Bertin Balouki SIMYELI
Available for professional engagements & collaborations
BERTIN BALOUKI SIMYELI
Quant Developer
ยท
Systems Engineer
ยท
AI Engineer

Building high-performance trading infrastructure and intelligent AI systems at the intersection of financial markets, low-latency computing, and large language models. CTO at two companies. Open-source author with 70k+ downloads. $56M+ in trading volume.

Python 3.12+ C++20 LlamaIndex RAG Systems Gemini API MetaTrader 5 Nasdaq ITCH 5.0 HFT Systems Harvard CS50x West Africa ๐ŸŒ
bash, ~/bbs-ai
bertin@bbs-ai ~  pip show bbstrader
Name: bbstrader Summary: Investment & Trading Toolkit, Python & C++ Author: Bertin Balouki SIMYELI
bertin@bbs-ai ~  python -c "from llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex"
๐Ÿค–  AI Stack
LlamaIndex RAG Gemini API OpenAI Agents
๐Ÿ“ฆ  PyPI Downloads
70k+
bbstrader ยท itchfeed
๐Ÿ“ˆ  Trading Volume
$56M+
JustMarkets ยท 316 lots
๐Ÿ›๏ธ  Leadership
2x CTO
Movable Games ยท Forward Outlook

About

Precision-engineered
for financial markets.

Background

I'm Bertin Balouki SIMYELI, a quantitative developer, systems engineer, and AI architect with roots in West Africa. I build institutional-grade trading infrastructure and intelligent AI systems at the intersection of performance and correctness.

Market Experience

Since 2020, I've operated as a Business Partner and Introducing Broker with JustMarkets, driving over $56 million in trading volume across 316+ standard lots. This real-world market exposure directly informs the systems I engineer, from HFT parsers to sentiment-driven signal generation.

Technical Practice

My technical practice spans Python & C++20 for high-performance trading systems, and LlamaIndex, RAG pipelines, and multi-agent AI for intelligent enterprise automation. I've led engineering teams as CTO at two companies and built open-source tools trusted by traders worldwide.

Community & Consulting

I run TheFinTech Insights Digest, a newsletter exploring distributed systems, fintech infrastructure, and the evolving landscape of algorithmic markets. I also offer professional consulting services for custom trading systems, risk models, and AI data pipelines.

Bertin Balouki SIMYELI
Bertin Balouki SIMYELI
Quant Developer ยท AI Engineer ยท 2x CTO
Languages & Runtimes
Python 3.12+ C++20 Bash / Shell SQL
AI & Machine Learning
LlamaIndex RAG Pipelines Gemini API OpenAI API TensorFlow scikit-learn Sentiment NLP Reinforcement Learning Multi-Agent Systems
Frameworks & Libraries
NumPy / Pandas pybind11 CMake / vcpkg FastAPI
Trading & Finance
MetaTrader 5 Nasdaq ITCH 5.0 Backtesting VaR / CVaR Portfolio Optimization
Infrastructure & Cloud
Google Cloud Platform DigitalOcean GitHub Actions ReadTheDocs PyPI Linux
70k+
PyPI Downloads
$56M+
Trading Volume
2x
CTO Roles
5+
Open Source Repos

Machine Intelligence

AI & Machine Learning

Architecting intelligent systems, from RAG pipelines and LLM integrations to reinforcement learning and multi-agent orchestration, applied to real-world financial and enterprise use cases.

AI is not just a skill set, it's the lens through which I approach modern systems engineering. From architecting RAG pipelines that automate business diagnostics to deploying multi-modal LLM agents for enterprise SaaS platforms, I bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and production-grade deployment.

My AI work spans financial markets (sentiment-driven trading signals, reinforcement learning strategies), edtech (Agent-Based Cognition systems), and enterprise automation (document AI, intelligent booking, growth analytics).

Forward Outlook Ltd: Architected a specialized Retrieval-Augmented Generation system using LlamaIndex to automate "Growth Gap" diagnostics, synthesizing complex multi-source business data into structured, actionable intelligence for the BGA networking community.

