September Trader Competition: what we learned, who won, and why the metrics matter

I built Lepus Proprietary Trading to do the hard thing. Not to sell a dream

and walk away, but to take a large group of traders, filter carefully, coach them, and raise the best to a level where they can trade real capital with confidence and consistency. This competition was a snapshot of that process in the real world. It showed what excellence looks like, where it can go wrong, and how we judge performance with a clear head rather than a glossy sales pitch.

This is not an online prop shop that takes a fee and leaves you to it. We are a real trading group. We stand behind our traders, even in the tough patches, and we measure what actually counts.

Why we run these competitions

The competition gives everyone pressure, structure, and a deadline. Pressure changes behaviour. Under pressure you see habits for what they are. Good process stands up. Weak process cracks. That is exactly what we want to observe, because investors do not care about our feelings, they care about results delivered with professional risk control.

Our goal is to build a pipeline. We take a mass of motivated traders, we nurture them, and we elevate a select few to trade investor funds in a proper structure. The competition helps us identify those who can be consistent, calm, and repeatable. It also teaches powerful lessons to everyone who takes part.

How we actually assess performance

There are many dashboards and statistics in the wild. We use FXBlue because it plugs cleanly into our workflow, but the platform is not the point. The point is to sort signal from noise.

We strip out vanity metrics and focus on a short list that tells the truth.

• Win loss and system R multiple. A fifty percent win rate with average wins larger than average losses is far better than a high win rate with poor payoffs. The relationship between win rate and system R is what matters.

  
  

• Number of trades. Five trades tell you little. One hundred trades in a month for a day trader gives the law of large numbers a chance to speak. Too few trades is weak evidence. Hundreds of trades can also reveal overtrading, which is a behavioural issue.

  
  

• Equity on each order close. Daily equity curves can hide chaos within the session. We want to see the path, not only the destination. Large intraday dips that recover by the close are a warning sign.

• Profitability by duration. Are you cutting winners early and holding losers, or are you letting a few well chosen trades run while controlling risk on the rest. A handful of runners can lift system R. Endless hope trades do the opposite.

  
  

• Position sizing and averaging. We look for consistent sizing tied to risk, not emotional sizing. We also check statements to see if you are averaging into losers. If four or five trades close at the same time, we will ask questions.

  
  

• Drawdown control. For a professional standard we aim for daily drawdown in the range of one to two percent, with five percent as an outer limit while we coach through a rough patch. A fifty percent stop is a disaster line, not a target. If you are down ten to fifteen percent on the account we review and adjust before anything gets worse.

  
  

• A note on the famous ratios. Sharpe includes upside and downside variance equally around the mean. That punishes strong upside the same as messy downside. Sortino excludes upside variance and is therefore more informative for our purpose. The point is not to worship a formula unless you fully understand it. It is to understand what it measures and what it misses.

Behaviour beats clever theory

Everyone loves a clever setup. The truth is that behaviour carries the day. Discipline with sizing, patience with entries, and the willingness to accept a red day inside limits will beat frantic clicking every time. Many traders do better on the five minute chart because it reduces noise and temptation. The one minute can work, but it requires exceptional control. Use it with purpose, not to feed impatience.

The best results in this competition came from traders who kept losses small, allowed a few trades to run, and refused to chase equity curves. They traded their plan, not their emotions.

The results and the people

The top eight were ranked by a blend of return, risk control, trade count, and behaviour. That means someone with a slightly lower return could rank higher than a raw profit chaser whose process was fragile. That is by design. We select for the person who can handle investor money month after month.

First place went to Geoff W. Geoff delivered about twelve percent with controlled risk and a mechanical, repeatable process. His equity on order close was clean and orderly, and his sizing was precise. That is what investors can trust.

Second place went to Robert, who could not attend in person. His work across the month met our standards, and we will acknowledge him properly at the next gathering.

Third place went to Jay. Jay shared honest reflections that will

help others. He noticed that the one minute chart led him to force trades and that he performed better when he focused on a small number of A grade setups. That kind of lesson is gold if you act on it.

We also gave a Rising Star award to Shiny for commitment, consistency, and doing the work asked. Turning up and following the process counts.

The panel discussion after the awards was the best part. Traders spoke frankly about what they changed and why. The themes were the same. Keep risk per trade small. Let a few winners run. Journal everything. Backtest ideas until you have personal conviction. Use accountability and community to steer behaviour when pressure rises. Many also said that one to two focused hours around the open is enough when you are trading well. Less time on the screens can reduce the urge to overtrade.

What investors need to know

When we speak with investors we are open about risk. We frame returns conservatively, in the region of fifty to eighty percent over twelve months if the team performs well, and we explain the review levels for drawdown. The competition demonstrates that we hold ourselves to that standard. We do not chase leaderboard glory. We reward robust process.

What happens next

We will keep running these competitions because they teach quickly. A month under pressure can deliver six months of learning. If you want to trade for us, this is the kind of consistency we are looking for. If you are in the community and you had a rough month, do not vanish. Review your metrics, adjust sizing, and come back with a clearer plan. We will coach you through it.

If you are reading this from outside LepusProp and you want to know whether we are a serious prop firm, judge us by the way we measure and by the way we speak about risk. Judge us by the traders we develop and the standards we enforce. We are not perfect. We are honest, and we are building something that lasts.

Thank you to everyone who took part, shared their screens, posted both wins and losses, and spoke candidly on the night. The next round will raise the bar again.