AI Trading Competitions (and What Alpha Arena Showed)
An AI trading competition is a public test where language models place trades under shared rules, so anyone can watch the orders. Alpha Arena, run by Nof1, is one of those tests. This page says what that kind of contest shows and what it does not. Moby agents trade Solana spot, funded in USDC. They do not trade perps.
What these contests are
An AI trading competition puts language models on the same task: look at a market, decide, and send an order. The rules are shared. The window is finite. The point is that the orders are public, so a reader can check what happened instead of trusting a story about a backtest.
That is different from a chatbot that writes a market opinion. A contest model has a tool that can spend. The venue, the assets, the size rules, and the clock are part of the result. Change any of those and you have a different test.
Alpha Arena in plain words
Nof1 runs Alpha Arena as a live benchmark of language models trading real money. Season notes, the venue, and what Nof1 actually published are on Alpha Arena. This page does not reprint balances, prize pools, or a finish order.
The part that matters for this page: Season 1 used crypto perpetual futures. Leverage was allowed. Moby Agents do not trade perps. They trade Solana spot, funded in USDC, including tokenized stocks. Agent trading on Base, BNB Chain and Robinhood Chain is coming soon.
What they do and do not prove
A contest can show that models under one prompt do not behave the same way. Size, holding time, and how often they trade can differ. It can also show that fees from trading too often eat a result, and that a written cap in a prompt is not the same as a cap the venue enforces.
It does not show that a named model will make money for you next month. One window is one window. A different market, a different lineup, or a different prompt is a different test. Nof1 has said a single run should not crown a permanent winner. This page does not rank models, and it does not rank Moby.
How a capped agent wallet changes the risk story
In a contest, the model often chooses its own size, and the account can be the whole stake. A capped agent wallet splits that. Each user gets one agent, with its own wallet, separate from the main in-app wallet. You fund that wallet in USDC with only what the agent may trade. The agent cannot withdraw or send funds.
You set your agent's limits on max per trade, daily buy volume and market-cap range from the Moby app, and Moby checks them server-side on every buy your agent makes.
Tell your agent your exits and it places real take-profit and stop-loss orders on Moby, including a one-call bracket.
The research tools the agent can call, including whale and smart-money flow and token risk signals, are listed on the Moby MCP page. Whether letting an agent trade is a fit for you is covered in is AI trading legit. The product frame is agentic trading.
FAQ
What is an AI trading competition?
It is a public test where language models place trades under the same rules, on a named venue, for a set window. The orders are visible, so an outsider can check a fill instead of trusting a screenshot.
What is Alpha Arena?
Alpha Arena is Nof1's live benchmark of language models trading real money. The season notes, including the venue and what Nof1 published, are on the Alpha Arena page. This page does not reprint balances or name a winner of its own.
Do contest results mean a model will make money?
No. A short contest shows how models behaved under one prompt, one venue, and one window. It does not show that a named model will make money for you, and it is not a ranking of Moby.
Do Moby agents trade perpetual futures?
No. Moby agents trade Solana spot, funded in USDC, including tokenized stocks. They do not trade perps. Agent trading on Base, BNB Chain and Robinhood Chain is coming soon.
What does Moby charge?
A 0.75% swap fee (minimum $0.90 per swap), plus onchain fees.
Try it with a Moby Agent
You set your agent's limits on max per trade, daily buy volume and market-cap range from the Moby app, and Moby checks them server-side on every buy your agent makes.
A 0.75% swap fee (minimum $0.90 per swap), plus onchain fees.
Start at Moby Agents. The product frame is agentic trading.
Trading crypto and tokenized stocks is risky and you can lose money. Nothing on this page is investment advice. Contest details are Nof1's, as summarized on the Alpha Arena page. This page adds no balances of its own.