IEEE BIG DATA CUP · 2026
Agentic financial reasoning,
hedging, and audit verification.
Three tasks for building and evaluating financial AI systems. Explore the data, develop your approach, and submit your results.
14–17 December 2026 Phoenix, Arizona
01 / COMPETITION TASKS
Each participant hub contains its data, rules,
and current submission options.
Solve multi-step financial problems with a typed final answer and values for the published reasoning steps.
2,900 labeled training cases, 290 labeled local-development cases, 580 unlabeled leaderboard-development questions, and 928 public test questions.
Manage paired asset positions with zero net dollar exposure using point-in-time prices, news, and corporate filings.
HERCULEAN training data is available. Evaluation windows, execution costs, and final submission rules will follow with the scorer. The displayed measures are provisional until final scoring rules are published.
Verify reported numeric facts against their calculation context in organizer-packaged SEC EDGAR XBRL filings.
Explore the starter kit, validator, and public practice workflow. See the task hub for phase availability and held-out evaluation updates. This task evaluates targeted numeric checks, not a full financial-statement audit.
02 / EVALUATION
Use the published data, schemas, and validators. Task 1 development uploads return separate final-answer and reasoning-step scores.
Task 1 allows unlimited submissions before the deadline. Keep the same Team Name and Contact Email; the latest accepted, valid version is used.
Task 1 test answers remain private; test scores and ranks are withheld until final results. Follow each hub for task-specific evaluation rules.
03 / KEY DATES
All dates are in 2026.
AoE = Anywhere on Earth (UTC−12).
Final system submissions and required solution materials are due through each task’s competition route.
Results are released after the AoE cutoff has passed, no earlier than 16:00 Abu Dhabi time (12:00 UTC).
Submit the team’s challenge paper through CyberChair SC03, up to 10 pages total including references.
The organizers return paper feedback and acceptance decisions.
Accepted teams submit their revised, camera-ready papers.
The organizers submit the challenge overview to the conference.
Award announcement. Competition results are released earlier, on 16 October.
Phoenix, Arizona.
The 15 October AoE deadline passes at 12:00 UTC on 16 October. Follow the dates here if CyberChair has not yet updated its displayed deadline.
04 / WORKING NOTES
Prediction files go through the task hubs.
Working Notes go through CyberChair SC03.
Teams seeking final ranking and awards must submit a challenge paper through the official FinReason Cup track in CyberChair.
Working Notes must cite the Cup overview and the overview for every task you enter. View required references and BibTeX.
Follow the organizer schedule updated on 7 September 2026 if CyberChair displays a different date. Competition submissions close separately on 15 October 2026, 23:59 AoE.
The organizers decide paper acceptance; selected accepted papers may enter the proceedings subject to conference requirements. Publication is not guaranteed.
Task 1 data and tools are released through the participant hub. No pre-registration or access code is required.
Development: accepts Team Name plus a 580-row predictions ZIP, immediately returns Final answer, Reasoning steps, a receipt, and current rank, and publishes the team’s best eligible result on the public leaderboard.
Test: accepts Team Name, Contact Email, and a 928-row predictions ZIP, then shows format feedback and an acceptance receipt with no online score or rank.
05 / REFERENCES
Use the supplied BibTeX
to keep reference details consistent.
Your Working Notes must cite the FinReason Cup overview and the overview for each task you participate in. If you enter multiple tasks, cite the Cup overview once and include every relevant task overview.
These organizer-supplied BibTeX entries are provisional. The manuscripts are in preparation; author names and order are still being finalized, so all four currently use Pending. The conference is the intended venue; publication details are not yet assigned. Use these citation keys now and refresh the entries here before submitting your final paper.
@inproceedings{finreason2026overview,
author = {{Pending}},
title = {Overview of the {FinReason Cup 2026}: Agentic Financial Reasoning,
Hedging, and Audit Verification},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData)},
year = {2026},
address = {Phoenix, Arizona, USA},
note = {Overview manuscript in preparation; author list pending},
url = {https://the-finai.github.io/IEEE-bigdata-cup/}
}@inproceedings{finreason2026task1overview,
author = {{Pending}},
title = {Overview of the {FinReason Cup 2026} Task 1:
Verifiable Financial Chain Reasoning},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData)},
year = {2026},
address = {Phoenix, Arizona, USA},
note = {Overview manuscript in preparation; author list pending},
url = {https://the-finai.github.io/IEEE-bigdata-cup/task1/}
}@inproceedings{finreason2026task2overview,
author = {{Pending}},
title = {Overview of the {FinReason Cup 2026} Task 2:
Market-Neutral Hedging},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData)},
year = {2026},
address = {Phoenix, Arizona, USA},
note = {Overview manuscript in preparation; author list pending},
url = {https://the-finai.github.io/IEEE-bigdata-cup/task2/}
}@inproceedings{finreason2026task3overview,
author = {{Pending}},
title = {Overview of the {FinReason Cup 2026} Task 3:
Financial Audit Verification},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData)},
year = {2026},
address = {Phoenix, Arizona, USA},
note = {Overview manuscript in preparation; author list pending},
url = {https://the-finai.github.io/IEEE-bigdata-cup/task3/}
}Zhuohan Xie et al. (2026) · ACL 2026, Volume 1: Long Papers, pages 14529–14553.
