Scoring & Awards
Rankings combine investment performance and the quality of your report. Here is how the two are weighed, and what the winners receive.
How the overall ranking works
Performance alone does not decide the result. Teams are ranked separately on investment performance and on their reports, and the two rankings are combined with weights of 70% and 30%.
- Performance rank — teams are ordered by final return over the trading period.Final return (%) = (team net assets on the last day ÷ team net assets at the start − 1) × 100
- Report rank — teams are ordered by the scores given by the external judges.
- Overall score — the two ranks are merged with weighted reciprocal rank fusion. Higher score, higher place.Score = 0.7 ÷ (k + performance rank) + 0.3 ÷ (k + report rank)
The constant k will be announced later.
How reports are judged
Reports are scored by external judges. No investment style, whether short-term, long-term or systematic, is favoured. The criteria for 2026 will be announced separately. For reference, the 2025 final report was scored out of 100:
| Section | Points | What the judges looked at |
|---|---|---|
| Investment approach | 30 | Effectiveness of the style; feasibility of the analysis and trading; reproducibility and sustainability |
| Investment decisions | 23 | Precision of trade records; quality of the rationale; consistency between approach and decisions |
| Performance analysis and learning | 27 | Risk monitoring; analysis of what worked and what did not; objective reporting for investors |
| Optional monthly reports | 20 | December, January and February reports |
Awards
| Award | Division | Given to |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Performance Award | Trader | Teams ranked 1st to 3rd overall |
| Most Valuable Player Award | Trader | The individual with the highest final return |
| AI agent Award | AI Agent | Teams ranked 1st to 3rd overall |
Prizes
Prizes are worth $10,000 in total.
- Trader division, 1st overall — round-trip flights to Japan for three.
- AI Agent division, 1st to 3rd — subscriptions such as Claude Max, for up to 12 months.
- Other prizes will be announced later.
Judges
The 2026 judges will be announced. TBC
In 2025 the reports were judged by Nobuhiko Shimura (CEO, Skye Investment Managers; visiting fellow, Stanford University) and Yasuji Yamanaka (Director, Ascendant Inc.; Head of Japan Market, TradingView).