Who we are
Balboa Line combines a research lab’s curiosity with a trading desk’s discipline. Founded in 2025, we set out to prove that AI-focused models, built by small teams with real ownership, can compete in the world’s most demanding markets.
Our story
In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific from the Americas. He found a new ocean by crossing hard ground that others sailed around.
We named the firm for that instinct: the willingness to go through a problem rather than past it. Five centuries later we are headquartered on that same isthmus, in Panama City. The Line is the thread that runs through everything we do, from a hypothesis in a notebook to an order at an exchange. Keeping that line short, honest and observable is the whole discipline of the firm.
In our first year we have hired more than forty researchers, engineers and business specialists, opened our headquarters in Panama City and a second office in Willemstad, Curaçao, and taken our first portfolio of models live across equities, futures and FX.
By the numbers
Small enough to know everyone’s name. Large enough to trade seriously.
A world of possibilities
Our footprint reflects where the opportunity is and where the talent lives. Teams in Panama City and Willemstad work as a single floor, trading global markets from a region that sits between the Americas and Europe and inside the US trading day.
Our values
Values are only real when they cost something. These are the five we are willing to pay for.
We hold our ideas to the standard of evidence, not enthusiasm. If a result cannot be reproduced, it does not exist.
We say what we think, early and directly, and we would rather hear a hard truth than a comfortable story.
We hire people who cannot leave an interesting question alone, and we give them the room to follow it.
We trade our own capital in public markets. How we behave there is the defining quality of our people and our work.
Every model, system and process has a named owner who is trusted to decide and accountable for the result.
In practice
Our model review committee includes people who did not build the model. Our hiring loop includes people who will not manage the hire. Perspective is a control.
Our leaders
A leadership team with roots in systematic trading, machine-learning research, low-latency engineering and market operations.
Daniel founded Balboa Line in 2025 after a decade running systematic strategies at a global multi-strategy fund.
Before trading, he worked as a research scientist in reinforcement learning. He holds degrees in mathematics and computer science and still reviews model cards every week.
Priya leads research across all model teams and chairs the firm’s model review committee.
She previously led a machine-learning research group at a leading quantitative asset manager and has published on sequence models for high-frequency data. She holds a PhD in statistics.
Marcus owns the platform: market access, data, compute and the model-serving layer.
He spent twelve years building low-latency trading systems and large-scale data infrastructure at two electronic market makers. He writes Rust for fun and insists on measuring everything.
Elena runs operations, risk and compliance, and represents Balboa Line in industry working groups.
Her background spans trading operations, regulatory affairs and risk management at a global investment bank and a proprietary trading firm. She holds an MBA and a law degree.
Our culture
We look for people who challenge themselves, who want to see their work in production and who treat colleagues as partners rather than competitors.
Reach your greatest potential
We bring the platform, the capital and the research culture. You bring the ideas. Take the next step to learn about our teams, our hiring process and life at Balboa Line.