Task 1 Working Notes must cite the benchmark paper. Copy the verified BibTeX below into your bibliography. It uses the published ACL 2026 reference from the ACL Anthology.
@inproceedings{xie-etal-2026-finchain,
title = "{F}in{C}hain: A Symbolic Benchmark for Verifiable Chain-of-Thought Financial Reasoning",
author = "Xie, Zhuohan and
Orel, Daniil and
Thareja, Rushil and
Sahnan, Dhruv and
Madmoun, Hachem and
Zhang, Fan and
Banerjee, Debopriyo and
Georgiev, Georgi Nenkov and
Peng, Xueqing and
Qian, Lingfei and
Huang, Jimin and
Su, Jinyan and
Singh, Aaryamonvikram and
Xing, Rui and
Elbadry, Rania and
Xu, Chen and
Li, Haonan and
Koto, Fajri and
Koychev, Ivan and
Chakraborty, Tanmoy and
Wang, Yuxia and
Lahlou, Salem and
Stoyanov, Veselin and
Ananiadou, Sophia and
Nakov, Preslav",
editor = "Liakata, Maria and
Moreira, Viviane P. and
Zhang, Jiajun and
Jurgens, David",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers)",
month = jul,
year = "2026",
address = "San Diego, California, United States",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.acl-long.662/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.662",
pages = "14529--14553",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-390-6"
}Cite the task data, tools, and any other resources used in your system as appropriate.
06 / PARTICIPANT FAQ
Yes. Test submissions are unlimited before 15 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth, with no daily or total count limit. Keep the same Team Name and Contact Email. Your latest accepted, valid submission replaces earlier versions for final evaluation; invalid or rejected uploads do not. An identical repeat upload returns its original receipt and acceptance time, rather than creating a new revision. This policy was updated on 16 September 2026.
Keep author names and affiliations in your Working Notes PDF. FinReason follows the conference's published single-blind review policy: reviewers can see author identities. Submit through CyberChair SC03 using the IEEE two-column format, up to 10 pages including references.
Use the official FinReason Cup SC03 track in CyberChair. Teams seeking final ranking and awards must submit Working Notes (a challenge paper) of up to 10 pages total, including references, in the IEEE two-column conference format by 23 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth.
No. Final system submissions and required solution materials for all three tasks are due through the task-specific competition routes by 15 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth. Working Notes use CyberChair SC03 and are due separately on 23 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth. Use the participant hubs for current task availability and upload instructions.
CyberChair currently displays its deadline as to be announced and allows up to 10 pages including references. Follow the organizer schedule updated on 7 September 2026: competition submissions close on 15 October, Working Notes are due on 23 October, and camera-ready papers are due on 13 November, each at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth. This replaces the previously published combined 15 November cutoff. CyberChair display settings may take time to reflect this update.
No. The organizers review the Working Notes and decide paper acceptance, with feedback and decisions scheduled for 6 November. Selected accepted papers may be included in the conference proceedings, subject to conference publication, camera-ready, registration, and presentation requirements. Participation, ranking, or a certificate does not guarantee paper acceptance or proceedings publication.
Task 1 is open for direct participation now. Multi-task participation and the separate Task 2 and Task 3 submission rules will be published with those starter kits.
The Task 1 participant hub provides the training, development, and test downloads. Teams upload predictions directly through separate development and test submission pages. Development returns scores and updates the public leaderboard immediately; test shows format feedback and an acceptance receipt, with no online score or rank. The paper route remains separate through CyberChair SC03.
FinReason does not offer cash prizes. Registration support is not confirmed at this time, and the organizers do not promise registration funding. A team will receive a participation certificate if it submits both (1) at least one valid final solution under the applicable task rules by 15 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth and (2) Working Notes through CyberChair SC03 by 23 October 2026, 23:59 Anywhere on Earth. Winning teams will receive a winner certificate. Additional award categories remain provisional until published. Certificates do not imply paper acceptance or publication.
No. Choose a consistent team name and submit directly. Development asks for Team Name and a canonical ZIP. Test asks for the same Team Name, a Contact Email, and a canonical ZIP. The Contact Email is private, is not used as a login, and is used only for submission identification, submission-related support, matching final results to the related challenge paper, and selecting the latest accepted test submission and handling repeat uploads through a non-public pseudonymous identifier.
An accepted development upload immediately shows the Final answer score, Reasoning steps score, receipt ID, and current rank, and updates the public development leaderboard. An accepted test upload shows only a receipt; test scores, ranks, diagnostics, and score-derived signals remain hidden until final results.
Email zhuohan.xie@mbzuai.ac.ae for participant support, submission questions, team-name corrections, or privacy requests. Include the team name and task number when applicable, but do not send a submission archive by email.