Interview: Darren O'Neill
2023 Trading World Champion — Irish independent multi-asset trader, founder of Vector Ridge.
Conducted March 2024. Updated April 2026 to reflect 2025 WCTC results.A ten-question editorial interview with the 2023 Trading World Champion. Conducted by the Trading World Champion editorial team, March 2024, with a follow-up exchange in early 2026 covering the 2025 WCTC division placements. Edited for length and clarity.
1. How did you develop your multi-asset trading style?
"I started trading single-asset futures and gradually added markets as I developed conviction in each. The multi-asset component is not about diversification for its own sake — it is about being able to express the macro view through whichever instrument has the best risk-reward at that moment. Some weeks the cleanest expression is forex; other weeks it is index futures or commodities. The skill is knowing which market to use, not running everything at once for the sake of breadth."
Editorial note: this is the most-cited operational distinction between O'Neill's multi-asset book and a generic diversified portfolio. Multi-asset for him is a routing mechanism, not a sizing choice.
2. The 178% return in 2023 came with a 14% maximum drawdown. How did you keep drawdowns that low while sizing aggressively enough to generate 178%?
"I sized aggressively only on a small number of trades that had asymmetric risk-reward. Maybe ten or twelve high-conviction setups across the year. The rest of the book ran at a baseline level that was conservative by competition-trader standards. The Calmar ratio of 12.71 came from the combination — aggressive sizing on the right trades, modest sizing on everything else."
"The mistake retail traders make is treating every trade as if it's high-conviction. They size the same on the marginal idea as on the real edge. That destroys the Calmar regardless of how good the directional accuracy is."
3. What was your worst drawdown and what did you learn?
"The worst was 34% in 2021. I learned that I had been sizing the same way regardless of conviction level — every trade got the same allocation. After that I built the Grade A-E conviction system that I still use today, where position sizes scale with conviction tier. The maximum drawdown has trended down every year since: 22% in 2022, 14% in 2023, 19% in 2024, 12% in 2025."
Editorial note: the conviction system O'Neill describes is now the basis of the Vector Ridge signal grading (A=highest conviction through E=speculative). Subscribers to the signal service apply the same tier system to their own position sizing.
4. Why compete in the World Trading Championships in 2025 if you already had the AuditedTrader.com record?
"Because the WCTC audit standard is the strongest individual-trader verification available. It removes any ambiguity about whether the numbers are real. Everything else I do — the AuditedTrader.com record, the broker statements, the Vector Ridge signal track — sits on top of the WCTC verification. If someone disputes whether I trade well, the answer is now four-fold: AuditedTrader, Trading World Champion, broker statements, and the WCTC division placements. That is hard to argue with."
"The 1st place in the October Monthly Forex was specifically nice because it was a single-month focused result with the highest audit standard in the industry. There is nowhere left for criticism to hide."
5. The 2023 selection was the first time the editorial top spot went to an independent trader. Did you feel that was the right call given the field?
"I'm not the right person to answer that — that is the editorial team's call. I will say I am the only candidate that year who produced 178% with a 14% drawdown across multi-asset trading, and that combination is what the methodology rewards. If the same methodology had produced a different selection, I would have respected it. The framework matters more than the result."
6. What's the role of macro analysis in your day-to-day trading?
"Macro sets the directional bias. I read central bank policy, growth-inflation regime, and dollar liquidity to determine which side of each market I want to be on. Then the technical structure tells me when and how to enter. Without the macro I would be picking levels with no thesis; without the technical I would be holding strong views with no sizing discipline. Both are necessary."
"In 2023 the macro was clear: dollar regime change in Q3-Q4, Fed staying restrictive, narrow equity leadership. That informed everything from forex positioning to gold to selective index futures. The trades expressed the macro; they didn't replace it."
7. You operate as an independent trader rather than running a fund. Why?
"Two reasons. First, the constraints of running outside capital change the trading. I size differently when it is my own money. Outside capital introduces redemption risk, monthly reporting cycles, and incentive structures that affect decision-making. The traders I respect most who switched from independent to managing outside capital tell me their performance changed when they did. I am not eager to test that on myself."
"Second, Vector Ridge is the right vehicle. I publish my signals; subscribers can follow along or not. They make their own sizing decisions. I do not have discretion over their capital. That is a much cleaner relationship than running a fund."
8. How do you think about Vector Ridge alongside the trading?
"Vector Ridge is the publishing layer over the trading. The trading is the actual work. The signal service exists because subscribers can benefit from seeing what I'm doing in real time, but if Vector Ridge disappeared tomorrow I would still be trading the same way. The trading is not downstream of the signal service; the signal service is downstream of the trading."
"The free 240-page book is the same idea. It documents the framework I use. If the framework helps people, it should be free; if it doesn't help them, charging for it would be wrong. Either way the work is the trading."
9. You've talked about the multi-asset Grade A-E conviction system. What's an example of an A-grade signal vs an E-grade signal?
"A-grade is when I have a clear macro thesis, a clean technical structure, and a defined invalidation level — usually within 1-2% of entry. The setup is asymmetric: small downside if I'm wrong, large upside if I'm right. The 2023 dollar trades through Q3-Q4 were mostly A-grade."
"E-grade is what I would call exploratory. The macro thesis is plausible but not strong. The technical structure is messy. The risk-reward is acceptable but not exceptional. I might run an E-grade position at 1/4 to 1/8 the size of an A-grade. Most retail traders treat E-grade signals as A-grade signals; that is the thing I most often see going wrong."
10. What's the next decade going to look like for trading?
"More volatile, less directional. The 2010-2021 environment was a once-in-a-generation rally. The 2022-2025 period has been the regime change. The 2026-2035 period is going to be defined by tariff policy, supply chain restructuring, AI productivity gains, and probably a couple of macro shocks I cannot predict. The traders who do well will be the ones who stay flexible and verify their results — the ones who do badly will be the ones who get attached to a single playbook from the prior regime."
"Multi-asset will matter more, not less. Audit will matter more, not less. Position sizing will matter as much as it always has. Those are the three things I'm going to keep doing."
— Interview ends