The finance industry has always interested me–with capital markets being the most elaborate jigsaw puzzle in the world, the work ethic of the industry, and the application of computer science, I took it upon myself to check out the world of finance and see if this field is where I could apply my analytical and tech based skillset.
Since 2021, I’ve dabbled with side projects ranging from automated trading strategies using technical indicators, a data driven long term strategy, machine leaning and Markov Models, fundamental analysis, and research. To be honest, nothing really came out of these side projects performance wise… yet I have learned plenty along the way as I’ve learned by doing. I’ve had conversations with professionals to learn from a first person perspective in many corners of the financial industry from quant, investment banking, portfolio management, research, and the chief financial officer route. What I have realized is that my initial take at cracking the markets was fueled by arrogance and narrow mindedness, hindering me from accepting learning opportunities.
My initial goal was to build trading strategies and market them. But what I’ve realized is that to even get remotely close to that level, I need to take a step back and gain industry experience in finance because I don’t have a background in it. Being a coder and learning on my own only takes me so far. This is my year of humbleness, and I’ve already learned so much about myself and my goals in finance since I’ve accepted this mentality. Reflecting on what I have accomplished and learned from failure through the last couple years has made me realize that jumping into this new career ambition will require a well rounded understanding of the sector, gaining hands on industry experience, and not having a narrow goal. And who knows, there might be a subindustry that catches my interest rather than trading strategies. Main thing is I can’t let a large goal drive my ambitions when I’m not really in the field yet. My refined goal is broad: I’m will continue being a sponge for information, get involved in a top down approach to see what corners of the financial world interest me, and where I can apply my computer science skillset to add value.
I continue to put out my newsletters I call “Market Reports” where I document my learnings, my opinions, and my progress through this journey. You can find them on my Substack https://patelcapital.substack.com/, along with some research posts.