Movable Games: Leading development of a neuroscience-backed educational platform using Agent-Based Cognition, mathematical operators become autonomous agents, leveraging the brain's natural capacity for procedural memory and narrative retention over rote memorization.

bbstrader: Integrated SentimentAnalyzer NLP models into the flagship open-source trading toolkit for ML-driven signal generation, combining Python's analytical depth with C++ execution speed via a bidirectional pybind11 bridge.

LLM Integration
LLM Integration
Production integration of frontier language models for intelligent automation, document processing, booking AI, and real-time analytics pipelines.
Gemini API OpenAI API Claude API Multimodal
RAG Systems
RAG Systems
Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipelines for intelligent data synthesis, business diagnostics, document AI, and enterprise knowledge management.
LlamaIndex Vector DBs Document AI Embeddings
ML & Quant
ML & Quant
Machine learning applied to financial markets, sentiment analysis, signal generation, portfolio optimization, risk modeling, and RL strategies.
TensorFlow scikit-learn NLP Reinforcement Learning
Agent Systems
Agent Systems
Multi-agent orchestration and autonomous systems for complex workflow automation, from financial data pipelines to neuroscience-backed edtech platforms.
Multi-Agent Autonomous Workflows Agent Cognition
โ— RAG Architecture ยท Forward Outlook BGA Intelligence System
INGEST
๐Ÿ“„ Sources
โ†’
โœ‚๏ธ Chunker
โ†’
๐Ÿงฎ Embedder
โ†’
๐Ÿ—„๏ธ Vector DB
โ†• similarity search
QUERY
โ“ Query
โ†’
๐Ÿงฎ Embedder
โ†’
๐Ÿ” Top-K Retriever
โ†’
๐Ÿค– Gemini LLM
โ†’
๐Ÿ’ฌ Response
LlamaIndex Vector Store Gemini API Embeddings Multi-source data Structured output

Experience

Professional History

A track record of technical leadership, from building AI infrastructure and founding engineering teams to driving $56M+ in trading volume worldwide.

