Earlier today we disqualified an entry from the contest. The rules permit us to disqualify algorithms "If we believe that an entry is made in bad faith with the intent to "game" the contest, or if we conclude that the algorithm is not suitable or financially prudent to trade with real money."
The algorithm isn't making meaningful trades. It's effectively sitting in cash, and made a few tiny bets. That's not a suitable strategy for investment. It's "gaming" the scoring mechanism and does not represent a substantive strategy. We don’t know if the author was attempting to game the rules or whether it was coincidental; either way, it's not eligible to win the contest. There have been a few other entries over the years that have attempted similar schemes and have also been disqualified - or they just performed so badly that we didn't even bother.
This particular algorithm attracted attention because it got lucky and had been leading Contest 35. Several members of the community noticed it and commented on it. It's frustrating to be in a competition and see someone else taking advantage of the system. I'm fairly sure that over the duration of the contest its luck would turn and it would fall well down the leaderboard. But there is no reason to wait until the end of the contest, so we DQ'd the entry.
It's worth noting that in the upcoming new contest, this type of algorithm won't score well at all.
