The most familiar way to rank traders is by return: the higher the percentage, the higher the place. It is simple, and it is the number traders talk about. The PnL World Rating does not use it as the score. PWR counts finishing places in rated tournaments and converts them into points. This page explains why.
A return has no fixed context
A return is always a return over something: a period, a market, a level of risk. Fifty per cent over a year on a diversified book and fifty per cent over a week on a leveraged position in one instrument are the same number and very different achievements. Two traders who never traded the same market at the same time cannot be compared by return at all, because nothing about their conditions was shared.
Returns also reward risk as much as skill. A trader who takes a large position and is right will post a bigger number than a trader who manages a careful position and is right for longer. Over a single period, the first trader looks better. A ranking built on raw returns ends up ranking appetite for risk.
A place has a fixed context
In a rated tournament every trader starts with the same virtual bankroll, trades the same instruments on live prices, pays the same fees and faces the same clock. When the bell rings, the standings compare traders who had exactly the same opportunity. The finishing place answers the question a ranking is meant to answer: who did best against the others, under the same conditions.
The return still matters. It is the number that orders the standings, after fees and funding, with open positions valued as if closed at the end. But it matters relative to the room, not as an absolute. A small return can win a quiet week; a large one can finish mid-table in a volatile one.
Places are comparable across tournaments
Once results are places, they can be added up. The PWR formula gives each place a share of the format’s weight, from 100% for first to 3% from 21st place, and scales it by the strength of the field. A third place in a Weekly tournament and a first place in a Daily one become numbers on the same scale, and a trader’s record becomes the sum of everything they have proved.
This is how world rankings work in sport. A tennis ranking does not compare scores from different matches; it awards points for how far a competitor went in each tournament, weighted by the event. PWR does the same for trading, with the tournament format in place of the event category.
Survival is part of the result
Ranking by place changes how risk works. A trader who is liquidated, with too little left to open even the smallest order allowed at the table, ranks below every trader who was not, whatever their return before the liquidation. Taking a position large enough to win a tournament is allowed; losing the account is the worst possible outcome. A ranking by raw return has no equivalent rule.
What this means for a trader
To climb PWR, a trader has to finish high, often, against strong fields. A single lucky period moves a record a little; a long run of high places in demanding formats moves it a lot. That is the behaviour a rating of traders should reward, and it is why the score is the place.
The complete formula is in the standard, and the points for every place in every format are on the formats pages.