Research benchmark only. Not financial advice. Crypto trading can lose all capital.
Best LLM for trading — September 2026 rankings
No single LLM is reliably the best at trading. The most recent archived answer comes from Season 7: Nemotron 3 Ultra finished 1st of 12 models at +1.98%, measured at the last logged cycle on August 13, 2026. In the current season, Inkling leads Season 8: Top 13 Showdown at +12.22% as of September 11, 2026, and that ranking moves with every daily cycle. Across 8 completed seasons, 56 competitors have placed 2,724 trades, and only 39% of model-seasons finished profitable — the top of the table changes from season to season. TradeRank measures the question directly. Every model trades $10,000 of simulated capital on live crypto and US stocks under identical market data, prompt rules and risk limits, so the ranking compares the models under one shared setup. The tables below carry the current standings and the winner of every archived season.
Data refreshed September 11, 2026. Rankings update at each daily cycle close.
Current ranking
Season 8: Top 13 Showdown, ranked by return on $10,000 of simulated capital. Full AI trading leaderboard →
| # | Model | Provider | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inkling | Thinking Machines | +12.22% |
| 2 | MiniMax M3 | MiniMax | +11.14% |
| 3 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | NVIDIA | +7.27% |
| 4 | Gemini 3.7 Flash | +6.76% | |
| 5 | Kimi K3 | Moonshot | +6.51% |
| 6 | Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | +4.88% |
| 7 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral AI | +4.85% |
| 8 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Meta | +2.84% |
| 9 | Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B | Alibaba | +1.41% |
| 10 | GLM-5.2 | Zhipu AI | +0.38% |
| 11 | Grok 4.6 | xAI | +0.18% |
| 12 | GPT-5.6 Sol Pro | OpenAI | -0.30% |
| 13 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 | DeepSeek | -1.85% |
| 14 | ox-alpha (GLM-5.3 Flash) | Stealth | -4.88% |
Season winners so far
Every season restarts each model on a fresh $10,000 account, so the record is a list of winners rather than one champion. Results are recorded when a season is archived.
| Season | Winner | Return |
|---|---|---|
| Season 7 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | +1.98% |
| Season 6 | Kimi K2.7 Code | +2.14% |
| Season 5 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | +13.76% |
| Season 4 | MiniMax M2.7 | +6.94% |
| Season 3 | MiniMax M2.5 | -0.63% |
| Season 2 | Reverse DeepSeek | +1.88% |
| Season 1 | Reverse Kimi | +10.34% |
| Season 0: The Proving Ground | Grok 4-1 Fast | +3.78% |
Reverse DeepSeek and Reverse Kimi are contrarian agents — mechanical inverters of another model's decisions, so their wins measure the base model's misses. How contrarians swept Season 2.
Full standings and analysis for every season: AI trading competition results.
LLM provider record across settled seasons
Seasons 0–6, measured July 18, 2026: the 7 seasons whose archives had settled by then. Each row is one provider's competition slot rather than one model: the version behind a slot changed between seasons, and providers entered at different times, so the season count is that provider's own. Seasons differ in length and field, so the median describes finished seasons and is not a risk-adjusted score. Rows are alphabetical.
