Dieter Marlovics is the CEO of RoboSig, Inc., a company that has created autonomous, systematic, and AI-supported market-neutral currency trading methods with automated risk management to achieve the greatest and most consistent risk adjusted returns in the FX sector. The ultimate objective is to implement this technology across all major asset classes.
ReallyColor, LLC (http://ReallyColor.com) is likewise founded and run by Dieter. ReallyColor, a Chicago-based company that has created patented technology, which allows you to transform your images into coloring pages and bespoke coloring books, was launched in June of 2015. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,569,851 and 9,602,835). Apart from being wholesome fun for young children and a unique way to share memories, the company’s heaviest users are teachers, moms, people who are into crafts, speech therapists, autism therapists, Alzheimer’s therapists, and the patients’ family members, as well as businesses and non-profits using ReallyColor technology for their own marketing and fundraising projects. Digital and physical ReallyColor Gift Cards have been sold at retail brands such as Toys “R” Us, BJ’s Wholesale, Sam’s Club, and others. These coloring books add lots of unique fun at parties, weddings, events, or just during family time at home. Businesses such as hotels, resorts, camps, bakeries, etc. use ReallyColor coloring books as effective marketing tools.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Tell us more about RoboSig.
RoboSig was co-founded by our CIO, Richard Preschern, who was an international competitive tennis player in Europe and also went on to play for Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He developed the concept of our FX trading strategy while he was a successful FX futures and options trader in Chicago. He originally created the concept as a risk management tool to hedge his market making endeavours. At that time, it would have required a team of quantitative engineers to execute the first version of the RoboSig FX strategy manually on any sort of scale.
RoboSig is a software company and not a fund. We collaborate with a number of asset management, fund, brokerage, and other fiduciary partners. Our clients prefer to remain private, so we can’t mention anybody by name. Our SaaS infrastructure can integrate with any prime broker or execution environment. The first pilot program began back in 2016, when the first live track trading of the RoboSig strategy launched.
With RoboSig software, any of our partners are able to take advantage of the company’s R&D, real-time analysis, and trading signals to do just that. Our trading strategies have had a live track since 2016 with over 90% positive months.
RoboSig software produces a Sharpe ratio of over 1.5. Our primary strategy now focuses on the G7 currencies. Due to the deep liquidity of the G7 FX market and our asset management, fund, brokerage, and other regulated fiduciary partners, double digit returns have proven to be equally consistent with the RoboSig ALPHA product.
What are your responsibilities as the CEO of the company?
At RoboSig, I’m responsible for making sure our technology, operations, sales, and trading teams are humming with good morale, accountability, and have a clear vision for where the business is heading, how we will grow it, and what we are trying to accomplish. This clear vision is my responsibility to inspire and incessantly communicate to our employees, partners, customers, and investors. I believe in setting an example with my leadership versus barking orders. How we hire is important, as elite team members don’t need to be micro-managed. They just need to know, in no uncertain terms, that they are valued, what must be accomplished, why it has to be accomplished, and how we will get from point A to B… to D… to M, etc., and be inspired to walk through proverbial walls alongside the management team.
What have you failed at and how do you overcome challenges?
Over the past couple of decades, I’ve failed at many things, but I truly don’t regret any of it as I believe there are countless lessons to be extracted from something not working out as planned or when you flat out mess things up and play the clown. Endlessly wallowing and taking your failures with you as baggage that weighs you down in the future is completely unproductive. When I fail at something, I believe in taking a moment to acknowledge it, feel the emotions, argue with myself, maybe work out a little harder at the gym, then shake it off and focus only on the next steps. The important part here is that these next steps should be rationally determined based on the present reality only. Any previous expectations of how events would unfold should be left out of it.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you. And what has been the best recognition that you received as a professional.
To me, being successful is having the freedom to ambitiously use your God-given talents to help others amplify their own. In my opinion, wealth is a great thing, and the more money you have, the better. However, having more money than you need is a responsibility and is when you should be working harder than ever to put it to use by taking inspired action.
What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders?
When it comes to leadership, there is all the usual advice: have positive energy, set an example, communicate clearly, be available, never give up, so on and so forth, and it all applies valuably. A piece of advice I have that you may not hear often or read in self-help books, is that at some point you will need to have the courage to walk away from an idea if it really isn’t working. Let the market decide. Not all great ideas end up being commercial successes. There is no shame in cutting your losses. Don’t keep going just to prove somebody wrong, to prove yourself right, or because you’ve already invested so much. Be honest with yourself at night when staring at the ceiling trying to decide whether YOU believe it will still work and whether YOU believe it is still worth continuing. If you honestly don’t, then set it free, don’t wallow, ignore any critics of your decision, and instead use that valuable time already making your next set of plans.
What are your future plans to sustain the company’s and your success?
In April 2022 we launched our own internal track and are putting our own cash to work as risk capital, trading on our own product which, as you can see, is able to monetize itself. The added revenue generated from trading our own capital will be instrumental in funding our future growth. When interacting with existing and potential partners, I feel it is very important RoboSig demonstrates that, as a company, it is putting its money where its mouth is. Utilizing our own product to generate our own growth capital is doing exactly that.
Website: www.robosig.com
