Annual Algo Trading Conference 2026
Trained on sixteen years.
Everyone is talking about AI in trading. Far fewer people will show you one being built, and then show you where it falls over. That is what this year's conference does.
FREE₹9,999|3 Hours Live Online
Thu, 24 September 2026
6:00 PM IST
8:30 AM EDT
8:30 PM SGT
Event Speakers
Stefan Jansen
Founder, Applied AI.
Tony Lee, CFA
Chief Brokerage Officer, Alpaca
Ajay Sharma
President, Edelweiss Public Alternatives
Mridul Arora
Partner, Elevation Capital
Sameer Kumar
Chief Technology Officer and Partner, iRage
Nitesh Khandelwal
Co-founder of iRage & QuantInsti
What This Conference Covers
Three sessions, one evening: an AI built, a desk opened up, and what both mean for your career.
Sixteen years of teaching this field has produced a fairly clear view of where new tools help and where they quietly create work. The evening puts that on screen three times over: first in a notebook, then inside the machinery of a real trading desk, then in an open discussion about the job itself. By the end of this evening, you will have seen:
Where AI helps: the parts of a trading workflow where an agent earns its place, and the parts where the gains are smaller than the surrounding noise suggests.
A strategy built live: an agent wired to research, code and test a strategy idea end to end, in the notebook, while you watch.
Inside a real HFT setup: the stack from co-location and feed handlers to order gateways, what each layer costs in latency, and how much of the edge is engineering rather than signal.
What it means for careers: which parts of a quant's job have been absorbed, which have not moved, and what hiring managers are screening for now.
How the Evening Runs
Three hours, from 8:30 AM EDT:
First
75 min
The Workshop
An agent builds a trading strategy end to end, live. Then the same strategy is broken on purpose. Q&A runs inside the slot.
Then
30 min
Fireside Chat
Inside a real HFT setup, one guest and one moderator. Drop your questions in the chat.
Finally
60 min
The Panel
What AI is doing to careers in this field, ending with audience Q&A.
Event Schedule | 24 September
Event Schedule
24 September
8:30 AM EDT
6:00 PM IST
8:30 PM SGT
Everyone is talking about what AI agents might do for research. Far fewer people have watched one work, and then watched where it breaks. This session runs it live. The notebook is shared before the event and runs in your browser, so nothing needs installing and you can follow along on a second screen or simply watch. Some Python helps, but the session is written so you can follow it without writing a line.
- What an agent actually does in a trading workflow, and where it is an autocomplete with confidence
- Wiring an agent to research, code and test a strategy idea end to end, live in the notebook
- Then breaking it: leakage from a generated pipeline, overfitting that survives a backtest, and drift after you deploy
- How to judge whether an agent-written component is trustworthy, and what to check before anything goes near capital
- What a small team can adopt this quarter, and which parts of the job stay human
9:55 AM EDT
7:25 PM IST
9:55 PM SGT
A look inside a kind of setup most people in this field read about but never see. One guest, one moderator, and questions taken from the chat throughout.
- The actual stack, from co-location and feed handlers to order gateways, and what each layer costs in latency
- How much of the edge is engineering rather than signal
- What breaks at speed, and how a desk finds out that it has
10:30 AM EDT
8:00 PM IST
10:30 PM SGT
Voices from broking, investment management and industry on what AI is doing to careers in quant and algo trading. Sixty minutes, ending with audience Q&A. The last stretch belongs to the room, and career questions get priority.
- Which parts of the job have already been absorbed, and which have not moved at all?
- Is the entry-level role disappearing, or changing shape?
- What are hiring managers screening for now that they were not three years ago?
- Do you still need to write the code yourself if you can direct a model to write it?
- If you are starting today, which skill is worth two years of effort?
11:30 AM EDT
9:00 PM IST
11:30 PM SGT
Who Should Attend?
Traders who code
Or who are starting to. You have strategies and want to see where AI-assisted tooling fits into how you already work.
Engineers and data people
Moving into markets from software or data science, and looking for the parts of the domain that do not transfer automatically.
Quants and analysts
Already working with models, and interested in the failure modes that only show up once a model is writing part of the pipeline.
