How to Compare Multiple Traders Using Performance History and Other Metrics

Choosing a trader to follow usually comes down to comparing a handful of names. Plenty of traders online claim they've cracked the market, and the wins they post can look bigger than life. GIOAT computes each trader's return from their connected brokerage account instead of their own posts: no manual uploads, no edited screenshots, no "trust me".

A verified number still has to be read carefully. Two traders with the same return can have very different records behind it. This guide sets out what GIOAT shows you, what you need to check yourself, and a worked comparison of two example traders.

GIOAT has no side-by-side comparison tool and no filters. You compare by reading the leaderboard, which you can sort by return, price or win rate when signed in, and then opening each trader's profile. A note or spreadsheet with one row per trader does the rest.

What you can compare, and where to find it

What you won't find: drawdown, volatility, a risk score, a benchmark comparison, dollar profit, a month-by-month breakdown or a full trade history. Some of these you can estimate yourself, as the steps below show.

Step 1: line up the periods

The leaderboard ranks on the return for this year, or since the trader connected if that was later, and the profile card is labelled "Year to date" either way. Before comparing two numbers, find each one's start date. Set the profile chart to YTD and see where the line begins, or look at a shared profile's link preview, which says "since" and a date when the figure isn't a full year.

Don't annualize a short record to make it comparable. Ten percent in two months, compounded over twelve, is 1.10 ^ 6 − 1 = 77% a year. Nobody should plan around that. Write the period next to the return and treat a short record as a smaller sample.

Step 2: look at the path, not just the endpoint

The return chart shows how the number was reached. Two traders can both be up 20% this year:

• One climbed steadily, with no drop bigger than a few percent.
• The other fell 30% by spring and then gained 71% to finish at +20% (0.70 × 1.714 = 1.20).

Same number, very different ride. GIOAT doesn't calculate drawdown, so read it off the chart. Because the chart shows cumulative return, compare growth factors: a fall from +30% to +4% is 1.04 ÷ 1.30 − 1 = −20%, not 26 points.

Switch between 3M, YTD, 1Y and 2Y to see whether the record holds up across periods, keeping in mind that each view only goes back as far as the trader's history on GIOAT. A dashed line on the chart marks a date when the trader switched which account is tracked and kept their record.

Step 3: read win rate together with the return

Win rate is closed trades with a profit divided by all closed trades. Two details change how you read it:

• It counts closed trades only. A position still held at a loss doesn't lower it, though it does lower the return.
• It covers all the history GIOAT has synced for the account, not only this year, so it can span a longer period than the return.

What decides profit is win rate combined with the size of wins and losses. Expected result per trade = (win rate × average win) − (loss rate × average loss). A trader who wins 70% of the time averaging $200, and loses 30% of the time averaging $600, expects 0.70 × 200 − 0.30 × 600 = −$40 per trade. A trader who wins 40% of the time averaging $900, and loses 60% of the time averaging $300, expects 0.40 × 900 − 0.60 × 300 = +$180.

GIOAT doesn't show you another trader's average win and loss, so use the return as the check. A high win rate next to a weak return points to small wins, big losses or losing positions still open.

Step 4: check activity and style

• Trades this year on the public leaderboard tells you how much evidence sits behind the record. A return built on three trades rests on three decisions.
• The tag (Crypto, Stock or Mixed) comes from the symbols the trader has traded.
• Positions on the profile is how many holdings they have now.
• Last Trade is the latest stock buy marked to today's price. It reads +0.00% if the latest stock trade was a sell, and it skips options.

Once you follow, you can go further. Allocation shows concentration: a 60% position that falls 10% costs the account about 6%. The latest 10 trades show how often the trader trades and whether they use options. Those trades come without quantities, so they show habits, not size.

Step 5: do the cost math

Each trader sets a monthly price from $0 to $1,000. You pay from your GIOAT wallet for 30 days at a time, and 80% goes to the trader. If you unfollow, access lasts until the paid period ends. Following is done on the website, not in the apps.

Work out what the price means for your account: monthly price × 12 ÷ account size. Then be clear about what it buys: the trader's current holdings, their latest 10 trades and the broadcasts they write. GIOAT sends no automatic trade alerts and doesn't copy trades into your account, so any value comes from what you learn and decide to do yourself.

A worked comparison

The two traders below are made up to show the method. They are not real GIOAT users.

Reading it step by step:

• Period. B earned 24% over about nine and a half months, A over about two. They would sit next to each other on the leaderboard, but B's number rests on more than four times as much time.
• Path. Most of A's return came in one week. Take that week out and A is at 1.24 ÷ 1.19 − 1 = +4.2%. B's year includes a 12% drop that needed a 13.6% gain to recover (1 ÷ 0.88 − 1), and the chart shows B came back from it.
• Win rate. A's 85% looks better, but with nine trades this year it rests on few decisions, and it says nothing about positions A still holds. B wins less than half the time and is still up 24%, which suggests B's winners are larger than B's losers.
• Cost. On a $10,000 account, A's $150 a month is $1,800 a year, or 18% of the account. B's $40 is $480, or 4.8%.

Neither record says anything certain about next year. B's record simply holds more evidence: a full year, a drawdown and a recovery, and seventy trades. A might be skilled, but the record can't show it yet. A sensible move is to revisit A in three to six months, when the chart has more to say.

A comparison worksheet

For each trader on your shortlist, write down:

1. Verified return and the date the record starts
2. The biggest drop you can see on the 1Y or YTD chart, worked out from growth factors
3. Whether most of the return came from one short stretch
4. Win rate, and whether it fits the return
5. Trades this year
6. Tag and number of positions
7. Monthly price as a percentage of your account per year
8. After following: the largest holding's allocation and what the latest 10 trades say about style

Then start from the verified leaderboard. For more on each number, read how the leaderboard ranks traders and how to read a trader's profile.