AI4Finance Open Trading Challenge
Build. Trade. Prove.
A continuous, real-market trading challenge designed to identify exceptional quantitative researchers through code quality, reproducibility, and real trading performance.
Why This Challenge Exists
Modern quantitative finance suffers from a credibility gap. Backtests look impressive, yet few strategies survive real market conditions.
AI4Finance believes that:
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Real markets matter
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Reproducible code matters
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Risk-adjusted performance matters
Current Season: Pilot Quarter
Technical Requirements
Framework
Must use official FinRL-Trading framework. Custom modifications to agents/rewards allowed.
Execution
Must connect to Alpaca Paper Trading. No mock data or simulated environments.
Reproducibility
Public GitHub repo, clear requirements.txt, fixed random seeds where applicable.
Transparency
Trade logs, daily equity curve, no manual intervention during execution.
Evaluation Criteria
* High absolute returns without risk control will not score well.
Scholarship Awards
* Awards are issued as scholarships/research grants. Not employment income or investment returns.
Ready to Compete?
Fork Template
Fork the official challenge template repository on GitHub.
Run Strategy
Implement and run your strategy for at least 30 trading days.
Submit
Submit your repo link, equity curve, and description.
Beyond the Challenge
Top-performing participants may be invited to join the AI4Finance Trading Fellows Pool, granting access to advanced research projects and internal collaborations.
Participation does not imply employment, investment, or future obligations.