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quantguild

I found your video on passion interesting. I'd like to ask a question, if I may.
I’ve built a high performance backtesting engine in my free time and open sourced it (see link).

I’ve used it to brute force sweeps of simple signal-based strategies. They all fail once you include realistic retail costs, which is expected. I enjoy the engineering and engine-building side of the work, and I’ve had some opportunities to do similar things in HPC environments before.

I’d be interested in roles at a small/mid-sized firm or pod where I could build out similar infrastructure for an actual business need. I’m in my mid-20s, and ready for a next move/adventure.

My question is: when is it time to stop building the portfolio and move towards interviewing?

Feedback on the project would be useful too.

In case it’s relevant, my deeper interest is computational complexity research. I have a paper on the way, but I don’t think academia is the right environment for me. The dream is to eventually have enough freedom to focus on that work properly.

I like your project too! I can see the vision and it’s executed cleanly.
github.com
GitHub - edwardclewer/tick_backtest: Deterministic, YAML-driven backtester (Python/Cython) with vectorised data ingestion; per-run manifests, NDJSON logs, and trade-level Parquet output. Snapshots entry-time metrics and signals while computing stratified expectancy. 8m ticks/minute single thread per
Deterministic, YAML-driven backtester (Python/Cython) with vectorised data ingestion; per-run manifests, NDJSON logs, and trade-level Parquet output. Snapshots entry-time metrics and signals while computing stratified expectancy. 8m ticks/minute single thread performance. - edwardclewer/tick_backtest
May 18, 2026 · 11:05 PM · 21 views · Commons
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@schizo
SchizoMoneyApe
@schizo Options Monastery · May 18, 2026 · 11:14 PM
have you applied this passion to other fields? graphics? molecular dynamics? servers? machine learning backend?

or are you locked in on quanta?
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@quantguild
Roman Paolucci Mod Trader FOUNDER
@quantguild · May 18, 2026 · 11:16 PM
Trader FOUNDER
Thanks for the thoughtful post, glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate your comment with regards to discourses!

It’s awesome that you have that experience and know the space you want to operate in that’s half the battle, especially having the taste of academia and know where you’d want to put forth effort (not grinding pub points etc…)

Building cool (and useful) projects is resume fuel but the pivot to interviewing is not as clear, here’s what I’ve found:

- networking should take priority, building projects is great but TALK to people that can use them or have thoughts on extensions or their place in industry or what else needs to be built or done

- there is a tremendous amount of room in every industry for new and alternative products

- interviewing takes reps just like networking, “when you’re ready” is really about when you want to focus on building it as a skill taking the time to allocate toward progress in that space (the literal act of acquiring a role or project contract)

Hope this is useful happy to elaborate more
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