advanced course

A year-plus of disciplined trading and comfort with code. Quant methods, vol trading, portfolio construction, algos, ML, and the operational discipline of running a book.

prereq: Comfort with intermediate material. Python or another scripting language.
outcome: Think in distributions and portfolios of strategies. Build infrastructure that runs without you.
pace: Ongoing reference + research
chapters: 10

№01 Quantitative Foundations The math you actually need. Not for academic purity — for making better trading decisions under uncertainty.
№02 Statistical Arbitrage Stat arb = trading mathematical relationships between instruments, not directional bets on the market. Market-neutral, mean-reversion based, edge from many small wins.
№03 Volatility Trading Trading volatility itself as the asset, separate from price direction. Vol has its own behavior: mean-reverting, regime-shifting, and predictable in ways price isn't.
№04 Advanced Options Strategies You've seen calls, puts, basic spreads. This chapter is about multi-leg structures — used to express specific views on direction + volatility + time, with defined risk.
№05 Market Regimes "The market regime is the operating environment for your strategies. Use the wrong tool in the wrong regime, and even great execution loses money."
№06 Portfolio Construction A trader thinks in trades. A portfolio manager thinks in allocations across strategies and assets. This chapter is about getting from "I have 5 ideas" to "I have a coherent, ris…
№07 Execution Algorithms Once your size grows past a certain threshold, how you enter and exit matters as much as what you trade. A good signal poorly executed loses money. This chapter is about minimiz…
№08 Algorithmic Trading Systems When discretionary trading hits its scaling limit, you build a system. This chapter is about the engineering of trading software — architecture, reliability, monitoring, and the…
№09 Machine Learning in Trading A measured, honest take. ML is not magic for trading. It is a tool that, used wrong, will overfit you into bankruptcy faster than any indicator combination. Used right, it adds …
№10 Running a Trading Business The leap from "trader" to "trading business" is operational, legal, and psychological. This chapter covers the unsexy stuff that determines whether you survive year 5 — capital …