May 2026
Present
Chief Technology Officer CTO Current
Forward Outlook Ltd ยท Part-time ยท United Kingdom
Lead the technological vision and infrastructure for a diverse business ecosystem including Gabriel Topman Consultancy, Transport SaaS, and Business Growth Action (BGA). Focus on architecting and deploying scalable AI systems to drive operational efficiency and high-level growth.
  • AI Infrastructure & RAG: Architecting specialized Retrieval-Augmented Generation systems using LlamaIndex to automate "Growth Gap" diagnostics and synthesize complex multi-source business data.
  • SaaS Optimization: Enhancing a Transport SaaS platform by integrating multimodal models (Gemini API, OpenAI) for intelligent booking automation and Document AI for real-time digital processing.
  • Cloud & Scalability: Managing enterprise-grade deployment on Google Cloud Platform and DigitalOcean, ensuring seamless scaling of all automated backend services.
  • Market Intelligence: Implementing Python-based sentiment analysis and financial API integrations to provide real-time market intelligence for the BGA community.
  • Low-latency AI: Leveraging deep low-level programming and Computer Architecture knowledge to optimize AI inferencing and future-proof the tech stack.
LlamaIndex RAG Gemini API OpenAI GCP DigitalOcean Document AI Sentiment Analysis
CTO - Forward Outlook
Jan 2026
Present
Chief Technology Officer CTO Current
Movable Games ยท Full-time ยท Lagos, Nigeria
Engineering a solution to "Symbol Amnesia", the fundamental disconnect where students struggle with abstract mathematical symbols yet demonstrate extraordinary recall for complex narratives and procedural mechanics. Building a neuroscience-backed platform that reconstructs mathematical symbolism to align with how the human brain naturally encodes information.
  • Agent-Based Cognition: Leading a novel framework that reimagines mathematics through autonomous agents, operators become interactive entities with defined behaviors, leveraging the brain's superior capacity for procedural memory.
  • Cognitive Alignment: Applying Symbol Grounding Theory and Embodied Cognition to ensure deep conceptual understanding without reducing mathematical rigor.
  • Scalable Game Engine: Developing a language-agnostic, low-bandwidth solution targeting the $400B+ digital education market with algebraic logic as observable, rule-based interactions.
Agent-Based AI Cognitive Science Edtech Game Engine Systems Architecture
CTO - Movable Games
Mar 2025
Sep 2025
Software Engineer remote
Upwork ยท Part-time ยท United States
Delivered high-performance technical solutions for a global client base, specializing in AI integration, systems programming, and automated workflows for startups and established enterprises.
  • Custom AI & Data Solutions: Architected and deployed RAG pipelines and intelligent agents using Python and LlamaIndex to automate complex data synthesis across multiple client projects.
  • Systems & API Development: Developed low-latency backend components and integrated diverse financial and social APIs into scalable applications.
  • End-to-End Delivery: Managed the full development lifecycle, from hardware-level C++ optimization to intuitive GUIs, ensuring high code quality and thread safety throughout.
RAG LlamaIndex Python C++ API Integration AI Agents
Software Engineer
2023
Present
Founder & Lead Developer Open Source
Founded and lead an open-source ecosystem of institutional-grade trading infrastructure, spanning Python and modern C++20. Libraries are distributed via PyPI, documented on ReadTheDocs, and adopted by algorithmic traders, researchers, and independent quants worldwide.
  • Trading Systems Architecture: Designed and shipped end-to-end trading infrastructure covering strategy research, backtesting, risk management, and live order execution against multiple brokers and market data venues.
  • Low-Latency Engineering: Built high-throughput market-data parsers and exchange-protocol clients in modern C++20, applying cache-aware data layouts, zero-copy parsing, and lock-free patterns for tick-level workloads.
  • Quant Research Tooling: Curated global macroeconomic and market-microstructure datasets, and built the Python abstractions used to feed factor models, regime analysis, and order-book reconstruction.
  • Open-Source Delivery: Own the full release lifecycle, packaging on PyPI, semantic versioning, ReadTheDocs documentation, CI, and cross-platform builds, while running issue triage and code review for an international user base.
  • Skills Gained: Hybrid Python / C++20 system design, market microstructure, exchange-protocol implementation, asyncio & concurrency, quantitative software architecture, API and SDK design, technical writing, and open-source community stewardship.
Python C++20 PyPI ReadTheDocs Algo Trading MetaTrader 5 Rithmic API ITCH 5.0 Market Microstructure NLP / ML
Founder & Lead Developer
Jan 2020
Present
Business Partner ยท Introducing Broker IB
JustMarkets ยท Part-time ยท Mauritius
Partner with a globally regulated broker (FSA, CySEC, FSC, FSCA) serving over 2 million traders in 160+ countries across Forex, CFDs, commodities, indices, and stocks.
  • Built and managed a personal network achieving over 316 standard lots traded, representing a total trading volume exceeding $56 million.
  • Drove active trader acquisition through digital marketing, social media, and targeted campaigns.
  • Applied ethical promotion practices aligned with FSA, CySEC, FSC, and FSCA regulatory frameworks to ensure long-term trust and compliance.
Forex CFDs IB Network Digital Marketing Regulatory Compliance
Introducing Broker
2023
Present
Author & Publisher Writing
Founded and write TheFinTech Insights Digest, a Substack publication positioned as an essential source for staying at the forefront of financial technology. Now in its third year, the newsletter bridges engineering, quantitative finance, and emerging AI, translating dense technical material into actionable insight for builders, traders, and decision-makers.
  • Editorial Focus: Deep-dives on distributed systems, exchange infrastructure, market microstructure, and the protocols that power modern electronic markets.
  • Quant & Trading: Breakdowns of algorithmic trading mechanisms, execution venues, risk frameworks, and the data pipelines behind systematic strategies.
  • Original Research: Long-form essays grounded in working code, production experience, and primary sources, designed to be referenced, not just read.
  • Audience & Reach: Sustains an engaged international readership of engineers, quants, founders, and fintech operators across multiple years of continuous publishing.
Distributed Systems FinTech Market Microstructure Algo Trading AI / LLMs Technical Writing Substack
Author & Publisher

Education

Academic Background

A multidisciplinary foundation spanning computer science, financial engineering, and quantitative methods, built across leading institutions worldwide.

