Contest Rules
Format, scoring, discipline requirements, and compliance terms
Basic Information
Contest name
Global Strategy Challenge
Contest mode
Paper trading contest
Current status
Registration open
Registration opens
2026-07-06
Settlement currency
USD
Organizer
PM.finance
Prize Settings
Proposed · organizer to confirm
- Total prize pool
- 50,000 USD
- Maximum allocation
- 50,000,000 USD
Rank 1
Cash prize20,000
Allocationup to 50,000,000
Performance share20%
Rank 2
Cash prize12,000
Allocationup to 20,000,000
Performance share20%
Rank 3
Cash prize9,000
Allocationup to 10,000,000
Performance share20%
Special awards
·· · 3,000 USD each
Prize amount and form are subject to the organizer's final announcement. Strong performers, including non-winners, may receive platform recommendations, but any capital allocation is at the platform's sole discretion.
Groups and Eligibility
- All groups share the same eligibility: Submit complete contest materials and pass platform eligibility review. Review results are delivered via in-platform notification.
- One email / account per entry. Using multiple accounts to register the same team or individual more than once is grounds for disqualification.
| Group | Simulated capital | Registration cap |
|---|---|---|
| Individual Group | 100,000 USD | Unlimited |
| Institution Group | 100,000 USD | Unlimited |
Registration Materials (by group)
Upload the materials below as prompted during registration; the organizer reviews them manually — a successful submission does not itself mean the review has passed.
Individual Group
- Valid identity document
- Contact details
Institution Group
- Business license or equivalent entity registration
- Authorized representative's identity document (simplified first-edition KYB verification)
Materials that misstate or misrepresent facts, once confirmed, will result in disqualification; any prizes already granted will be voided and reclaimed.
Strategy categories and advancement
Contest groups govern eligibility, supporting-material review, and paper capital. Leaderboards and advancement slots are calculated separately by strategy category, not by individual or institution group.
Arbitrage
Captures price differences between instruments without taking a directional view
Top 10 advance
Market neutral
Hedges long and short exposure so returns do not track broad market moves
Top 10 advance
Other
includes mixed strategies and other directional exposure
Top 10 advance
Ranked independently by strategy category · 30 entrants advance to the live final
Scoring and Ranking
This edition uses composite scoring. The core criteria include return, risk (maximum drawdown), trading volume and turnover — ranking is not by return alone — and the individual and institutional groups are assessed against the same standard, while the weight given to each criterion is set separately for each strategy category.
Final rank = performance rank × 80% + judge score rank × 20%
The dimensions and weights of the composite score will be announced before the contest starts. Judges score each dimension independently; averages are combined with performance ranking using the weights above.
Judge scoring dimensions (100 pts total)
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Innovation | 20 pts |
| Strategy Logic | 20 pts |
| Risk Control | 20 pts |
| Robustness | 20 pts |
| Presentation | 20 pts |
Ties are broken in order: Lower max drawdown first, then Earlier registration first.
Leaderboards rank entrants within their strategy category; the top 10 in each of Arbitrage, Market neutral, and Other advance to the live final.
Schedule Timeline
- 2026-07-06Registration opensParticipants complete registration, submit materials, and pass eligibility review.
- 2026-08-31Registration closesNew registrations close; submitted materials continue through review.
- 2026-09-01Qualifier starts (paper trading)Strategies run in the platform paper trading environment, with daily performance and leaderboard updates.
- 2026-10-31Qualifier endsQualifier performance is frozen and the contest enters the judging stage.
- 2026-11-07Judging deadlineJudges complete scoring, and the platform aggregates and publishes the selection results; the award list is confirmed after eligibility verification.
- After paper tradingLive-stage advancementAfter paper trading, the top 10 in each of the Arbitrage, Market neutral, and Other strategy categories advance to the live final, for 30 entrants total; live-stage rules and allocation sizes will be announced separately.
