The Volatility Storm Winners: How These Three Traders Navigated a Down Market

big announcement at the end of the artcile

Mar 18, 2026

February was a tough month, with the overall market down 0.9%. But our winners stayed focused and found a way to stay in the green anyway. I caught up with the top three to hear about their process and the specific picks that put them ahead.

Here is the breakdown of what they did:

🥇 1st Place: Elmin Sultanov (+6.0% Alpha)

The Profile: A finance student at UNEC and a Financial Analysis Trainee at Pasha Pay. Elmin is a relentless researcher currently pursuing his ACCA qualification (F2, F3, and F9).

I saw that many competitors suffered from ‘overconfidence bias.’ If you have nothing to lose, it means you have something to win.

The Strategy: Elmin utilized Dollar-Cost-Averaging, dividing his capital into 5–10 small tranches to avoid spending all his money when the market was weak in the early days.
The Technical Edge and Hedge: He focused on “proven companies” with large market caps and Betas between 1.5 and 2.0 to outperform the index. He used technical indicators, such as RSI to identify oversold conditions and re-confirmed one-month trends using Moving Averages. Positions were counterbalanced by negatively correlated assets to smooth out the volatility.
On Psychology: He attributes his win to staying patient and avoiding the “overconfidence bias” that caused rivals to lose their purchasing power.
The Philosophy: To Elmin, money is simply a tool to generate more money until he reaches “financial freedom,” which he calculates as $1M–$2M in fixed income.

🥈 2nd Place: Turan Ahmadov (+3.0% Alpha)

The Profile: An economics graduate with a background in corporate finance, private equity, and investment analysis. Outside the market, he is a strategist who enjoys case competitions and valuation work.

I learned that I stay calm under pressure and make better decisions when I stick to a clear thesis instead of reacting emotionally.

The Strategy: A pure Catalyst-Driven approach. He focused exclusively on pharmaceutical companies with scheduled FDA approvals in February, believing these events drive the strongest price reactions in fast-moving markets.
The Crown Jewel: VNDA, which returned 17.24% during the round. He identified it as a prime candidate for a strong short-term repricing.
The Daily Grind: His day started by scanning news and catalyst calendars, then narrowing down ideas to only those where the risk-reward and catalyst strength were highest.
The Philosophy: Turan views money as a tool for freedom that creates independence and the ability to think long-term. He believes markets are generally efficient, so he focuses on repricing situations rather than “hidden information”.
On Growth: He stayed calm under pressure by sticking to a clear thesis instead of reacting emotionally to price action.

🥉 3rd Place: Rustam Aliyev (+1.21% Alpha)

The Profile: A professional in business and analytics who treats the market as a systematic problem-solving exercise based on data and probabilities.

Staying calm while sticking to a rational process turned out to be one of the biggest advantages during periods of high volatility.

The Strategy: Embracing Volatility. Rustam sought out fundamentally strong, undervalued companies that were being temporarily mispriced by emotional market sentiment.
The Crown Jewel: Oracle Corporation. He stepped in during an “emotionally driven sell-off” that pushed the price below fair valuation, allowing the position to perform as the market recovered.
The Philosophy: He relies almost entirely on Fundamental Analysis—earnings, growth, and debt. He believes technical analysis plays a minimal role, as the market ultimately rewards consistency and business value over short-term speculation.
The Daily Grind: He monitored global market developments and earnings updates, reassessing after market hours to ensure his original investment thesis remained valid.
On Discipline: The most important lesson he learned was that emotional discipline and staying calm during high volatility are a trader’s biggest advantages.

The Investor Club Connection

It’s good to see the Club making an impact beyond just the leaderboard. Elmin mentioned that he and his brother have been following our posts since 2025, and he even uses our materials for his university finance courses. For Turan and Rustam, the value is in the healthy competition and the chance to see different ways of thinking about a trade.

We launched this club with a clear mission, to build a community of like-minded people and elevate financial education. It’s about more than just tracking returns, it’s a space to spread new ideas and grow together as investors. Seeing this kind of knowledge-sharing is exactly why we’re here.

📢 Coming in April: The Storm Returns

If you didn’t make the podium this time, your second chance is coming. We are officially launching a new Trading Competition in April!

We’re raising the stakes for the next round with even bigger prizes for our top performers. Whether you’re a catalyst hunter or a fundamental hawk, get your watchlists ready.

Stay tuned for registration details next week.