Experimental trading with AI: which LLM earns the most?

As artificial intelligence evolves and large language models (LLM) become widespread, there are new attempts to harness it in the financial world — particularly in areas where, at least in theory, you can quickly make big money. Of course, I’m talking about trading or, if you will, speculating with financial instruments. Let’s dive into the Alpha Arena experiment, where six LLMs were each given $10,000 to trade on the cryptocurrency market. Can AI can replace humans in trading? Check it out!

The origin and purpose of the experiment

The Alpha Arena Experiment was kicked off by the research lab Nof1.ai and stands as the world’s first global benchmark designed to measure the investment capabilities of leading LLMs in real, dynamic market conditions. The main goal of the project was to determine if the general intelligence of LLMs is adequate for generating a market edge (known as “alpha”) and effectively managing risk in an environment that, by definition, is “chaotic, antagonistic, non-stationary, and unpredictable.” Unlike static knowledge tests, Alpha Arena put these models under market pressure, testing their decision-making abilities with real capital and volatility.