--- title: "Level 7: production, MLOps, regulation, career and capstone" description: "Level 7 of the Python Trading Course: software engineering, deployment, MLOps, regulation and taxation in Spain and the EU, quant career and capstone." url: "https://pythonparatrading.com/en/python-trading-course/level-7/" lang: "en" image: "https://pythonparatrading.com/og/en/python-trading-course/level-7.png" --- # Level 7: Production, MLOps, regulation, career and capstone > What turns research into a professional system: maintainable software, monitored infrastructure, models with a life cycle, the legal and tax framework, the career and a defended final project. - Hours: 60–80 - Prerequisite: Levels 4 to 6 - Profile: Quant who wants a professional system - Course: [Python Trading Course](https://pythonparatrading.com/en/python-trading-course/) ## Software engineering for trading - `7.1.1` Project structure and configuration (Pydantic Settings, YAML); Ruff, pre-commit, pytest, tests with simulated brokers. - `7.1.2` Performance: profiling (the Python 3.15 sampling profiler), Numba, Cython; Rust (PyO3) as background. - `7.1.3` Patterns: event-driven, message queues (Redis, ZeroMQ, Kafka), hexagonal architecture. ## Infrastructure and deployment - `7.2.1` Docker and docker-compose; reproducible images with uv. - `7.2.2` VPS or cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, Hetzner) close to the broker's or exchange's servers; CI/CD with GitHub Actions. - `7.2.3` Orchestration (cron, Prefect, Airflow, Dagster) and monitoring (structured logs, Prometheus and Grafana, alerts, heartbeats). - `7.2.4` Security and continuity: secrets, 2FA, IP allowlists, backups, procedures for broker, data or network failures. ## MLOps for trading models - `7.3.1` Experiment and model tracking (MLflow, Weights & Biases); data versioning (DVC). - `7.3.2` Scheduled retraining, automatic validation and champion/challenger deployment. - `7.3.3` Monitoring drift and live performance; automatic deactivation. - `7.3.4` Serving models: ONNX, CPU or GPU inference, the cost of LLMs in production. ## Regulation, ethics and taxation General information for Spain and the EU, with a global view. It is not advice. - `7.4.1` MiFID II: client classification (retail or professional), suitability and appropriateness; algorithmic trading requirements for firms (RTS 6) as background. - `7.4.2` ESMA and CFDs: maximum leverage for retail clients (30:1 on major currency pairs; 20:1 on non-major currencies, gold and major indices; 10:1 on other commodities and indices; 5:1 on equities; 2:1 on crypto), position close-out at 50% of margin and negative balance protection. - `7.4.3` PRIIPs and KID: why an EU retail investor cannot buy US-domiciled ETFs; alternatives (UCITS, options, professional client status). - `7.4.4` MiCA: the transitional period in Spain ended on 1 July 2026; trade only with authorised or passported CASPs; checking the CNMV and ESMA registers. - `7.4.5` Market abuse (MAR): spoofing, layering, manipulation; why a badly designed bot can engage in them. - `7.4.6` Taxation in Spain: IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) savings base (19% up to €6,000; 21% up to €50,000; 23% up to €200,000; 27% up to €300,000; 30% above that), the two-month rule for repurchases, loss offsetting (4 years; 25% cross-offset limit), FIFO for crypto, Modelo 720 and 721 (foreign asset and crypto declarations), withholding at source and double taxation treaties. - `7.4.7` Ethics: personal data and GDPR, scraping, responsible AI, conflicts of interest in selling “signals”. *Fig. — Spanish income tax rates on the savings base by bracket (common territory).* Stepped bars with the rate of each savings tax-base bracket: 19% up to 6,000 euros, 21% up to 50,000, 23% up to 200,000, 27% up to 300,000 and 30% above, the top bracket, highlighted. ## Quant career - `7.5.1` Roles: quant researcher, quant developer, quant trader, data engineer, risk quant, ML engineer. - `7.5.2` Where to work: hedge funds, prop firms, banks, asset managers, market makers, crypto, fintech; the Spanish and European ecosystem. - `7.5.3` Public portfolio (GitHub, blog, Numerai, Kaggle) and interviews (probability, statistics, coding, brainteasers). - `7.5.4` Certifications and continuing education (CQF, EPAT, CFA, FRM, master's degrees); independent trading and prop firms, and their risks. ## Final capstone 40 to 80 hours. Choose one of these projects and defend it before a panel: - `C1` Multi-asset futures system (trend, carry and spreads) in NautilusTrader with paper trading at IBKR. - `C2` Systematic options book (premium selling with tail hedges), volatility surface and real-time Greeks management. - `C3` Equity and ETF portfolio with ML (cross-sectional ranking with LightGBM, HRP and rebalancing with costs and Spanish taxation). - `C4` Research platform with LLMs and alternative data (RAG, text signals and an analyst agent with guardrails). - `C5` Crypto market making or arbitrage with ccxt, funding and basis, and counterparty risk control. Common requirements: reproducible repository (uv and Docker), documented data, anti-overfitting validation (walk-forward and CPCV or Deflated Sharpe), risk report, at least four weeks of paper trading, monitoring and technical report. ## Level project The capstone (40 to 80 hours), one of five projects defended before a panel: C1, a multi-asset futures system in NautilusTrader with paper trading at IBKR; C2, a systematic options book with tail hedges and real-time Greeks; C3, an equity and ETF portfolio with ML, HRP and Spanish taxation; C4, a research platform with LLMs and alternative data; C5, crypto market making or arbitrage with ccxt. Common requirements: reproducible repository (uv and Docker), documented data, walk-forward and CPCV or Deflated Sharpe, risk report, at least four weeks of paper trading, monitoring and technical report. ## Practice Research on this site to practise this level 1. [The Working Environment - 1](https://pythonparatrading.com/en/docker-for-trading/) Previous level: [Level 6: Generative AI, LLMs, agents, big data and alternative data](https://pythonparatrading.com/en/python-trading-course/level-6/)