A short excerpt from a YouTube video (creator: Kosta Ouzas) where the speaker recounts coming from a working-class Italian immigrant family, discovering an aptitude for mathematics and number memory, and later becoming an algorithmic developer running a trading company. The passage emphasizes relationships, practical survival values, and how innate skills steered the speaker into finance and algorithmic trading.
I think my journey was funny because, you know, I didn't come from a traditional finance background. I got opportunities later in life which led me on that path. But, you know, I started really as a normal guy from a normal working class family, Italian immigrants, you know, we didn't have much money. And I think from a young age I was really blessed because not having that actually taught me a lot of really beautiful things. Right. So my family taught me that if you have good connections in life, if you have good relationships, if you have food, if you have a roof over your head, you're already successful. Right. I was really interested in was mathematics. Also noticed that there were skills that I had naturally that I didn't acquire, that I had from when I was a kid. And one thing I was very, very good at was remembering numbers, which is really funny because now later in life, I've become an algorithmic developer, right? Who's running a trading company, all based on mathematics and numbers. So it was like little things like that that sparked me and eventually helped me find my way.
