Understanding the GIOAT Leaderboard: How Rankings Work

The GIOAT leaderboard ranks every connected trader by one number: their verified return for this year, or since they connected if that was later. There is no profit ranking, no weekly or monthly view, and no consistency or risk score in the ordering. This guide explains how that number is worked out, who is listed, what each column means and how to read the board without being misled.

One ranking, one number

Traders are sorted by verified return, highest first. Nothing else changes the order: not dollar profit, not win rate, not follower count, not price.

The return is a time-weighted return (TWR). GIOAT records the total value of the trader's tracked brokerage account each day, takes out the deposits and withdrawals the broker reports, and chains the daily returns together. Each day uses the Modified Dietz formula: (closing value − previous value − flow) ÷ (previous value + 0.5 × flow).

That differs from a simple ROI of gain divided by money put in, and the difference shows up whenever money moves. Say an account is worth $10,000, the trader deposits $1,000, and the account closes the day at $11,200. The balance is up 12%. The day's TWR is (11,200 − 10,000 − 1,000) ÷ (10,000 + 500) = +1.9%. Only the $200 the trader actually made counts.

Why there's no profit ranking

A dollar ranking favors big accounts. Take two traders this year. Trader A has a $200,000 account and gained $10,000, which is 5%. Trader B has a $5,000 account and gained $1,000, which is 20%. A dollar ranking puts A first. A return ranking puts B first, because B grew each dollar four times as much. GIOAT ranks by return, and the public leaderboard deliberately shows no account values or dollar profit.

It resets every January 1

The number covers the current calendar year only. On January 1 everyone starts again, so in the first weeks of the year the board ranks a few days of trading.

Why a short record can rank high

A true year-to-date return needs a snapshot of the account from last December 31. A trader who connected this year doesn't have one, so they're ranked on their return since GIOAT's first snapshot of their account. The public page says so above the table. The signed-in board's column still reads "Verified Return (YTD)" either way.

Example: Trader C connected on September 15 and is up 18% five weeks later, mostly from one position that jumped. Trader D has been connected since last year and is up 15% for the full year. C ranks above D. Both numbers are correct. They cover different periods and carry different amounts of evidence.

Don't annualize a short record to make it look comparable. Eighteen percent in five weeks, compounded over 52 weeks, is 1.18 ^ 10.4 − 1, or roughly 460% a year. That figure tells you nothing useful about next year.

A trader with only one snapshot so far is listed at 0.00%, because there's nothing to compare it with yet.

Who appears on the board

• Every trader with a brokerage connected right now whose return has been calculated is listed, unless an admin has hidden them.
• Every eligible trader is ranked, so being on the board means the trader connected and says nothing about skill. The public page shows the first 100.
• There is no setting to stay off the board while connected. Connecting a brokerage lists you publicly, and disconnecting removes you.
• One account per trader is tracked. When a trader switches which account is tracked, they choose "Keep my track record", which links the accounts into one return, or "Start fresh", which hides the earlier accounts from the public record.

Public board vs signed-in board

There are two versions of the leaderboard. Both use the same ranking and the same eligible traders.

What the columns mean:

• Trades this year counts executed trades dated this year across the trader's tracked accounts.
• Win rate counts closed trades only, over all the history GIOAT has synced, not just this year (more below). On the public page, a win rate of exactly 0% shows as a dash, the same as no data. The signed-in board shows N/A when a trader has no closed trades.
• The tag comes from the symbols the trader has traded: all crypto is Crypto, none is Stock, a mix is Mixed.
• Price is what the trader charges per month to follow them, from $0 to $1,000. Prices don't appear in the iOS and Android apps, where following isn't offered.

Sorting the signed-in board

Click a column header to sort by it, and click again to reverse. Price sorts cheapest first. Sorting by win rate puts traders with no closed trades at the bottom. The rank number is renumbered to match the current sort, so after sorting by price, #1 is the cheapest trader, not the best performer. There are no filters for asset type, style or price range.

Reading win rate next to return

Win rate and return measure different things over different periods, so they can disagree. Win rate counts how many closed trades made money. It ignores open positions: a stock the trader still holds at a 30% loss doesn't touch the win rate, but it does pull down the return.

Example: a trader closes 8 trades at $100 profit each and 2 at $1,500 loss each. Win rate: 80%. Net result: $800 − $3,000 = −$2,200. A high win rate next to a weak return can mean small wins and large losses.

How fresh the numbers are

An hourly job syncs each trader's deposits and withdrawals, updates today's account value and recalculates the return. An end-of-day pass runs each evening and sets that day's closing value. So the board moves about once an hour, and the public page can trail the signed-in board by a few minutes.

How to read the board sensibly

1. Read the period before the number. Open the trader's profile, set the return chart to YTD and see where it starts.
2. Compare like with like. A full-year return and a five-week return don't belong in the same comparison.
3. Look at the path. On the profile chart, a steady climb and one big jump can end at the same number.
4. Check activity. Two trades this year and two hundred trades this year are very different amounts of evidence.
5. Put win rate beside return, remembering that it leaves out open positions.
6. Do the fee math. $100 a month is $1,200 a year, or 12% of a $10,000 account, before you've made anything.
7. Mind the calendar. In January, every return is short.

If you're the one being ranked

The only thing of yours that affects your rank is your return. Posting more, gaining followers or lowering your price won't move you up. A deposit doesn't lift you and a withdrawal doesn't drop you, because both are taken out of the calculation. Losses count the day the account value falls, whether or not you've sold, and a 20% drawdown needs a 25% gain just to get back to even. Protecting the account is part of ranking well.

Before you pick someone from the board, learn how to read a trader's profile, then work through a method for comparing traders.