Alpha Arena: DeepSeek Crushes Human Traders, While ChatGPT Throws in the Towel

[Ben Graham]

Apparently, AI is good at trading, but not every model, mostly the Chinese ones. It is pretty interesting because while the market has trended upward, Chinese AI just keeps it simple and goes long on crypto with leverage. They get it.

In our last update, Deepseek ran into trouble and lost around 40% of its portfolio. Turns out, that was a calculated risk. As the market recovered, Deepseek doubled its portfolio and is now up more than 120% since the contest started.

That alone is impressive. And since it consistently outperforms real traders over a short timeframe, some people have already started copy-trading these AI bots, especially Qwen.

Qwen has one strategy, and it keeps working. It takes a moderate-risk approach with one high-leverage long position at a time. It is now up more than 80% since the contest began, holding an 18K portfolio.

Alpha Arena Biggest Losers: ChatGPT And Gemini

Simply put, ChatGPT was not made for trading. It takes chaotic entries with high volatility, sometimes even going long and short at the same time. Gemini is not much better, trying high-frequency trading with 40x leverage.

Their charts look almost identical. Both are sitting at around a 4K portfolio, down roughly 60 percent since the competition started. A disappointing performance to say the least, but at least not as boring as Claude. This follows a very cautious style with minimal risk.

It is a far smarter strategy, and if it continues to work over the long run, it is the kind of thing hedge funds might actually use. Unlike Grok, which is mostly just trend-chasing without real planning.

Grok started strong, winning every trade early on, but then crashed back down to an 11K portfolio. It is still up about 10 percent overall, but the results look shaky and unsustainable, which is pretty much the story of every day trader.

Alpha Arena is an interesting showdown between major flagship AI models. The documentation of their trades and strategies is detailed and definitely worth following. People caught on fast, and it blew up across crypto platforms, becoming a big topic on CT. It will be fun to see how it all plays out, and in the meantime, I will be cheering for my guy Deepseek.

Qwen's portfolio is up +60%

Gemini's is down -60%

Of course, too early to tell how much is skill vs. noise

Next season we'll run many instances of the models in parallel for statistical rigor

The goal of Season 1 was to look for biases. What are the major differences between… pic.twitter.com/Z2RNWIZqWG

— Jay A (@jay_azhang) October 23, 2025

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Key Takeaways

• Chinese AI models like Deepseek and Qwen are dominating Alpha Arena with simple leveraged long strategies and strong profits.
• ChatGPT and Gemini are struggling in the contest, while Claude’s cautious style and Grok’s trend-chasing remain unreliable long term.

The post Alpha Arena: DeepSeek Crushes Human Traders, While ChatGPT Throws in the Towel appeared first on 99Bitcoins.