LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United States Investing Championship today reported the leaders for the first six months of 2019. The United States Investing Championship is a real money competition which gives up-and-coming traders an opportunity to show their talent on the world stage. Prior top performers include legendary traders such as Paul Tudor Jones. Participants specify an account number at the beginning of the year. The brokerage statements associated with that account are used to verify performance claims. The competition began in 1983 and ran for eleven years. It was restarted in 2019.
In the current competition, the leader after six months in the volatile futures and options division is Jia Ding, + 152.3%. Mr. Ding is originally from China but now lives in Virginia. He launched his investment management firm in 2011. In second place is Travis Wilkerson, + 22.0%. Mr. Wilkerson is an army vet from Idaho who trades full time.
In the much less volatile stock division, the leader after six months is Zehua Zhou, + 29.8%. Mr Zhou, originally from China, came to the United States in 2007. He has a master's degree in Computer Science, and has worked as a software engineer for Microsoft, Amazon, and Zillow. Just behind him in the stock division, + 17.7% is Alok Bhatia, from Singapore. Alok studied engineering in India and has managed funds for JP Morgan Chase (based in London) and GE Capital (based in Tokyo). In third place is B.J. Patel + 16.6%. Mr. Patel is a practicing cardiologist in Tampa, Florida. He is originally from Mwanzia, Tanzania. Fourth in stocks, + 11.7%, is Gordon Elvey, from London. Mr. Elvey is an English Chartered Accountant, who has been managing equities for more than twenty years. Fifth in stocks, is Yeow Yong, +10.8%. Mr. Yong is from Malaysia. He is a Chartered Financial Accountant who currently manages a long only Asia ex Japan equity fund. In sixth position is Mathew Hobar, +10.0%. Thomas Ryan, the son of David Ryan, a three time U.S. Investing Championship winner, is currently seventh, +9.3%.
The United States Investing Championship also has a $1,000,000+ division. Leading that division is Hsui-Ping Peng. Mr. Peng is an engineer who was born in Taiwan and moved to the United States in 2002.
Over the years, the United States Investing Championship has attracted legendary traders, including Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, Dr. Edward O. Thorpe, Mark Strome, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, 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, and are periodically published in Investors Business Daily. Financial-competitions.com provides copies of articles from the past concerning the United States Investing Championship. It also allows new competitors to sign up to have their performance tracked from the date of their entry. The competition is run by Dr. Norman Zadeh, a former Stanford professor, former publisher of the magazine Perfect 10, and son of Lotfi Zadeh, the creator of fuzzy logic.