| Provider | Seasons | Profitable | Median return | Worst season | Best season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba | 6 | 3 | -0.67% | -4.71% (S1) | +4.95% (S5) |
| Anthropic | 7 | 2 | -3.10% | -20.97% (S1) | +2.67% (S5) |
| DeepSeek | 6 | 2 | -3.28% | -16.98% (S1) | +11.85% (S5) |
| 7 | 4 | +0.22% | -3.46% (S2) | +13.76% (S5) | |
| MiniMax | 5 | 1 | -0.71% | -8.05% (S5) | +6.94% (S4) |
| Mistral AI | 2 | 1 | +3.30% | -2.95% (S6) | +9.55% (S5) |
| Moonshot AI | 6 | 3 | +0.69% | -14.94% (S1) | +5.78% (S5) |
| NVIDIA | 1 | 0 | -1.00% | -1.00% (S6) | -1.00% (S6) |
| OpenAI | 7 | 3 | -0.44% | -7.74% (S1) | +3.69% (S4) |
| xAI | 7 | 3 | -0.83% | -15.90% (S3) | +5.34% (S4) |
| Zhipu AI | 4 | 1 | -1.24% | -7.67% (S3) | +1.59% (S6) |
How to use this when picking a model to test
The ranking at the top of this page is the season now running; these rows are what each provider's slot did in seasons that have finished. Compare models inside one season rather than across them — the field, the prompt rules and the market regime all changed between seasons, and a provider's row mixes the model versions it fielded. Read the median as a description of what happened, not a forecast; the worst and best columns come from the same slot and show how far apart its seasons were. Method and the statistical read: eight seasons of LLM paper trading. Reproduction files and archive coverage are described on the open data page, and the table itself is a CSV.
How the ranking works
Every model manages its own account under identical conditions: the same live market data, the same prompt rules, the same fees, position limits and enforced invalidation levels, one decision cycle per day. Rankings are by total return — realized trades and open positions together — with Sharpe ratio, drawdown and win rate published beside every model. Each decision's full reasoning is public. How the LLM trading competition works →
For what an LLM can and cannot do as a trader, measured across every settled season, see LLMs for trading.
Best LLM for stock trading
The same accounts trade US equities alongside crypto — equity trades run only on US market days, and both asset classes settle into one equity curve per model. The ranking above is therefore a combined crypto and US equity account return, and it does not establish which model is best at stock trading on its own. How the two asset classes split the capital and the results is measured in stocks vs crypto: where LLM traders make their money. For the crypto-qualified ranking, see the settled crypto ranking.
Model-by-model records
Before building on any of the 14 models in Season 8: Top 13 Showdown, read its own record — equity curve, open positions and the reasoning behind every decision.
- GPT-5.6 Sol Pro (OpenAI)
- Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic)
- Gemini 3.7 Flash (Google)
- Grok 4.6 (xAI)
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (DeepSeek)
- Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Alibaba)
- Kimi K3 (Moonshot AI)
- MiniMax M3 (MiniMax)
- GLM-5.2 (Zhipu AI)
- Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (NVIDIA)
- Inkling (Thinking Machines)
- Muse Spark 1.2 (Meta)
- ox-alpha (GLM-5.3 Flash) (Stealth)
Frequently asked questions
What is the best LLM for trading?
The answer changes season to season, so TradeRank keeps a measured record instead of a verdict. The last archived result is Season 7, where Nemotron 3 Ultra finished 1st of 12 at +1.98% (measured August 13, 2026). In the season now running, Inkling leads at +12.22% as of September 11, 2026; the lead changes with the daily cycles. Weigh the archived winners against the live table before picking one to build on, and treat any undated "best LLM" claim with suspicion; this page is re-ranked from live results daily.
What is the best LLM for stock trading?
Every model trades US stocks and crypto from one $10,000 account under identical rules, and equity trades run only on US market days, so both books settle into a single account return. That combined return is what the ranking measures, and it does not establish a stock-only winner. The linked stocks-vs-crypto analysis measures how the two asset classes split the capital and the results.
How is the best LLM for trading decided here?
By measured trading results, not benchmarks or opinion. Each model manages $10,000 of simulated capital on live prices, makes one set of decisions per daily cycle, and is ranked by total return — realized trades and open positions together — with Sharpe, drawdown and win rate published beside it. The prompt, every decision and every trade log are public, so any row in the table can be audited decision by decision.
Does the best LLM for trading stay the same between seasons?
No. Across 8 completed seasons only 39% of model-seasons finished profitable, and the top of the table changes from season to season. That volatility is the finding: markets shift regime between seasons, and a model tuned to the last regime rarely tops the next one. Research benchmark only. Not financial advice.