Swing trading on biotech

A friend of mine introduced me to something called momentum trading (also called swing trading) today and it is a pretty interesting concept. So for a quick background, there are two types of trading: swing and trend. Trend is when you are hoping that a stock would go in one direction, either up or down, over a period of time. Swing is when you are hoping the stock will just oscillate in both directions and not really go anywhere. Hence, in bear and bull market extremes, it is wiser to use a trend strategy since the stocks will tend to follow a directional trend. The key challenge with swing trading is to accurately define the market when it is going “nowhere.” This is tough.

However, an industry that came to my mind immediately after hearing this was biotechnology. I have noticed that several biotech company stocks either oscillate continuously or stay near the baseline, going “nowhere.” The reason being that many biotech companies are in the clinical trials and research phase for 5-10 years before releasing their drug. That being said, I wonder if the swing trading approach would work more often than not for the biotech industry…

Wall Street and MIT

One in every three people I meet at MIT are into finance in some way or the other. Some are in market research and investment banking and others are in sales and trading... seems like making big bucks on Wall Street is the central goal for many MIT undergrads. And working at JP Morgan, Goldman, and hedge funds seem like the "hot" things to do over the summer.

I come from a background of high-tech and am fascinated by next-generation web technologies, nanotechnology, AI, and the fusion of neuroscience and computers. Frankly, I have never really considered finance as potential career path. I did write some business plans and financial statements back in high school and also participated in virtual stock market games, but didn't seem to find enough time to devote to learning the ins and outs of the financial industry at that time.

Regardless of my background, however, I feel that I should make best use of this opportunity and culture and learn more about finance and how engineering can be applied to this industry. Who knows, I might get really into this stuff? And worst case, these concepts are essential to know anyways, no matter what industry I go into.

Connecting Mind and Machine

I was browsing through the web today, and came across this fascinating article by Forbes.

[Link to article]

I genuinely believe this is the next big advancement in human computer interaction, impacting our day-to-day lives at a very large scale. As we immerse our lives with technology each day, there is a constantly growing need to make all the clutter more manageable and easier to use!

As a prospective for an Electrical Engr/Computer Sci and Brain/Cognitive Sci major combination at MIT, seeing this kind of exciting research being done in this area really inspires me to learn as much as I can about the field.

Presentation at Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16 Conference, Long Beach, CA

Presenting at MMVR was an awesome experience. I got an opportunity to meet scientists, engineers, and business executives from all across the world and from different industries. In the process, I exchanged business cards, and collected numerous opinions and comments on my research. And of course, being the only high school student at the conference, I had to explain my personal story several times of how I ended up getting an opportunity to present at this conference.

More than showcasing my work, I enjoyed looking at neat stuff others had been working on. One particular project that was especially interesting was a new method to simulate blood clotting and bleeding in intensive surgeries. Simulating bleeding accurately has been a challenge for years and it was very exciting to observe the ‘particle’ method of simulating the same.

I loved the energetic atmosphere, the ecosystem of knowledge constantly being improved, and the warm reception I received, being a high school senior.

I had realized the future potential of virtual reality and digitizing the five human senses back in 2005, when I came across several online articles revolving around these issues. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was browsing through the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) 14 conference proceedings when I came across a name that continues to resonate in my mind today – Stanford University SUMMIT. Apparently, they seemed to have quite a popular showing at the annual MMVR conferences. Completely blown away with their work on surgical robotics and realizing that they had their research labs only a few miles away from my home, I reached out to them immediately and voiced my interests in implementing some ideas I had been entertaining in my mind.

Before I knew it, I was selected as a high school intern in February of 2007 and have been actively conducting research in augmented user-learning systems and surgical feedback interfaces since. I have just returned from Long Beach, CA where I presented my research at the same conference which originally plunged me into this adventure – Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16.

I cannot wait till next year’s conference and am eagerly looking forward to it!