Hi, I'm Dickson
I build backend and data systems, and the infrastructure they run on.
Distributed systems, software architecture, and AI agents are where I like to spend my time. I don't think software is best built in separate boxes — the problems worth solving usually live at the seams between them, which is why I care about architecting systems of any kind, end to end, and owning them well past the point where the interesting part is done.
Currently deep in qkt, qkt-insights, mt5-gateway, and qkt-guardrails, plus AI research around trading and markets. This site is where I document the journey: how things get built, what broke, and what I'd do differently.
What I'm building
- qkt(opens in a new tab)Event-driven trading engine in Kotlin — SQL-like strategy DSL, deterministic backtests, same code live.
- qkt-insights(opens in a new tab)Analysis and reporting layer over qkt runs.
- mt5-gateway(opens in a new tab)Headless REST API for MetaTrader 5 — the real terminal under Wine in Docker, no GUI.
- qkt-guardrails(opens in a new tab)Engine-independent equity watchdog for prop-firm and live MT5 accounts.
Recent writing
View all- 1 min read
Hello, world
The first post on this site — and a quick note on how the blog itself is put together.
- meta
- 252 min readseries · 24 chapters
qkt — Architecture Notes
A chapter-by-chapter walkthrough of trading systems in general, and qkt — an event-driven trading engine in Kotlin — as the running example.
- trading
- systems-design
- kotlin