Trader of the Month – May 2026: Timothy Posts a 31% Return with a Diversified Micro Futures Portfolio

In May 2026, the Unger Academy Trader of the Month title was awarded to Timothy, one of our systematic trading students who focuses on trading futures.

His journey demonstrates how intensive study, a rigorous quantitative approach, and disciplined risk management can make it possible to build a solid and well-diversified portfolio in just a few months.

Based in Connecticut, Timothy earned the top spot in the contest thanks to a portfolio of strategies developed for Micro Futures, built from the core principles he learned throughout his training.

His achievement highlights how systematic trading can help traders make decisions based on objective rules while keeping emotions under control, even during the most challenging market conditions.

A +30% Return with Controlled Risk

Timothy’s results for May showcase a particularly attractive balance between returns and risk management. His key performance metrics for the month were:

• Monthly Return: +30.89%
• Net Profit: $17,552
• Maximum Drawdown: 8.30%

These results become even more meaningful when compared with the other participants in the Trader of the Month contest.

One notable example is Paolo, who finished the month with an even higher return of +35.89%. However, that additional performance came at the cost of a significantly larger drawdown, which reached 17.21%.

This comparison perfectly illustrates one of the core principles of Unger Academy: over the long term, when trading performance is comparable, the contest rewards traders who are able to generate strong returns while keeping portfolio volatility and operational risk under control.

Intensive Preparation: From the Basics to Live Systematic Trading in Just Three Months

Timothy’s journey into systematic trading accelerated significantly in January, when he enrolled in the Unger Academy training program.

Understanding that building a solid methodology requires both time and preparation, he dedicated the next three months almost entirely to studying, investing five to six hours per day in learning how to develop, validate, and build robust trading systems.

This intensive effort allowed him to begin trading live as early as April. Rather than looking for shortcuts or simply copying existing strategies, Timothy chose to build his trading foundation from the ground up. Applying the principles of the Unger MethodTM and benefiting from Gabriele’s personalized coaching, he developed his own proprietary strategies based on well-established technical concepts such as New Highs, Bollinger Bands, and moving averages.

34 Active Strategies and Dynamic Portfolio Rotation

Today, Timothy’s portfolio is a highly diversified trading engine consisting of 34 strategies, with 32 of them actively trading the markets.

To reduce risk while taking advantage of different market environments, he focuses on Micro Futures across five major, largely uncorrelated asset classes:

• Equity Indexes: Nasdaq and S&P 500
• Commodities: Crude Oil and Gold
• Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin

To manage such a large number of strategies efficiently, Timothy recently integrated Zeus into his daily workflow. Developed by Unger Academy, Zeus automates strategy rotation by continuously monitoring each system’s Out-of-Sample performance.

This allows him to temporarily disable strategies showing signs of deterioration while keeping only those that remain aligned with current market conditions.

Managing Drawdowns: The Power of Volatility Filters

The real difference between an inexperienced trader and a systematic trading professional becomes evident during losing periods.

Timothy experienced his own “baptism by fire” on an extremely volatile trading day, when one of his 30-minute systems suffered seven consecutive stop losses, producing a drawdown of approximately $1,400 in just a few hours.

Rather than panicking or shutting everything down emotionally, Timothy relied on objective analysis:

1. Active Monitoring – He continued observing the behavior of his systems without making emotionally driven manual interventions.
2. Logical Adaptation – He recognized that the market had entered a period of unusually high and chaotic volatility, an environment that was simply not suitable for that particular strategy.
3. Filter Implementation – He introduced a dedicated volatility filter designed to prevent new entries during periods of excessive market noise, significantly improving the strategy’s ability to protect capital.

What’s Next: Swing Trading, CAN SLIM, and New Markets

Despite winning the May Trader of the Month contest, Timothy sees this achievement as just one milestone in a much longer journey.

His commitment to continuous improvement is already leading him toward new areas of research and development.

Among his next goals are analyzing the strategies used by previous Trader of the Month winners to gain new ideas and insights, expanding into swing trading, and studying traditional asset allocation models, such as the Permanent Portfolio, to improve the management of his overall investment portfolio.

In addition, Timothy is exploring William O’Neil’s CAN SLIM methodology for stock selection and is closely following the development and growing liquidity of the new U.S. single-stock futures.

Method, Dedication, and Resilience

Timothy’s story reminds us that success in systematic trading is built through a disciplined process rather than short-term intuition.

In just a few months, he progressed from studying the fundamentals to developing his own trading systems and building a broad, diversified portfolio. Even during the most challenging market conditions, he chose to rely on data, refine his strategies, and continue investing in research rather than making emotional decisions.

His May 2026 Trader of the Month victory is therefore a recognition of a journey built on study, discipline, and continuous improvement.

Congratulations to Timothy on this outstanding achievement. We hope this will be only the first of many milestones in his trading career.

Learn More About the Trader of the Month

Curious about our “Trader of the Month” contest? This exciting monthly competition is open exclusively to Unger Academy students and rewards the top performer with a €1,000 Amazon gift card for achieving the best live trading results using the Unger Method. Interested? Click here to learn more!

Want to see the champions from previous months? Click here to check them out! to check them out!