LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The United States Investing Championship today announced the final standings for the year-long competition. Three hundred twenty-six traders participated. Performance is reported based on whether the account traded was over or under $1,000,000 and whether the trader used more volatile instruments like futures or options. Prior top performers include Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, Mark Minervini, and David Ryan.
Winning the $1,000,000+ stock division with a year-long return of + 13.5% is Sam Bhatia, from Irvine, California. In comparison, the S&P 500 was – 19.4% for the year. Mr. Bhatia graduated from Columbia Business School and the Indian Institute of Technology. He is a former investment banker who has actively managed money since 2020. The other participants reporting profits are Sean Goodsell + 5.9% and Moritz Reinhart + 1%.
Among participants trading less than $1,000,000 in stocks, the winner is Afzal Lokhandwala, + 447%, a Chartered Accountant from Morbi, India. Finishing second is Gemy Zhou, + 440.4%, from Toronto, Canada. Mr. Zhou was born in Chongqing, China, and grew up in Chengdu, China. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He is a full-time trader. Sean Ryan, from Costa Mesa, California, finished third, + 132%. Sean is the son of David Ryan, a three-time USIC winner. Sean finished 30th in 2021, + 18%, 13th in 2020, + 128%, and second in 2019, + 51.8% – a four year return of + 847.5%. In fourth place, + 80.8%, is Shane X. Zhang, from Toronto, Canada. Shane grew up in Vancouver and is a full-time trader. The other entrants reporting profits in the stock division are Shahid Saleem + 56%; Wind Win, + 47.7%; Jeff Sun, + 43%; Nishit Shailesh Mehta + 41.7%; Arthur Smelyansky, + 39.6%; Manish Patel, + 33.4%; Sean Goodsell, + 22.6%; Hoang Nguyen, + 22.3%; Joey Stephens, + 16.3%; John Rodrigues, + 15.2%; Christopher Guidi, CFA, CPA, + 12.4%; Sundeep Idlani, + 8.2%; Joe Meyecic, + 5.5%; Rainier Trinidad, + 5.5%; Dan Dormody, + 4.9%; Roy Mattox, + 3.8%, and Joo Liang Tee, + 1.1%. Notably, Mr. Sun was + 89.8% in 2021, while Mr. Mehta was + 79.1%.
The enhanced growth division allows the trading of futures and long options. Among participants trading over $1,000,000 in that division, the winner is Maziyar Yousefizad, + 44.4%, from Toronto, Canada. Mr. Yousefizad is the founder of Derivatix Capital Management, LLC. He manages the Fortune Reliance Fund. Mr. Yousefizad previously worked as a senior risk and business analyst for CIBC and T.D., two Canadian banks in Toronto. He attended Sharif University of Technology in Iran, receiving a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and an MBA. He moved to Canada in 2005. In second place is Michael Cook, + 18.3%, from England. Mr. Cook received a B.A. in international relations from the London School of Economics, has masters degrees in international relations and terrorism, and is a Chartered Fellow of The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Among participants trading futures or options with accounts under $1,000,000, the winner is Hieu Tuong + 200.3%, from Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Tuong was born in Vietnam and is currently a part-time physician. He graduated from the University of Louisville. Second is Dan Dubyk, + 96.6%, from Philadelphia. The other entrants reporting profits are Afzal Lokhandwala + 85.9%, Vishal B. Malkan + 81.2%, Jarrett Jacobs, + 73.4%, Miroslav Gnjatović + 73%, Marcin Dydak, + 3.9%, and Dhanesh and Nandan Khumar, + .5%.
Half of the traders reporting profits are either from India or Asia.
Since its inception in 1983, the United States Investing Championship has attracted legendary traders, including Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Dr. Edward O. Thorpe, 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 the website financial-competitions.com. Financial-competitions.com allows traders to enter the competition and provides copies of past articles about top performers from Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and other financial publications.
Entries for the 2023 competition are currently being accepted at financial-competitions.com. A new website, moneymanagerratings.com, has been launched for accounts over $1,000,000.
The contest coordinator, Dr. Norman Zadeh (aka Zada), taught Operations Research in a visiting capacity at Stanford, UCLA, UC Irvine, and Columbia universities between 1975 and 1983. Dr. Zadeh managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012. He is the son of Lotfi Zadeh, the creator of fuzzy logic. Norm is the author of four books, Fox News: The Enemy Within (released in 2021), The Rise and Fall of Perfect 10 (released in 2021), Hold’em Poker Super Strategy (released in 2020), and Winning Poker Systems (Prentice Hall, 1974). He is also a songwriter. His songs include I Need a Chance, It’s Christmas, Dreaming of You, For You, and Lifetime in Love.
Source: Business Wire