How to Enter
After registering and passing eligibility review, create or import a strategy on the platform, complete a backtest, and bind a saved strategy version as your contest entry.
- 01Register and pass reviewSubmit your entry, choose a group, and provide the materials requested on the registration page.
- 02Create and validate a strategyCreate a strategy or import strategy code, and confirm it runs correctly via backtest.
- 03Bind your contest versionPick one of your saved strategy versions as the contest entry; you may rebind freely until it locks.
- 04Unified run and judgingOnce your version locks, the platform computes performance under this edition's run rules and feeds ranking and review.
Strategy Binding and Code Lock
- Until their contest version locks, participants may rebind or change their contest strategy at any time.
- Once locked, the contest version is frozen for the rest of the contest; the exact lock time follows the registration flow's notice.
Execution and Fairness
During the qualifier, every contest strategy runs forward against real market data in the platform's unified environment: results come only from market moves that happen after the contest starts, so there is no pre-existing "answer" to look up; settlement follows deterministic rules and every result can be recomputed and checked trade by trade.
- Each contest strategy holds a single directional position (long or short) at a time, settled and advanced bar by bar at the close; an opposite signal closes the current position before opening a new one.
- A fee is charged on both opening and closing a position, at the configured rate, and is reflected in the equity calculation.
- Equity hitting zero force-closes the position (a liquidation flag); the strategy opens no further positions for the remainder of this edition.
- The trading symbol and interval declared in your bound version are that strategy's run parameters and freeze with the version at lock; if this edition restricts the tradable instrument set, the restriction is validated when you bind your contest version.
Not currently modeled:
- Funding-fee settlement
- Order-book depth or real-volume matching (slippage is approximated via the configured fee/rate instead)
Awards and Verification
Provisional results
Leaderboards and award lists published during and immediately after the contest are provisional and have not yet been verified by the platform; they are not the final basis for awards.
Final results
A provisional award slot becomes final, and the prize is released, only after the platform completes eligibility verification. Slots that fail or time out on verification move to succession per the rules below.
- Winners must complete verification by the deadline communicated to them in their award notice.
- A slot whose verification fails or lapses moves, in rank order, to the next candidate within the same strategy category.
Discipline and Anti-Cheating
Prohibited actions
- Code and result ownership: plagiarizing or passing off others' strategies, or entering with unauthorized code or data, is prohibited.
- Lookahead and fabrication: backtests and contest materials may not use data unavailable at decision time (lookahead bias); forged results or performance fitted on future information are prohibited.
- Escaping the runtime: using network requests, external services, or undeclared data to bypass the platform's unified run conditions is prohibited.
- Duplicate entries: the same participant may not submit strategies through multiple accounts or affiliated teams.
Monitoring and penalties
- The platform may re-run contest code and cross-check inputs, trade records, and outputs to verify that results reproduce.
- When a strategy's run, results, or submitted materials look anomalous, the platform may request clarification and conduct a manual review.
- Confirmed violations result in loss of contest or award eligibility; issued rewards become void and may be recovered.
- Participants may submit a written appeal through the published appeal process.
Contest Agreements
Participants must confirm the following agreements online during registration:
- Contest agreement, including eligibility, data use, and intellectual property terms
- Risk disclosure covering simulated performance, market risk, and leverage risk
- Confidentiality agreement covering platform technical details and review information
- Compliance undertaking for institution groups covering lawful operation and information authenticity
Contest Risk and Compliance Statement
- This contest uses paper trading. Leaderboards and performance data are simulated results, not real-money trading results, and do not constitute return promises, investment advice, or recommendations. Simulated performance does not indicate future results.
- In-contest leaderboards are provisional. Results do not become final rankings or award bases until certified by the platform. The platform may recalculate leaderboards due to data correction or eligibility review.
- Any post-contest capital allocation or matching opportunity is at the platform's sole discretion. Participation or awards do not constitute a funding commitment.
- Markets involve risk, and strategy allocation should be handled cautiously. Participants make independent decisions and bear corresponding risks.