Desk builders and firm founders
Setting up or scaling a systematic desk, and deciding which parts of the workflow to automate first.
Anyone weighing a move
Considering the field and wondering whether AI has closed the door. The panel takes that question directly.
A note on prerequisites
Some Python helps in the workshop, but you can follow it without writing a line. The notebook runs in your browser, so there is nothing to install.
Meet the Speakers
Stefan Jansen
Founder, Applied AI., Author - Machine Learning for Trading
Stefan Jansen wrote Machine Learning for Trading, now across three editions, and founded Applied AI, a consultancy that builds production machine learning systems. He has worked on investment data infrastructure and live trading systems since 2013, and his recent work centres on AI agents inside research workflows. He holds the CFA charter, a Harvard master's in economics and public policy and an MS in computer science from Georgia Tech.
Tony Lee, CFA
Chief Brokerage Officer, Alpaca
Tony Lee, CFA, is the Chief Brokerage Officer at Alpaca, where he leads the company's global brokerage strategy and operations. Tony also oversees the development of Alpaca Prime, the firm's institutional-grade brokerage offering. Prior to joining Alpaca, Tony spent nearly 15 years at TD Securities, most recently as Director of Global Equity Derivatives.
Ajay Sharma
President, Edelweiss Public Alternatives
Ajay Sharma has 25 years as an investor and entrepreneur, managing capital for institutions, endowments and family offices across India, China, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia. An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT (BHU) Varanasi, he was previously Managing Partner at Calibrium Capital and founded Flowering Tree Investment Management.
Mridul Arora
Partner, Elevation Capital
Mridul Arora leads Elevation Capital's investments in financial services and fintech, and has been with the firm since 2011. He has backed companies including Acko, Aye Finance, Clear, Dezerv, Mintifi, Scapia and Urban Company, giving him a view of what AI-led finance in India is funding and hiring for. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Lucknow.
Sameer Kumar
Chief Technology Officer and Partner, iRage
Sameer Kumar leads technology and machine learning research at iRage, one of India's best known high frequency trading firms. His work centres on cutting tick-to-trade latency and building trading models through deep learning research, which puts him across both halves of an HFT stack: the infrastructure and the models that run on it. He holds a master's in economics and information systems from BITS Pilani.
Nitesh Khandelwal
Co-founder of iRage & QuantInsti
Nitesh Khandelwal has more than two decades across quantitative finance, algorithmic trading, high frequency trading and trading infrastructure. He began in bank treasury at ICICI Bank, co-founded iRage, and now leads QuantInsti. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Lucknow, he has spoken at NUS Business School and IIM Ahmedabad.
Register Now
Past Events
Inside Algorithmic Trading: Navigating Data, Technology, and Strategy with Expert Guidance
GenAI & Automated Trading Summit | Algorithmic Trading on MT5 & TradingView
Trading Using LLM | Generative AI & Sentiment Analysis for Finance | Webinar
Reinforcement Learning in Finance: Unlocking AI-Driven Trading Strategies with Dr. Paul Bilokon
About QuantInsti
Built on 16 Years of Learning, Research & Impact
Founded by partners of iRage, Asia’s leading Algo Trading Firm. QuantInsti is a global leader in algorithmic and quantitative trading education and technology. Over the last 16 years, we’ve built a comprehensive ecosystem of learners, traders, researchers, and professionals across 190+ countries. Our programmes combine theory, coding, real-market data, and institutional best practices, helping learners transition from concepts to live trading systems.
Executive Programme In Algorithmic Trading
EPAT is QuantInsti’s flagship programme designed for those serious about building a career or long-term expertise in algorithmic trading.
When you learn algorithmic trading with EPAT, you’ll be able to:
- Develop and deploy automated trading strategies
- Work with Python, AI, and advanced statistical models
- Analyse real-market data across asset classes
- Design robust risk management frameworks
- Learn directly from industry practitioners
- Earn a globally recognised certification
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Hours of Live Lecture
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Expert Faculty
Register now for the Annual Algo Trading Conference 2026. The joining link and workshop notebook will be shared ahead of the session.