University of the People
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
GPA: 3.58
Accredited
Software Development Data Structures Computer Systems Databases Networking Applied Mathematics
MIT Open Learning
Computer and Information Sciences, General
Skills: Parallel Computing ยท Conversion Optimization
Algorithms & Software Construction Linear Algebra Calculus Discrete Applied Mathematics Parallel Computing
Corporate Finance Instituteยฎ (CFI)
FMVA ยท BIDA ยท CMSA
Banking ยท Corporate Finance ยท Securities Law
Financial Modeling & Valuation Capital Markets Analysis Security Analysis Investment Banking
Harvard University
CS50x, Introduction to Computer Science
Certificate of Completion ยท Cambridge, MA ยท 2023
10 Problem Sets ยท 9 Labs ยท Final Project
C Python SQL JavaScript Algorithms Data Structures
Verify certificate โ†—

Open Source

Pinned Repositories

Production-grade tools for quantitative finance and high-performance market data processing, built in public, used by traders worldwide.

๐Ÿ“Œ Pinned, bbalouki
FLAGSHIP PROJECT
bbstrader project cover
The ultimate C++ & Python trading powerhouse, an institutional-grade toolkit for quants, algo traders, and professionals who demand an edge. Bridges C++'s deterministic execution with Python's analytical ecosystem via a bidirectional pybind11 bridge. Features an event-driven backtester, MetaTrader 5 integration, live strategy execution, copy trading, and ML-driven signal generation.
Python C++20 CMake pybind11 MetaTrader 5 Backtesting Live Trading ML / NLP
C++
Python
โ˜… 13โ‘‚ 3 60k+ downloads
โ—strategy.py, Python orchestrates C++ core
# C++ Core, Python Orchestrator via pybind11
from bbstrader.api import Mt5Handlers
from my_strategies import MovingAverageStrategy

# Inject Python MT5 handlers into C++ class
strategy = MovingAverageStrategy(Mt5Handlers)

if strategy.initialize():
    while True:
        strategy.on_tick("EURUSD")

# ML-driven sentiment signal
from bbstrader.models import SentimentAnalyzer
score = SentimentAnalyzer().analyze(
    "Fed hikes rates,  markets soar!"
)
if score > 0.7: print("Go long ๐Ÿ“ˆ")
โ—backtest.log, EURUSD ยท MovingAverage ยท 2022โ†’2024
[BACKTEST]  bbstrader ยท MovingAverageStrategy
โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€
Period       2022-01-01 โ†’ 2024-12-31 (36 mo)
โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€
Total Return +34.7%    Benchmark +12.1%
Sharpe Ratio  1.84     Sortino    2.31
Max Drawdown -8.2%     Win Rate  61.4%
Total Trades 847       Profitable 520
โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€
[OK  ] Pushing strategy โ†’ MetaTrader 5 live
[OK  ] Connected ยท account #12345 ยท $50,000
[TICK] EURUSD=1.08412 signal=LONG lot=0.10 โœ“
itch project cover
bbalouki / itch
A Python library for parsing Nasdaq TotalView-ITCH 5.0 binary data, converting raw byte streams into structured Python objects. Supports all standard message types defined in the specification, with efficient file-based buffered parsing.
โ—parse_itch.py
import gzip
from itchfeed import MessageParser

# Filter: Add orders, Executions, Non-cross Trades
parser = MessageParser(message_type=b"AEP")

with gzip.open("01302019.NASDAQ_ITCH50.gz", "rb") as f:
    for msg in parser.parse_file(f):
        print(msg.decode())

# AddOrderNoMPIAttributionMessage(
#   stock=b'AAPL', price=1823400, shares=200,
#   buy_sell_indicator=b'B', timestamp=...)
# [โœ“] 2,847,361 msgs ยท 3.42s
Python
Nasdaq ITCH 5.0Market Data
itchcpp project cover
โšก
bbalouki / itchcpp
A high-performance C++20 library for parsing Nasdaq ITCH 5.0 protocol data feeds, architected for maximum speed with zero dynamic memory allocation in the critical path. Uses std::variant for type-safe message dispatch, ideal for latency-sensitive HFT applications.
โ—parser_example.cpp
#include <fstream>
#include "itch/parser.hpp"

itch::Parser parser;
std::ifstream file("NASDAQ_ITCH50", std::ios::binary);

// Streaming callback,  zero-copy hot path
parser.parse(file, [](const itch::Message& msg) {
    std::visit([](const auto& m) {
        std::cout << m << '\n';
    }, msg);
});

