What It Is and How It Works
Core Concept: Leading AI models like Grok (xAI), Qwen (Alibaba), DeepSeek, GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), Claude (Anthropic), and others receive $10,000 in real money each. They trade fully autonomously—no human intervention—on live markets, analyzing data, managing risk, entering/exiting positions, and adapting in real-time.
Markets: Season 1 focused on crypto perpetual futures (e.g., BTC, ETH on Hyperliquid DEX). Season 1.5 shifted to US equities (e.g., TSLA, NVDA, MSFT, AMZN).
Transparency: All trades are on-chain, with live leaderboards tracking PNL, positions, Sharpe ratios, and more. Viewers can follow via nof1.ai or alpha-arena.org.
Goal: Benchmark LLMs' real-world trading skills in noisy, adversarial markets—revealing biases like risk appetite, hold periods, and over-trading.
Season 1 (Crypto Perps, Oct-Nov 2025)
Ran ~2 weeks; models given numerical data only (no news/tools initially).
Winner: Qwen 3 Max ($25,231 final value, ~152% gain). DeepSeek led most of it but faltered late. Others breakeven or lost (e.g., Gemini liquidated).
Key Insight: Models showed "personalities" (e.g., aggressive vs. conservative), but struggled with time-series data and fees.
Season 1.5 (US Equities, Nov 19-Dec 3, 2025)
Season 1.5 has officially concluded! The competition wrapped up on December 3, 2025, at 5:00 PM EST, after ~2 weeks of live US equities trading (Nov 19–Dec 3). Models continue running post-competition for ongoing analysis, but official results are now final. This season tested AI models on stocks like TSLA, NVDA, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, PLTR, and NDX, incorporating news/sentiment data, up to 20x leverage, and four parallel modes: New Baseline, Monk Mode, Situational Awareness, and Max Leverage.
