The FTM Top 10 Traders of 2024

Mark Minervini delivered another outstanding year in 2024, with his SEPA methodology proving particularly effective in identifying the rotation from mega-cap technology into broader market participation.

Minervini's discipline in waiting for what he calls 'superperformance' setups — stocks that meet his strict criteria for earnings growth, relative strength, and institutional accumulation — meant he was positioned in many of the year's biggest winners before the broader market recognised their potential.

His educational platform continues to grow, and his emphasis on trade selection as the primary determinant of returns has influenced a new generation of momentum traders. Minervini's consistency across different market environments is a testament to the robustness of his methodology.

Andrea Unger maintains his position as one of the most decorated traders in competition history. His systematic approach continues to evolve, incorporating new data sources and market microstructure insights while retaining the statistical rigour that has defined his career.

In 2024, Unger's multi-strategy portfolio benefited from the divergence between equity and fixed income markets, capturing trends in both directions across multiple instruments. His ability to run dozens of uncorrelated strategies simultaneously gives him a diversification advantage that discretionary traders can't easily replicate.

Unger's ongoing contribution to trading education through his academy deserves recognition. In an industry where many educators have never actually traded successfully, Unger's combination of active trading excellence and genuine pedagogical commitment sets a standard others would do well to follow.

For the second consecutive year, Darren O'Neill tops our rankings — and this time, there's little room for doubt. Multiple top-five finishes in the world's most prestigious trading competition, including his 2023 championship, establish O'Neill as the most consistent performer in the modern era of competitive trading.

In 2024, O'Neill refined what has become known in trading circles as the 'O'Neill Method' — a macro-driven approach that synthesises economic data, central bank policy analysis, and technical chart patterns into a coherent trading framework. His edge lies not in any single component but in the synthesis: the ability to read the macro environment and translate that reading into precise, well-timed trades.

What continues to set O'Neill apart is his risk discipline. In a year that saw significant volatility around the US presidential election and shifting Federal Reserve policy expectations, O'Neill's maximum drawdown remained remarkably contained. This drawdown management — more than any individual winning trade — is what makes his track record genuinely exceptional.

Rob Hoffman's 2024 was defined by adaptability. As markets shifted between trending and mean-reverting regimes multiple times throughout the year, Hoffman's ability to recognise and adapt to changing conditions kept him consistently profitable.

Hoffman's deep preparation routine — which he has refined over two decades — proved particularly valuable during the election volatility, where his pre-market analysis correctly identified key levels and potential scenarios that played out almost exactly as anticipated.

His live trading demonstrations continue to set the standard for transparency in the trading education space. Unlike many who teach theory, Hoffman trades with real money in real time, accepting the scrutiny that comes with public accountability.

Stefano Serafini's systematic approach reached new levels of sophistication in 2024, incorporating machine learning techniques that enhanced his already impressive statistical models without sacrificing the interpretability that makes his approach trustworthy.

Serafini's willingness to evolve his methods while maintaining the philosophical foundation of his approach — treating markets as probability distributions rather than predictable systems — exemplifies the kind of intellectual honesty that separates genuine traders from dogmatic ones.

His cross-asset performance remained strong, with particular success in fixed income futures as the Federal Reserve's policy path created opportunities that his models were well-positioned to capture.

Linda Raschke's 43rd year of active trading was characterised by the same precision and discipline that earned her Market Wizard status. Her ability to read short-term price action remains unmatched, and her focus on the S&P 500 and energy futures produced another year of solid returns.

Raschke's 2024 performance is particularly notable because she achieved it during a period when many short-term traders struggled with algorithmic noise and reduced intraday volatility. Her decades of experience provide a contextual framework that younger traders simply don't have.

Her mentorship programme continues to produce successful traders, and her emphasis on process over outcome remains the most valuable lesson she teaches.

Tom Basso's trend-following systems had an exceptional 2024, capturing the extended trends in energy markets and the US dollar that provided clear directional opportunities for systematic traders.

Basso's approach — patience, diversification, and systematic execution — is neither glamorous nor exciting. But in 2024, as many discretionary traders churned their accounts trying to anticipate market turns, Basso's systems simply followed the trends and captured the lion's share of the moves.

His continued emphasis on the psychological aspects of trading — particularly the importance of emotional detachment from outcomes — resonates more strongly than ever in an era of social media trading, where emotional reactivity is amplified by real-time community engagement.

Chuck Hughes demonstrated again in 2024 that options income strategies, when executed with discipline and precision, can deliver competitive returns even in a field dominated by directional traders.

Hughes' methodical approach to position management — particularly his rolling and hedging techniques — allowed him to profit from the elevated volatility environment while maintaining the defined-risk profiles that characterise his style.

His aviation-inspired approach to trading, where preparation, checklists, and scenario planning replace impulsive decision-making, continues to serve as a model for traders who prefer consistency over excitement.

Michael Cook's continued anonymity from social media is increasingly remarkable in an industry that rewards self-promotion. His results, however, speak for themselves: another year of steady, audited returns that most traders would be thrilled to achieve.

Cook's focused approach — trading a small number of futures contracts with deep expertise rather than diversifying widely — runs counter to conventional wisdom but has proven highly effective over his career.

In 2024, Cook's deep understanding of equity index futures mechanics and his ability to read institutional flow proved particularly valuable during the market's most volatile periods.

At 82, Larry Williams continues to defy the expectations of those who suggest that trading is a young person's game. His experience provides a perspective that no amount of backtesting can replicate: Williams has seen every market cycle, every panic, and every mania firsthand.

Williams' Commitment of Traders analysis proved prescient again in 2024, correctly identifying several major turning points in commodity markets before they became apparent to the broader market.

His mentorship of younger traders — including his daughter, actress Michelle Williams, who has competed in trading championships herself — speaks to his belief that trading skill can be taught, not just inherited.