I believe the top traders know just the very simple maths like + and -. They don't know about the curvilinear equation, Navier Stokes equation, Euler Formula ... But I will try to believe what you say.
The best non phd super math professor kind of trader should be Japanese trader CIS with annual return rate 60%. I agree he mainly just looks at bid ask data and feel it with experience. PHD team is around 90%.
Yeah *, stay out of flat markets, wait for a trend to be your friend. Obviously cherry picked chart, wish it was always that easy. * Subject to change, pending demo and live performance later lol