Always Greener on the Eller Side: Jacob Greene ’20 BSBA (Finance)

Jacob Greene ’20 BSBA (Finance) has never been content with the status quo. Whether it’s his education, his personal life or his professional horizons, Jacob isn’t just one step ahead—he’s inventing a new path. 

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A Bermuda native, Jacob knew he wanted to compete on a professional level. What he would compete in, he hadn’t the foggiest idea. His first plan was sports, but he soon realized that he might not be cut out for professional athletics. So, at the age of 16, he leapt into another incredibly competitive field--corporate finance--and invented his own trading algorithm. But he knew that he would need help along the way in the form of teachers, technological expertise and a place where his innate curiosity could lead him in the right direction. His only problem was choosing the right place. 

Greene wanted to do more than take notes in lectures and complete homework assignments. But he feared that at many universities, that was exactly what he would be doing. That’s when he discovered Eller.  

“The wonderful thing about Eller is that you’re free to explore your own interests,” he says. “My professors were really helpful both in and out of class. They were more than happy to share their research with me. When I applied their research to my algorithm, it evolved into something better than what I could create on my own.”  

During his time at Eller, Greene customized his education to achieve a single goal--to perfect his algorithm and join a firm that could use it. His program became an amalgam of his personal knowledge, his new expertise and his professors’ guidance. But there was one thing missing—technological expertise. Not to be deterred, Greene picked up a computer science minor without a second thought.  

“A lot of people go down one track and feel stuck if they don’t like it,” he says. “It was really important to me to branch out and take my education into my own hands. So, when I saw how important being able to code algorithms was, I added it to my track.” 

That track has already led him to professional success. Jacob currently manages currency on the Forex market—which is the largest and most liquid market in the world—for Quantrend, a multi strategy asset management company. 

When asked what he planned to do with his new career, he replied, “I want to help people manage their money in a safe and more innovative way. With my algorithm, people can protect themselves from major market bends like the one caused by COVID-19. With my algorithm, families can feel better about their investments. But more than that, we’d be more prepared for economic challenges as a nation.”