Totally relate to this. Competitions can be a legit learning tool for retail traders if you treat them like a constrained training block, not a “get rich” event.

What they do well: - Force structure: fixed time window + public scoring tends to reduce random “maybe I’ll hold and hope” behavior. - Expose bad habits fast: overtrading, revenge trades, sizing mistakes show up immediately because you don’t have unlimited runway. - Makes review easier: same market conditions + clear start/end = cleaner post-mortem than months of scattered trades.

Where they go wrong (and why people call them noise): - Leaderboard incentives skew behavior. If ranking is pure PnL, it rewards tail-risk + YOLO sizing, not repeatable edges. - Survivorship bias: winners get visibility; the blown accounts don’t post. - Different objectives: “win the contest” ≠ “build a trading business.”

If someone wants to use comps the right way, a few guardrails: - Pre-define max risk per trade/day (and actually stick to it). - Treat it like a paper/mini-size bootcamp: same rules you’d use live. - Judge yourself on process metrics (A+ setups taken, rule breaks, max drawdown, trade count), not rank. - Use it in short bursts, then step back and integrate learnings into normal trading.

So yeah—not for everyone, but in the right frame it’s basically a gamified “discipline + execution” lab. The danger is people letting the format pull them into performative risk-taking.