Muhammad Siddiq Ahmed

How It Started

I'm Siddiq, a 13-year-old from London. My parents came to the UK from India with nothing but dreams and determination. They taught me that hard work and curiosity are your best friends. Growing up, I wasn't the kid who was super social or athletic—I was the one sitting alone, solving Rubik's cubes and getting lost in math problems. And honestly? I loved it. There's something magical about that moment when a problem suddenly clicks and you understand it. That feeling is better than anything else.

In primary school, while other kids were playing football, I'd spend hours on math puzzles. My sister used to laugh at me and say "just ask ChatGPT"—but there's a difference between getting an answer and actually understanding it. I wanted to understand. So I'd watch Tom Rocks Maths videos, try different approaches, sometimes spend 2 days on a single problem. And when I finally got it? That smile was worth every second.

Right now I'm reading "Elementary Number Theory by David Burton" and it's blowing my mind. Every page feels like unlocking a new secret about how numbers work. That's when I realized—I don't just love solving problems, I love understanding how things work at the deepest level. That curiosity led me to coding, and that's when everything changed.

The Turning Point

Competitions Changed Everything

By Year 7, I started entering math competitions. Honestly, I was terrified at first. But then I realized—these competitions aren't about being the smartest person in the room. They're about challenging yourself and seeing how far you can push. The UKMT became my playground. I'd get 4 Gold Awards, a Merit in the Senior Math Olympiad (while still in Year 8), and I'm waiting on results from the US/Canada Math Camp where the questions were absolutely insane.

But here's the real thing—it wasn't about the medals. It was about meeting other kids who were just as obsessed with math as I was. It was about realizing I wasn't alone in this weird love for problem-solving.

Finding My Community at Astra Nova

Then I found Astra Nova—an online school in LA for young innovators. And man, it was like finding my tribe. Suddenly I was surrounded by kids from all over the world who were building things, thinking big, and not afraid to fail. I did public speaking, Model UN, learned about Neural Networks, built apps, and even took an art class (Da Vinci) where I discovered I could actually draw. My teachers from SpaceX gave lectures. I started leading the Cheenta Math Circle, teaching younger students geometry, number theory, combinatorics. And that's when I realized something—teaching others is even better than solving problems myself.

At Astra Nova, I'm not just a student. I'm someone who's learning, building, and helping others learn too. That's what I want to do for the rest of my life.

What I've Actually Built

Astra Trader

I built a full-stack currency trading platform from scratch. Why? Because I was sitting in class thinking—how do you actually learn about finance? You can read textbooks all day, but that's boring. So I created Astra Trader where students at Astra Nova can trade virtual currency (Astras) and actually experience what real trading feels like. They learn about markets, risk, strategy, all while competing with their friends. It's now used by 90+ students. My Markov Chains research actually helped shape how the trading algorithms work. My teachers said it could become a real trading platform one day. That's crazy to think about.

SidMath

I just launched SidMath—a completely free GCSE Statistics platform. No ads, no paywalls, nothing. Just pure learning. I built it because I was frustrated with how complicated statistics education is. I wanted to create something that actually helps students understand the subject, not just memorize formulas. It has revision notes, quizzes, past papers, an AI tutor, mock exams—everything you need. I literally just launched it and already have 2 users. It's just the beginning, but I'm excited about where this goes. We're entering it in the Raspberry Pi competition.

Sid HFT & The Real World Lesson

I built an AI-powered high-frequency trading bot called Sid HFT. I gave it $500 and challenged myself to turn it into $1M. On Day 1, I made $171—I was so hyped. I thought I'd figured it out. Then on Day 10, I lost it all. Everything. And you know what? That was the best lesson I could have learned. Real trading isn't about being smart—it's about discipline, risk management, and understanding that the market doesn't care about your strategy. I'm still learning, maybe I need to take a course or something. But I'm not giving up. We're also entering this in the Raspberry Pi competition because it shows real innovation and real failure—which is way more interesting than just success.

Markov Chains Research

I spent months researching how Markov Chains apply to portfolio optimization. I worked with two other students—one from India, one from the US. We were all obsessed with the same question: how do you mathematically model investment decisions? It was hard. Really hard. But working internationally with people I'd never met in person, solving complex math together—that showed me that I can contribute to real academic work. This research shaped Astra Trader and Sid HFT. It's not published in a journal (yet, maybe never), but it's real work that I'm proud of.

Beyond the Screen

I'm not just a math and coding nerd. I swim competitively, I'm part of the Green Power Racing team, I'm obsessed with Liverpool FC, and I can solve a Rubik's cube in under 30 seconds. These things keep me sane. They remind me that life is about balance. Sports taught me resilience—you lose races, you lose matches, and you have to get back up. That's the same mindset I bring to my projects.

The Real Talk

Here's what I want you to know: I'm 13. I don't have all the answers. I fail a lot. Sid HFT lost all my money. Some of my projects won't work out. I get frustrated when I can't solve a problem. I sometimes doubt myself. But I keep going because I genuinely love what I do. I love the challenge. I love building things. I love helping other people understand complex ideas.

My ultimate dream is to study at Cambridge, Oxford, or MIT. Not because of the prestige (okay, maybe a little), but because I want to be around people who are trying to solve the world's hardest problems. I want to conduct research that matters. I want to mentor younger students like my teachers have mentored me. I want to build things that help people.

But more than that, I just want to keep learning. Keep building. Keep failing and getting back up. That's my real goal.

And I want to thank my parents. They came to a new country with nothing, worked incredibly hard, and showed me that anything is possible if you're willing to put in the work. Everything I do is because they believed in me first.

Thanks for reading my story. I hope it inspired you, or at least made you smile a bit.

My Story