It’s hard to believe, but DefconQ just turned two!

What began as a small personal hobby, mainly to improve my own KDB/Q skills, has since evolved into a full-fledged side project and growing community. I never expected the blog to gain such traction, nor could I have imagined the incredible feedback and connections it would bring.

I’m truly grateful to everyone who has supported DefconQ along the way, whether you’ve subscribed to the newsletter, liked or reshared a LinkedIn post, attended a community meet-up, or simply read an article. Your encouragement and engagement mean the world to me.

As is now tradition, I’d love to share some of the highlights from the past year. Let’s take a look back and celebrate what we’ve built together. And if you’re wondering who won the FREE PREMIUM ticket to Quant Strats Europe 2025, where I’ll be hosting a KDB/Q Masterclass, keep reading. The winner is revealed in this blog post!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored or paid blog post. I attended Quant Strats purely out of my passion and interest in Quantitative Finance and related topics. I frequently participate in meet-ups, conferences, presentations, and workshops focused on finance, quantitative finance, technology, FinTech, and crypto, driven by curiosity and enthusiasm. After all, it’s the field I work in.

Introduction

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend QuantStrats 2024 in London, one of the most highly anticipated quantitative finance conferences of the year. After a successful debut in New York last year, QuantStrats made its first appearance in the heart of the City of London, one of the world’s most historic financial hubs. While I'm sure you're eager to hear about the discussions, this post won’t be a recap of the event. Instead, I’ll focus on what made QuantStrats such a standout conference and why you should consider attending in the future if you get the chance.

One year ago, on my birthday, I launched DefconQ, a KDB/Q-focused blog aimed at helping developers and KDB/Q newcomers enhance their skills or get started with the language. What began as a small personal project to motivate myself to deepen my KDB/Q knowledge quickly evolved into a valuable resource for the KDB community. I never anticipated the level of popularity, feedback, and support the blog would receive. As DefconQ celebrates its first anniversary today, I want to share some key milestones and extend my gratitude to everyone who has supported DefconQ in any way, whether by reading the posts, liking or sharing the content, providing me with a platform to share my knowledge, or supporting the project in other ways. Read on to discover the milestones DefconQ has achieved and what's in store for the future.

In this blog post, I have a special treat for you. I sat down with Dimitri Bianco a seasoned quant who runs his own podcast and YouTube channel dedicated to all things quant finance. I have been following Dimitri for a while and always found his podcasts incredibly informative and helpful, so when the opportunity to join him on a podcast and discuss KDB/Q came up, I couldn't turn it down. Dimitri’s engagement provides graduates and students at the start of their careers with valuable insights to help them choose the right path. While I had to figure most things out on my own, Dimitri's podcast offers a valuable industry perspective into the field of quantitative finance.