Florian Philippi

It was always a dream of mine living in NYC and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone in Luxembourg and have a change of scenery. I'd tell myself to not second guess my decision, trust my instincts more and sooner. That year (and my beautiful girlfriend) is actually what gave me the conviction to quit my corporate job afterward, to start my own thing rather than stay on the safe path. I moved back to Luxembourg last September with many good memories from my time in NYC.

As a teenager I was into gaming and computers, which eventually got me into coding. I love building things. When I was 15 I got hooked on trading after reading books from my dad's library, namely the Market Wizard books, Mark Minervini, William O'Neill and more. Then after high school instead of studying CS, I decided to study Finance for my Bachelor only because of my interest in trading. For my masters and then in my career I always enjoyed combining both worlds and working at the intersection.

When I was studying in my early 20's. I saved a couple of hundred Euros and started day trading the DAX index with CFDs. I studied a lot of charts and books over the years (William O'Neill and Mark Minervini's books + few classics) but it wasn't my focus. In 2019 I became a Minervini Private Access member and started trading a little bit, mostly watching the markets and learning. In 2023 I saved enough capital to start trading actively.

I saw NVDA developing a perfect VCP in December '23 and it made me decide to participate in the USIC. I bought the breakout at the beginning of January and this first winner out of the gate gave me the confidence to do great that year. A similar one was TSLA in May/June, I didn't take any trades in the previous 3-4 months. I was waiting for the perfect setups and got aggressive on them.

Both. It's an accomplishment I'm proud of.

I look at the individual stocks and at a tons of charts. You get a sense where the market is at, where the money is going and what's currently working. However, in addition, as a MPA member you learn a lot from Mark Minervini's +40 year experience which I found particularly helpful to understand the markets in a broader way and how macro-economics impact the markets. It gives you a better feel on where the market is at. Additionally, in the last months I built my own AI-powered stock research tool that helps me automate the parts.

After a long winning streak, towards the end of 2025 the market changed and I started to give back a substantial part of my gains I made that year. I got complacent and I kept trading the same size instead of reducing. It has taught me new rules (e.g. reduce size even after a winning streak) and to always follow them religiously. What is always encouraging for me is hearing successful traders' advice because they went through the exact same things.

I wouldn't say I made any drastic mistakes so far as it's still early but what I found is really important is talking and listening to potential customers early on to understand what they really need and want. Having an opinion on where the market is going without the validation of your idea and product has the risk to build in the wrong direction. Similar in trading, look at the individual stocks and don't let the indices dictate your trading.

I will always keep trading and it is my ultimate dream still to do it full-time eventually.

Apart from 1-2 positions in December I shouldn't have taken, I was really disciplined and the market was great. However, the year after I was up +190-200% but ended the year at around +120%. This was the first time I suffered a significant set back and it crushed my confidence. I got sloppy and complacent. I'm still fighting my way back.

I was following the score board every month. It always motivates me when someone is better than me because I'm thinking "I will be there soon". I always liked competitions because it puts your skills to test and challenges you in a different way. You put yourself under pressure more.

It stumps me too haha. At the moment both.

Eventually trade full time. In trading, the level of freedom was always the most aspiring to me. On the other hand we are currently in the middle of this AI storm and for me it is the most exciting time to build.

These days there are more and more companies, especially smaller/medium-sized, which are integrating AI into their businesses. In the coming months they want to use AI on their internal company data warehouses in a standardized, reliable way. Dataraum is the operational interface for AI agents and humans to understand from the data what is going on in the business, monitors the business 24/7, spots operational blockers or opportunities. Bottom line is, as a business leader or CXO using Dataraum, you have an AI that not just helps you to make decisions better and faster but also in a secure, reliable way.