growth, pre-launchBackground: I have long wanted to do quantitative finance, and the last year or so I worked with a very succesful entrepreneur (call him A) from finance and real estate to realize some of his trading strategies in algorithmic form. We have now been joined by a former major (local) bank senior vice president (call him B) who has the right connections, so organisation and sales is up and running. Surprisingly, the strategies seem to work, even after I did all sorts risk analysis, MC evaluating and checked for all the possible biases I could find.
We’ve gone “live” in the sense that both A and B have put in capital to test the algorithm from January 1st to May 1st.
The issue is that I live abroad, and thus work at home and travel every alternating week. A is reasonably busy with his day-to-day doings, and so I am mostly left to my own devices when I am at home. B is not committed more at this moment than he is evaluating how the model works, and will decide if he commits fully May 1st or thereabouts. I am the only person in the little company with any math and tech-knowledge, so all coding, testing, implementation, API development, risk analysis etc is up to me. However, all of the major problems have been solved during the last year, and the system is up and running (most likely) as efficiently as possible at this stage.
When I am with A he usually changes his mind about what is important quite often, and we often go quickly from project to project without going sufficiently in depth. He never did anything like we are doing before. Thus we rarely make that much headground when we are together,. Algo-trading is obviously hard, and so I spend a lot of time reading papers and books to stay on top and incubate new ideas. While helpful and interesting, I am not sure if this is the best way to advance the company’s chance of success.
My question is what I should be doing instead when at home, and where I should focus my attention. As mentioned no major hurdles are left except developing new strategies, which I am trying to do. I feel like I am just researching for the sake of it, and not preemptively trying to solve problems or doing things that will help us in the long run. Its hard to “work hard”, and while I do spend practically all my time (6-7 days a week, 12+ hours) reading and trying to make new strategies, it just seems a bit… aimless.
What should I do? What did or didn’t you during a down period in development?
For all your knowledge in math, you seem lost in business and negotiations and so on. But do not despair, probably this should be a phase that all entrepreneurs with no previous experience go through.
Regarding A and B, although they support his project, they are also afraid of his return. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL.
However, B’s opinion is quite classic: “If the idea works out, I’m in!” But your case is different, you’ve always been inside, so just continue. Keep improving, keep looking for ideas, this is healthy, but do not forget the product, the tests, the prospecting of customers. For example:
Anyway, a number of things. Organize yourself, think, but above all else. Keep moving!
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