Charles Lenfest Quantra Journey: A Data Scientist who followed his passion for Trading

2 min read

How often do you come across a story of a data scientist who has a knack for trading?

With his ardent interest in learning and developing skills in trading, Charles encountered a unique webinar which stirred his passion for trading.

Here is Charles’ journey into algorithmic trading, with Quantra!


I am Charles Lenfest, a data scientist based in Colorado, United States. I did my Master's in Computational Finance and have worked in a leading bank as a trader, where I used to trade derivatives in my initial stint.

I have been in the banking sector for many years before moving to a role in data science, where I work currently. I wanted to re-start trading and with that aim, I started exploring courses that would help me with it.

I found out about Quantra, about a year ago when I saw a webinar that they conducted on building a simple trading strategy using Python which I found interesting and decided to attend.

The webinar was very interesting because it covered practical content. I explored more about Quantra and realized that the company offers some interesting training and this will help me get reacclimated to the world of trading. I felt Quantra can help me come back to the world of trading after decades.

The Systematic Options Trading course was well put together. You can easily walk through it and there are great examples to help you understand concepts. The quizzes are good with content and prepare you for understanding the concepts.

The coding exercises are also great. I faced no problems with starting up the python modules and working through them. I am really excited about my learnings and takeaways from the course because now I want to set up my own trading program.

In financial markets training, no one really wants to show you their trade secrets. You have to figure it out on your own. Quantra is the first platform I’ve seen out there which is actually giving you the tools to learn how to trade successfully.

I really appreciate that Quantra offers such interesting and quality content that can really help anyone, in coming up with successful trading strategies.


Thank you for the kind words, Charles. We’re happy to know about your experience learning through our self-paced courses. We’re glad to be a part of your trading journey and help you with all the resources we have to offer. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Developing a systematic approach, and creating, backtesting, implementing, live trading and analysing the performance of options strategies is can be just as useful to you as it was for Charles. The systematic options trading course is just what you need. Be sure to check it out!


Disclaimer: In order to assist individuals who are considering pursuing a career in algorithmic and quantitative trading, this success story has been collated based on the personal experiences of a student from Quantra. Success stories are for illustrative purposes only and are not meant to be used for investment purposes. The results achieved post completion of the Quantra course(s) may not be uniform for all individuals.

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