Hi All,

I am writing to this platform to express my desire to leave my current industry to work in trading or trading research in case someone might have advice that could help me get there or in case someone may have a connection who might be interested in supporting my research efforts.

I have been studying and working on my trading since March 2025 primarily through futures prop firm accounts, spending nearly every waking hour on it since I started. I have been doing this alongside my full-time job in biotech. Due to the difficulty of working both simultaneously, I have not yet been able to achieve consistent profitability. Toward this end, I have used Claude extensively to create a variety of tools to support my trading, most recently producing a strategy file that enters and exits trades algorithmically. The performance of this strategy and the manner in which I use it is discussed further below.

My framework overall falls squarely under the trend following camp. I exclusively use Renko charts, and I base a significant proportion of my charting decisions on the "directional change intrinsic time" literature by Olsen and Glattfelder. I compute volatility statistics according to a method I learned from a certain Futures education firm (not the one I may be working with part-time), and I use that data to calibrate my Renko charts as well as my stop losses for each instrument I trade. Without giving too much detail, I primarily analyze the market and make trading decisions based on price's position relative to recent swing lows or highs using momentum signals as mechanical entry triggers.

In the attachments, I have provided the backtest results of the last 5 days on my MNQ chart. Note, I have tested it on larger time horizons and can easily find configurations that make it profitable, but the strategy is not currently designed to deal with both bullish and bearish market regimes without my management. I choose the bias based on my own analysis and set the bias of the strategy myself before turning the strategy on once price approaches a level upon which I think a continuation or reversal may occur. I use the performance on the last 5 days of data to get an understanding of how trades in a specific direction using this strategy would have performed as one input informing my directional bias, and in any case, this data provides a valuable look into how the strategy would perform on recent data without manual interference. Please note that the strategy is configured to use a maximum exposure of 3 MNQ contracts.

I am discussing a potential part-time role with one of the largest futures education firms in the space in which I would work for them unpaid to earn a spot in one of their educational programs. However, setting aside the fact that it would be unpaid, it would begin at the same time that my current full-time job is looking to have me start training for a promotion in my current industry. I won't have significant issues maintaining the two together (at least, none beyond what I've already been experiencing up to this point), but, nonetheless, it is not an opportunity in which I am allowed to devote the entirety of my focus to trading.

In the long-term, I hope to work in biotech venture capital in the Bay Area or San Diego, and I hope to use my trading funds to reach that point. My current trajectory enables that possibility, but I write this with the hope that there is a chance someone here or their connections may potentially be interested in employing me for a full-time trading-related role based on the information presented in this post. I would also greatly appreciate any advice anyone may have toward this end. Please let me know if any additional information/material from me would be helpful and thank you for reading.

@RenkoBrickRoad

Regarding your plan to transition into Biotech Venture Capital through trading success, I have to tell you directly: that's not realistic.

The skill sets are entirely different

Based on what you wrote about your full time experience in the biotech industry, you should already know that Biotech VC has very little to do with trading futures, price action, or momentum. Instead, in VC, you are evaluating highly illiquid, early stage companies. It's about scientific due diligence, understanding clinical trial phases, regulatory hurdles, IP rights, and long term fundamental value creation. Day trading or algorithmic futures trading is based on short term market inefficiencies and liquidity. The skills that make you successful in trading are simply not transferable to Biotech VC.

The assumption that a track record in private futures trading qualifies you for a VC role is a fundamental misunderstanding of who these firms are actually looking for.

The question you really need to ask yourself: Do I want to fully enter the world of trading and invest my energy there with joy and interest, or do I want to continue being successful in the biotech industry, in whatever area, and invest my full energy there.

That's your decision, and I wish you absolutely all the best going forward.

Symple