// Or collect filtered message types only
file.seekg(0);
auto msgs = parser.parse(file, {'A', 'E'});
// โ†’ multi-GB/s ยท zero heap allocs in hot path
C++20
Zero-copyHFT
economydb project cover
๐Ÿ—„๏ธ
bbalouki / economydb
A curated SQLite database of global macroeconomic data, balance of payments, economic outlook, productivity, composite leading indicators, FDI flows, house prices, GDP expenditure, and financial market rates. Queryable with any SQLite client for research, backtesting, and quantitative analysis.
โ—query.py, SQLite ยท 8 macro datasets
import sqlite3

conn = sqlite3.connect("economy.db")
cur  = conn.cursor()

cur.execute("""
    SELECT fm.time_period, fm.obs_value
    FROM   financial_market fm
    JOIN   countries c ON c.id = fm.country_id
    JOIN   measures  m ON m.id = fm.measure_id
    WHERE  m.description = 'Short-term interest rates'
      AND  c.code = 'USA'
    ORDER  BY fm.time_period
""")
# ('2022-Q1', 0.08), ('2022-Q2', 1.21),
# ('2022-Q3', 3.04), ('2023-Q1', 4.65) ...
Python
Macro FinanceResearch
LearnCpp project cover
๐Ÿ“–
bbalouki / LearnCpp
Mastering Modern C++, an interactive guidebook that bridges the gap between toy programs and production-grade systems. Chapters cover CMake orchestration, vcpkg dependency management, Google Test & Benchmark, Protocol Buffers, and C++20/23, the complete professional toolkit missing from most C++ courses.
โ—project layout, professional structure
include/     โ† public headers ยท library contracts
src/         โ† implementation + CMakeLists
tests/       โ† Google Test ยท first-class citizens
benchmarks/  โ† Google Benchmark ยท perf analysis
libs/        โ† custom vcpkg overlay ports
cmake/       โ† build helper scripts

# Configure & build (CMake Presets)
cmake --preset mingw   # or 'win' / 'cross'
cmake --build build
C++20/23
CMakevcpkgGoogle Test
DesignPatterns project cover
๐Ÿงฉ
bbalouki / DesignPatterns
All 23 Gang-of-Four design patterns implemented in modern C++23, each paired with a real-world mini-project that motivates the pattern and explains the tradeoffs considered. Organized into three executables (Creational ยท Structural ยท Behavioral) and built with CMake 3.25+.
โ—observer.cpp, Behavioral ยท event-driven signal
// Observer ยท event-driven price feed
struct PriceObserver {
    virtual void on_tick(double price) = 0;
};

class MarketFeed {            // Subject
    std::vector<PriceObserver*> subs_;
public:
    void subscribe(PriceObserver& o) { subs_.push_back(&o); }
    void publish(double price) {
        for (auto* o : subs_) o->on_tick(price);
    }
};
// โ† RiskEngine, Logger, Strategy all notified
// [23 patterns] Creational ยท Structural ยท Behavioral
C++23
CMakeGoF PatternsOOP

Thought Leadership

Writing & Research

Technical dispatches on distributed systems, fintech infrastructure, and algorithmic markets, published on TheFinTech Insights Digest.

September 24, 2023
Distributed Systems
Distributed Peer-to-Peer Networks, Architecture & Principles
A deep exploration of distributed P2P network architecture, covering decentralization, resource sharing, scalability, and real-world applications from blockchain to high-performance content delivery networks.
Read on Substack
LinkedIn ยท 2025
Market Data
Nasdaq TotalView-ITCH 5.0, Building a High-Performance Parser
A technical deep-dive into the ITCH binary protocol, parsing strategy, zero-copy deserialization, endianness handling, and performance benchmarks for institutional-grade market data processing.
View on LinkedIn
Ongoing
Consulting
Professional Services, Custom Trading Systems & AI Pipelines
Available for bespoke engagements, custom algo strategies, proprietary risk models, advanced RAG/AI data pipelines, and dedicated copy trading server infrastructure.
Inquire by email
TheFinTech Insights Digest, Substack Newsletter
// Dispatches on FinTech infrastructure, distributed systems, and algorithmic markets
Subscribe โ†—

Contact

Let's build
something great.

Whether it's a custom trading system, an AI pipeline, a collaboration on open-source, or a conversation about markets and technology, reach out through any of these channels.

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