LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 27, 2025--
The United States Investing Championship just announced its final results for 2024. There were four hundred fifty-one competitors, each of whom selected a real money account to be tracked before the competition began. Prior top performers include Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Mark Strome, and Dr. Edward O. Thorp.
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In the $1,000,000+ stock division, setting a new record of + 353.9%, is J Law, from Hong Kong. Mr. Law broke Mark Minervini’s prior record of + 334.8%. Mr. Law is a student of Mr. Minervini. He has a YouTube channel, @jlawstock. In second place + 273.8% is J Law’s wife, Judy Lai. In third place + 153.2% is Deepak Uppal, from Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Uppal has an MBA from the University of Illinois. Other traders reporting significant profits are Aryan Khandelwal (TwoXCapital) + 123.5%, John Ward (Mystic Valley Investments) + 122.8%, Theo Gustincic + 107%, Anthony Shi + 101.2%, George Tkaczuk + 97.7%, Vibha Jha + 78.2%, Louis Carlos Tarin + 64.2%, Bhasker J. Patel MD, FACC + 43.7%, James R. Wombles, Jr. + 35.1%, and D I Trading + 32.1%.
In the $1,000,000+ enhanced growth division, which allows the trading of futures and options, the winner is Brandi Archer + 90.7%, a full-time trader from Chicago. Ms. Archer previously worked in real estate and has a law degree from Chicago-Kent. Finishing second is Matthew Pryzby + 59.1%, from Long Beach, California. Mr. Pryzby runs Trading Experts, an educational service for traders. Other traders reporting significant profits are Warren Straub + 39.6%, Magnus Sigurdsson + 37.8%, and SK Chong of Kamet Capital Partners + 28.6%.
Among participants trading less than $1,000,000 in stocks, the winner is Judy Lai + 449.1%, the wife of J Law. Finishing second + 433.5% is Christian Flanders, from Puerto Rico. Mr Flanders played poker professionally for ten years and is a fencing champion. Finishing third + 409.6% is Leos Mikulka, from Prague, Czech Republic. Mr. Mikulka played professional football for the Czech Republic national team. He currently works in the IT industry. Other traders achieving gains of more than 100% are J Law + 397%, Mohamed Gad +308.8%, Martin Luk + 283.1%, Menelaos Fthenakis + 254%, Gabriel Blanco, CPA + 218.7%, Abinesh V. + 217.3%, Kelvin C.H. Wong + 180.6%, Javi Medina + 178.5%, Waddington J. G. Antonio + 138.9%, Steven Chase + 133.2%, Michael Seidler + 117.4%, Parin Vasava of Aartha Investments + 116.7%, and Matthew Moorman + 109.5%.
Among participants trading less than $1,000,000 in the enhanced growth division, the winner is Brandon Frenchak + 482.6%, from Montgomery, Texas. Mr. Frenchak owns a data engineering consulting firm. Second is Anindo Majumdar + 389.3%, from San Diego. Mr. Anindo Majumdar quit his job as an engineer at Cisco Systems in 2006 and has been a full-time trader ever since. Third is Florian Philippi + 311% from Germany, now living in New York City. Mr. Philippi is a Data Engineer. Other traders with gains of more than 100% are Andrew O’Connell, CFA, FRM (Pristine Capital) + 254%, Dave Gagne + 217.6%, David Tarin + 217%, Satish Karanam + 201.1%, Christopher Boyd + 200.8%, Tim Emanuel + 192.2%, Holly Handy + 191.9%, Lai Lee + 163.9%, Bhushan Bhangale + 117.4% and Andrew Preston of Mark Anthony Trading + 105.9%.
Since its inception in 1983, the United States Investing Championship has attracted legendary traders, including Paul Tudor Jones, Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Sean Ryan, Louis Bacon, Dr. Edward O. Thorp, Mark Strome, Doug Kass, Sheen Kassouf, Marty Schwartz, Frankie Joe, Tom Basso, Cedd Moses, Gil Blake, Robert Prechter, Jr., and Bruno Combier.
The standings appear on financial-competitions.com along with articles about top performers from Business Insider, Institutional Investor, Barron's, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and other financial publications. The standings also appear on X at @USICOfficial.
Entries for the 2025 competition are currently being accepted at financial-competitions.com. Participants who enter late are tracked from the close on the day they enter.
The contest coordinator, Dr. Norman Zadeh (aka Zada), is also president of the Lotfi Zadeh Foundation, a charity created to build thousands of ultra-low-cost ($5,000/unit) residences in sparsely populated areas and fully take care of the homeless. (Visit lotfi-zadeh.com for more information.) Dr. Zadeh taught Operations Research in a visiting capacity at Stanford, UCLA, UC Irvine, and Columbia Universities between 1975 and 1983. He managed hedge funds from 1991 to 2012. His father, Lotfi Zadeh, created fuzzy logic. Norm is the author of four books: Fox News: The Enemy Within (released in 2021), The Rise and Fall of Perfect 10 (released in 2021), Hold'em Poker Super Strategy (released in 2020), and Winning Poker Systems (Prentice Hall, 1974).
For more information, contact Dr. Norman Zadeh at normanz@earthlink.net or call 310-409-7193.
