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Abe Gerstein · developer

I build the whole thing.

Science, markets, web, and a knowledge engine — designed, written, and shipped by one person. If you have something hard to build, I'd like to hear about it.

abe gerstein · developer
science·markets·web·knowledge

01 · Markets

Strategies, stress-tested. 19 of them.

02 · Science

From raw light to real magnitudes.

03 · Web

This site, built from scratch.

04 · Knowledge

A second brain, wired to Claude.

Selected work

Built across disciplines. One person.

Science, web, markets, and knowledge — every project below was taken from a raw idea to something shipped and working, by one person.

ASTROMETRYG + R · WCS
aperture · annulusflux → magnitude

Astrometry Pipeline

Raw telescope data → brightness measurements

A Python data pipeline that ingests raw imaging output from astronomical telescopes, applies photometric calibration, and produces brightness measurements ready for scientific analysis. Hand-coded line by line, with every transformation and edge case understood and owned.

Open project →
ABEGERSTEIN.COMNext.js 14
App Router·SSR·Framer

abegerstein.com

The site you're looking at

A Next.js 14 portfolio with scroll-linked motion, a live data-plotter hero, an orbital project console, film-grain grading, and a custom cursor. Custom-built component system, no template. Hosted on Vercel with custom DNS through Cloudflare.

Open project →
VALIDATIONCPCV · DSR
Deflated Sharpe0.00 · SHELVE

Quantitative Validation Framework

Catching the lies backtests tell

It runs combinatorial purged cross-validation with a deflated-Sharpe correction to catch strategies that only look profitable by luck. I tested 19 strategies on 7 years of real Databento data, and it includes a live-realism harness that checks whether an edge survives real execution friction. Open the interactive dashboard to replay any strategy yourself.

Open project →
QUANTVAULT9,607 · 8 domains
cross-linkedwired to Claude

QuantVault Second Brain

A knowledge architecture built like production software

It holds 9,607 cross-linked entries across eight domains: strategies, math, microstructure, risk, infrastructure, history, behavioral finance, and careers. I designed it as a structured knowledge graph rather than a notes folder, so every entry is authored in deliberate waves, tagged to a consistent taxonomy, and kept ready for retrieval. The result is a base I can actually reason over instead of a pile of files.

Open project →

By the numbers

The work, quantified. Receipts, not claims.

4
Domains shipped
9,607
Knowledge entries authored
19
Strategies validated
7yr
Years of market data

Services

Open for freelance work.

Here's what I build most often. The list isn't exhaustive, so if you have a real problem worth solving, reach out.

Custom Websites

I build marketing sites, portfolios, landing pages, and full product sites in Next.js, React, and Tailwind, then host them on Vercel or wherever you already are.

Responsive on every screen, a content editor if you want to update it yourself, sensible SEO, and analytics so you can see what's working.

Data Pipelines

I write Python that takes messy, real-world inputs and turns them into clean, structured outputs you can actually trust.

ETL jobs, web scraping, API integrations, transformations, and scheduled tasks that run on their own and tell you when something breaks.

Full-Stack Apps

I take an app from idea to deployed product, owning the frontend, the backend, and the database from end to end.

Accounts and authentication, payments, dashboards, admin tools, and real-time features that stay fast under load.

AI-Powered Features

I build AI into your product as real features your users can see, not workflow buzzwords bolted on the side.

Chatbots, retrieval over your own documents, summarization, classification, and agent workflows that do useful work.

One-Off Scripts

If there's a task you keep doing by hand every week, I'll automate it so it quietly runs itself.

Report generation, data cleanup, file conversion, formatting, and small integrations between the tools you already use.

Anything I can build

If it's software and you have a problem worth solving, ask, because the unconventional projects are usually the most interesting ones.

Browser extensions, bots, internal tools, automations, and the genuinely strange ideas other people won't take on.

Currently

Open for new projects. I usually reply within a day, work to clear project-based quotes agreed up front, and build and iterate with you until it's right.

The principles behind everything I build.

Ship end-to-end

I take projects from raw idea to live deployment: design, architecture, implementation, debugging, ops, and iteration, all of it owned. Nothing gets handed off to someone else, and nothing gets left half-finished.

Real data only

No synthetic series, no simulated demos. Every system is tested against actual inputs: real telescope frames, real market bars, real user flows. Edge cases are where software lives or dies.

Validate before you trust

Backtests lie and mocks deceive. I build validation infrastructure alongside the system, then watch how it behaves under real load before claiming it works. Believing a false positive always costs more than verifying.

Own what ships

I understand every line of code I deliver. I make the architectural decisions, debug the failures, and can defend every design choice. If it ships under my name, I can explain exactly how it works.

About

Curious, multi-disciplinary, and only just getting started.

I'm eighteen years old, a recent graduate of Albuquerque Academy. This fall I head to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to study Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Business.

But the throughline of everything I do is software. It's the discipline I keep coming back to, because it lets me chase whatever I'm curious about: rigorous validation infrastructure for quantitative markets, a 9,607-entry knowledge architecture, scientific data pipelines that turn raw telescope frames into brightness measurements, and the portfolio you're reading right now.

I understand every line I ship. I make the architectural decisions, debug the hard problems, and can defend every design choice. Working software is the baseline. Software you can stand behind is the standard.

I'm taking on freelance work now, and I'll keep taking it on remotely once I'm in Ann Arbor. If you have something worth building, I want to hear about it.

Focus

Full-stack engineering

Location

Albuquerque, NM

Status

Open to freelance

Stack

Python, TS, Next.js

Disciplines

Web, science, markets

Approach

End-to-end ownership

Let's talk

Have something worth building?

I'm open for freelance work — websites, data pipelines, full-stack apps, and custom scripts. If it's software and you have a real problem, let's talk.