Why AI Trading Is Failing

(And What This Really Means)

Author

Don Kaufman
October 23, 2025

Good afternoon, and welcome to another episode of "markets are acting weird and AI isn't helping."

There's an AI trading competition happening right now that should be front page news but nobody's talking about it. 

They gave different AI platforms $10,000 each on October 17th to trade crypto derivatives. Real money, real trades, everything transparent.

The results? 

Well, let's just say the AI revolution in trading might need to learn how to not lose money first.

The Numbers (And They're Brutal)

Here's what's actually happening in this Alpha Arena competition:

ChatGPT: Down about 65-70% of its initial $10,000 as of yesterday
Most general AI platforms: Getting destroyed by basic market chop
The winner: DeepSeek (Chinese math/coding specialist) - up 10-40%
Second place: Grok - up 15-30% with simple BTC longs and low leverage

Wait, hold on. 

Grok is actually doing well? Yeah, that's the thing everyone's missing. This isn't "all AI sucks at trading." This is "general AI built for everything sucks at the one specific thing everyone claims it'll dominate."

This Guy Made $1,445 While the Market Crashed 20%

Remember April when everything went to hell?

Market tanked almost 20%. Retail traders panicked.

Don Kaufman made $1,445 on one trade.

He put it on April 1st, then watched the market "absolutely freaking tank."

His Christmas tree trade? Still profitable.

While everyone else was bleeding, he was banking.

The difference? He wasn't guessing direction. He was selling the chaos.

Today the same setup is back. Don just went live and filled another one at the market's absolute low.

WATCH THE REPLAY BEFORE VOLATILITY SPIKES AGAIN