Leaders in $1 Million+ Division (Graphic: Business Wire)
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to revive his struggling government but faced growing calls to resign after a disastrous set of local and regional elections for his Labour Party.
As the final results came in Saturday, Labour suffered a net loss of more than 1,100 local council seats across England, lost control of several local authorities it had held for decades and was booted from power in Wales after 27 years. Anti-immigration party Reform UK gained over 1,300 seats across England and made significant gains in legislative elections in Wales and Scotland.
It was a blunt verdict from voters in elections widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led the center-left party to power less than two years ago.
Here are five things we’ve learned from the elections.
Starmer insisted he would not walk away and "plunge the country into chaos,” and the dire election results did not produce an immediate challenge to his leadership.
"The right thing to do is rebuild and show the path forward,” Starmer said Saturday. “That’s what I’m going to do in the coming days.”
Starmer’s Cabinet colleagues expressed support, and none of the high-profile Labour politicians considered potential challengers has made a move. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham are keeping quiet for now.
But a growing number of Labour lawmakers urged the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure this year. British politics allows parties to change leader midterm without the need for a new election.
“There has to be a timetable,” legislator Clive Betts told the BBC. Another lawmaker, Tony Vaughan, said there should be an “orderly transition of leadership.”
Starmer tried to demonstrate change on Saturday by bringing back two figures from past Labour governments. He made former Prime Minister Gordon Brown a special envoy on global finance, and appointed the party's ex-deputy leader Harriet Harman an adviser on women and girls.
Starmer is due to make a speech on Monday in an attempt to regain momentum, before the government sets out its legislative plans on Wednesday in a speech delivered by King Charles III at the State Opening of Parliament.
The elections were a breakthrough for Reform UK, the latest hard-right party led by the veteran nationalist politician Nigel Farage.
Running on an anti-establishment and anti-immigration message, the party won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north, such as Sunderland, that were solid Labour turf for decades. It also made gains from the Conservatives in areas like the county of Essex, east of London, and increased its vote share in Wales and Scotland, new terrain for the party.
Farage said the results marked a “historic change in British politics.” He said he's confident that “voters who have come to us are not doing it as a short-term protest.”
Reform UK currently holds just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons and it’s unclear whether it could repeat its success in a national election.
The elections produced semiautonomous administrations in Scotland and Wales led by parties devoted to independence and the breakup of the United Kingdom — though neither has that policy on the front burner.
The Scottish National Party, which has governed in Edinburgh since 2007, won another term but fell short of a majority, meaning an independence referendum is unlikely. Labour and Reform tied in a distant second place.
Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales) won the most seats in the Cardiff-based legislature, the Senedd. The party, which has an ambition for Wales to leave the U.K. but no plan to do so anytime soon, fell short of a majority but will likely form the new government. Reform came second and Labour a distant third in one of its most historic heartlands, with outgoing First Minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat.
The economy lies at the heart of Labour’s troubles, as it does for many incumbent governments.
Since ending 14 years of Conservative rule roiled by austerity and the COVID-19 pandemic, Labour has struggled to ease the cost of living and jump-start a sluggish economy against the tough economic backdrop of war in Ukraine and, more recently, Iran. Starmer also has angered supporters with attempts to cut welfare spending, some of which were reversed after Labour revolts.
Some in Labour say the government's achievements, including protections for renters and a higher minimum wage, are going unnoticed. Many blame Starmer, an uninspiring leader distracted by scandals including his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
But Stephen Houghton, the outgoing leader of Barnsley council in northern England, where Labour lost to Reform, said the problem “goes deeper than the prime minister.”
“This has been coming for 30 years around the country, in post-industrial communities, coastal communities, that have been left behind,” he said. “You can change prime ministers all day long. If you don’t change policy, it’s not going to change.”
The results reflect a fragmentation of U.K. politics after decades of domination by Labour and the Conservative Party, which also suffered major losses on Thursday.
The elections offered voters a rainbow of choices, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales.
But the big winners were populist insurgents, Reform UK and the Green Party, whose focus has expanded from the environment to social justice and the Palestinian cause under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The Greens won hundreds of council seats from Labour in urban centers and university towns and took control of several local authorities.
Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the results suggest the next national election, due by 2029, won’t produce a majority for any party.
“So then you’re in the world of, after the election, two or three big minority parties trying to work out how they would govern,” he said — something traditionally considered “very un-British.”
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking to the media after meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)
First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney with some of the newly elected SNP MSPs in Edinburgh, Saturday May 9, 2026, following the 2026 Holyrood elections. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaking to the media after meeting Labour Party members during a visit to AFC Wimbledon in south London, Saturday May 9, 2026. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)
Observers from the Scottish National Party (SNP) watch as votes are counted for the 2026 Holyrood elections, at Dewars Centre in Perth, Scotland, Friday May 8, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks to supporters at Chelmsford City Racecourse, Friday May 8, 2026, in Essex, England, following the 2026 local election results. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks to Labour Party members at Kingsdown Methodist Church Hall, in Ealing, west London, Friday May 8, 2026, a day after the local elections. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
