Out of 451 robots only about 10 are profitable. Just guessing but if a coin flip decided each contestant's decision, then this is the likely result. Or am I being a bit pessimistic ?
In several interviews the contestant explains that in order to win the contest the strategy must be very risky and they would never trade the same strategy with real money.
Eighth Week, 100K Level Still Not Reached Eight weeks have passed since the beginning of the Championship, the resistance level of $100,000 is still unreachable, and the battle for TOP-10 places is getting hot. JPAlonso from the U.S. is still the leader of the race. We will release an interview with this trader in the upcoming days. The most notable loss - Expert Advisor of ROMAN5 that took leadership in the second week and for a long time showed excellent results, this time detected wrong direction of entering the market and now due to a huge drawdown has been supplanted by other participants out of the top twenty. "...the market tends to be very unpredictable" - said Anton Nel in his interview and unfortunately for him this is sad but true. Trading robots of FIFO (Belarus) and 26405 (Russia) continue to share the second and third places respectively. Expert Advisor of honzour from Czech Republic having shot ahead the previous week now is falling one place back because of the heavy unfixed loss. Read the full article on the Championship's website Eighth Week, 100K Level Still Not Reached.
Actually, the top guy JP Alonso hasn't made any money since Oct 24th. His account just has been fluctuating. He was already up to 80K and that is where he is at right now. So 5 weeks of no gains, but still #1.... The same with the #2 robot, 4 weeks and no gains. The #3 robot is up only 2K in the last 3 weeks. #4 is actually down from 2 weeks ago. I wonder what was so different in these weeks as compared to 2 months ago?
Interview with Juan Pablo Alonso Escobar (JPAlonso) Hello Juan. Please tell us a little about yourself and your trading experience. I was born in Mexico, obtained my bachelorâs degree in Canada, and currently reside in the USA. I worked for a few years as an equity trader for a Canadian proprietary investment group, where I developed and monitored automated and semi-automated analysis and execution systems. I am currently completing a Masters in Financial Engineering program at Baruch College in New York, and I plan to continue working on algorithmic trading after graduation. You have participated in Automated Trading Championships 5 times starting from 2007 so far. And each year you've got better and better from 520th place in 2007 up to 1st (so far) this year. In your personal opinion, does this progress at ATCs reflect your own progress as a developer? When I prepared to participate in the first championship it took me days of sweat and tears just to get a working EA, let alone one that could make money. Now, the technical details of implementation are a lot easier to deal with, and I can focus on making the algorithms stronger and more profitable. Everyone who is struggling with programming and who were not able to participate in this year's competition, know that it becomes a lot easier in time. The full text of the news can be found at the Championship's website - Interview with Juan Pablo Alonso Escobar (JPAlonso).
Automated Trading Championship 2012: Ninth Week, Time for Some Drawdown As you may have already guessed from the title, the current Championship leader JPAlonso has slowed down a bit. His equity level has decreased down to $70 000. Everything is relative, of course, as we have already got used to huge profits of the competition leaders. 600% of the deposit within two months is a truly great result. If you have not read the interview with Juan Pablo Alonso Escobar yet, we recommend that you do that, as it has turned out to be very exciting. Interesting changes have occurred at the second, third and fourth positions within the last week: honzour has moved to the second place (from the fourth one). Only $10 000 are separating him from the leader now. FIFO has become the third (though he was second), while 26405 has dropped down to the fourth place from the third one. The full text of the news can be found on the Championship's website - Ninth Week, Time for Some Drawdown.