The United States Investing Championship just announced the leaders for the first half of 2026. There are 688 competitors, each of whom selected a real money account to be tracked before the competition began. Only 115, or 17%, are reporting profits despite a gain in the SP 500 of 10.2%. Prior top performers include Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan and his son Sean Ryan, Mark Strome, and Dr. Edward O. Thorp.

There are four categories based on account size and risk.

Leading the $1,000,000+ stock division after six months, + 73.6%, is Abdulmajid M. Al Qurashi, from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Al Qurashi is Deputy CEO of Abdul Samad Al Qurashi, a leading Middle East fragrance company. He also publishes a financial newsletter which is available at themizan.capital. Second, + 61.4%, is George Tkaczuk. George is a portfolio manager at RCM Wealth Advisors in Chicago. He was + 86.3% in 2025 and + 97.7% in 2024. Third, + 56.1%, is Sheri Marcus, from Woodstock, Georgia. Besides being a serious trader, Sheri is also an accomplished artist. Also reporting gains of 10% or more are Inverteum Capital + 40%, Herbert Veisman + 38.7%, Steve McIntosh + 31%, Eric Evans + 26.4%, Alavanca Trading + 24.5%, Jandy Lam + 17.2%, Oscar Gonzalez + 14.9%, Sean Lefort + 14.7%, Craig Thompson + 11.4%, and Kohei Yamada + 10.9%.

In the $1,000,000+ enhanced growth division, which allows trading in futures and options and thus carries greater risk, the leader after six months is Baran Kayhan + 349.5%. Baran was born in Izmir, Turkey. He currently manages Euclid Technologies, a Toronto-based hedge fund. Second, + 161.3%, is Tim Garner, from Madison, Alabama. Tim is a former star quarterback and Ironman competitor. He was a NASA contractor in Huntsville, AL for 35 years. Third, + 89.1%, is Vikash Raniga. Vikash was + 95.7% in the 2025 competition. He has an MBA from MIT and currently lives in Fremont, CA. Other participants reporting profits of 10% or more are MC Diau + 46.4%, Tong Wang + 45.9%, Gravity Analytica + 44%, Daniel Lee + 36.4%, Ankur Shah + 27.2%, Joshua Wat + 25.8%, and Andrew O’Connell, CFA, FRM + 12.5%.

Among participants trading between $20,000 and $1,000,000 in stocks or ETFs, the leader after six months, with an 880.7% return, is Dr. Tom Doub of Arcadia Analytics in Tennessee. Dr. Doub previously taught as a Clinical Psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Second, + 458.3%, is William Haocheng Wang. Mr. Wang was born in Beijing, China, and now lives in Los Angeles. When he is not trading, he is a top-producing commercial real estate broker with Harvest Realty Development. Third, + 421.2%, is Martin Luk, from Hong Kong. Mr. Luk finished first in the 2025 competition, + 969.8%, and 6th in the 2024 competition, + 283.1%. Other participants reporting gains of at least 40% are M Suk Capital + 238.9%, Nicholaos Stroumpakis + 203.3%, Emmett Iheagwara + 168.9%, Adam R. Graham + 163.1%, John Rodrigues + 156.4%, Heather Qi + 149.8%, Tyler Lorenzen + 140%, Gabriel Blanco, CPA + 134%, Jacob Engel, CFA + 102.6%, Wisnu Wijayanta + 95.4%, Gowthaman Vijayan + 93.3%, Mario Fuchs + 85.4%, Gianluca Aversano + 74.9%, Anthony Derrer + 67.1%, Dr. Kaushal, MCh, + 51.5%, Michael Kwok + 48.5%, Hanaa Lahlal + 48%, and Desop Lee + 42.7%.

Among participants trading between $20,000 and $1,000,000 in the enhanced growth division, the leader after six months, with a 1,656.3% gain, is Omar Barkawi, from Seattle. Mr. Barkawi has a master’s degree in systems engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Second, + 623.9%, is Baran Kayhan. Mr. Kayhan finished + 135.1% in the 2025 competition. Third, + 332.8%, is John Rodrigues. Other traders with gains of 40% or more are Emanuela Elias + 159.5%, Sanjay Vig + 128.6%, Jim R + 120.4%, Matthew Sandiha + 120.2%, Nathan Bancroft + 114%, Wai Hong Lee + 107.2%, Cecil Chen + 68.6%, Wind Win + 65.9%, Brian Hooven + 62.5%, Ashish Kumar + 58.5%, Shrikant Nadkarni + 53.2%, Derek Quick + 50.8%, Jim Schreder + 50.2%, Jacob Congrove + 48.6%, HolguinTrades.com + 46.5%, and Karl Domm + 45.4%.

Since its inception in 1983, the United States Investing Championship has attracted legendary traders, including Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Sean Ryan, Louis Bacon, Dr. Edward O. Thorp, 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 financial-competitions.com along with articles about top performers from Business Insider, Institutional Investor, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, and Forbes, among others. The standings also appear on X at @USICOfficial.

Entries for the 2026 competition are currently being accepted at financial-competitions.com.

The contest coordinator, Dr. Norman Zadeh (aka Zada), is also president of the Lotfi Zadeh Foundation, a charity created to build thousands of ultra-low-cost ($5,000/unit) residences in sparsely populated areas and to fully care for the homeless. (Visit lotfi-zadeh.com for more information.) Dr. Zadeh taught Operations Research in a visiting capacity at Stanford, UCLA, UC Irvine, and Columbia University between 1975 and 1983. He managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012. His father, Lotfi Zadeh, created fuzzy logic. Norm is the author of four books: Hold’em Poker Super Strategy (released in 2020), Winning Poker Systems (Prentice Hall, 1974), The Rise and Fall of Perfect 10 (released in 2021), and Fox News: The Enemy Within (released in 2021).

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