Ahead of today’s US Open final, we took out full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. The idea is simple: competition makes things better. Five-time US Open champion Pete Sampras didn’t become a legend competing alone. He needed someone on the other side of the net. Someone who saw the point differently. Who challenged every shot. Who made him earn every win. At 17, Sampras made his US Open debut and lost in the first round. Two years later, he beat Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, and Andre Agassi to become the youngest men’s US Open champion ever. In 1992, he returned to the final and lost to Stefan Edberg. The loss made Sampras “obsessed with being the best.” He trained harder and won the US Open again the next year. At each step along the way, the competition got better, and Sampras had to get better with it. That’s what open competition does. It exposes weaknesses, rewards what works, and forces everyone to keep improving. Over time, the best rise to the top, and the level of the entire game gets better. But that only works when competition is truly open. Anyone can compete. Everyone plays by the same rules. Everyone can see the score and how the game is being played. And no one gets punished for being too successful. The strongest financial markets are built on the same principles of competition. Anyone can participate. Everyone trades under the same rules. Prices and activity are transparent for everyone to see. And no one is limited simply because they’re too successful. On a financial exchange, people bring different information, beliefs, and views of what something is worth, then put money behind those views. That competition drives price discovery. When traders are right, they’re rewarded with more resources to put behind their views. Positions get bigger. The stakes get higher. Better information is rewarded, worse information is punished, and thousands of competing views are distilled into a single market price. That price is useful to everyone, not just the people trading. It becomes a real-time signal of what the market collectively believes, helping us better understand what is happening and what is likely to happen next. Competition breeds legends. And better market prices.