irvine, and Columbia University between 1975 and 1983. He managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012. His father, Lotfi Zadeh, created fuzzy logic. Norm is the author of four books: Hold'em Poker Super Strategy (released in 2020), Winning Poker Systems (Prentice Hall, 1974), The Rise and Fall of Perfect 10 (released in 2021), and Fox News: The Enemy Within (released in 2021).