Why I Started Algorithmic Futures - Automated Trading Systems

I developed Algorithmic Futures in May 2020 as a way to offer my portfolios of trading strategies to customers for a subscription fee. I've spent over a decade researching hedge funds and trading strategies and I've determined that trading a portfolio of long & short futures strategies is one of the optimal ways to compound wealth. There are two primary reasons for this: 1) Futures allow you to use leverage; 2) Trading long & short can provide profits in bull and bear markets to generate consistent returns. I work in investment banking which provides good income via deal bonuses, so my goal is to put that cash flow to work in high-return strategies that are relatively hands-off and low maintenance.

Let me provide a little backstory: In February 2018, I quit my private equity job to start a hedge fund. Although I raised $3 million, which seems like a good start, I was miserable, isolated and stressed. I hadn't raised enough money to replace my private equity salary, I created too much pressure by giving myself a 12-month startup time frame (I had a kid on the way!) and I became very isolated trading at home in my boxers everyday without much personal interaction. I realized I needed a J.O.B., so I started interviewing and landed an investment banking position. Experiences shape your perspective in life and I was incredibly excited to work for The Man again. I wanted to continue to trade client accounts, so I began to program my strategies into TradeStation's platform to automate my trading and keep it running on the side.

While I was programming my strategies in TradeStation, I met with the Fox Group, a broker that explained if I licensed my trading algorithms instead of directly managing money, I could market my strategies online to acquire customers. Since my investment banking job takes up a large portion of my time, this was an ideal approach for customer acquisition and created a relatively automated business model. So I created a website (www.algorithmic-futures.com), set up a Google ads account and started slowly getting new customers. However, I realized that I had a lot to learn about advertising, content generation, and website design.