What a hedge fund builds with $5M and 12 people.
Run solo, with AI as the workbench.
Ten functional roles. One operator. Claude Code as the bench. Turn your edge into a system — without giving up what makes you good.
Free, weekly. One click to leave whenever.
New here? Start with these two.
The desk explained — and the methodology in action on a real strategy, taken from looks-green to is-it-actually-real.
Every surface, one desk.
Pick the channel that fits how you like to learn. Same operator, same desk, no signal-seller theatre.
The org chart
Ten roles. One operator. A workbench made of AI.
A real systematic desk runs 8–20 people at $5–50M/yr. The OPTD is what happens when one operator fills all ten roles, with Claude Code, deep methodology, and a headcount of one.
10 roles · 8–20 people · $5M+/yr to run. The structure was never the secret. The headcount was the moat.
10 roles · 1 operator · ~$150/mo. Same ten functions. The headcount collapsed into one person directing AI.
Judgment, regime reads, the edge you earned screen time for.
The team that used to require eight-to-twenty hires.
Ten functional roles · one desk
Portfolio Manager
the humanJudgment, regime reads, discretionary calls — the one role you can't outsource.
Quant Researcher
Indicator RE, backtest sweeps, simulation runs — where ideas live or die.
Quant Developer
Signal engines, kernels, indicator ports — described, not hand-typed.
Execution Trader
ACSIL order manager: pyramid logic, exits, fill-by-fill audit.
Risk Manager
Drawdown profiler, Monte Carlo bust analysis, 7-gate stress test.
Operations
Daily reconciliation, chart-ingest parity, log parsers.
Performance / TCA
MFE/MAE on tick data, LLM-assisted journal review.
Data Engineering
SCID reader, parquet cache, tick parsers — replays in seconds.
Tech Infrastructure
Front-end journal, backend database, the scripts that keep it running.
Compliance
Pre-market checklists, rule-violation tracking, cooldowns.
The punchline: what costs $5M/yr at a hedge fund, built for under $150/mo in tools. The methodology is the moat.