Risk · Systems · Education

See markets the way physics sees the world.

ScalarPhase is the advisory and education practice of L.A. Molina — thirty-plus years across trading, risk management, and trading-system engineering, from energy futures to real-time risk engines. First principles in, hand-waving out.

What ScalarPhase does

Three disciplines, one viewpoint

Markets are dynamical systems. Whether the question is an exposure, a system, or a concept to be taught, the approach is the same: define the state space, measure it honestly, and respect the tails.

Advisory

Risk management, energy & financial

Market-risk frameworks for firms with real exposure: VaR/CVaR, stress scenarios, limit structures, and hedging programs across futures and options — built by someone who has run them, not just reviewed them.

Advisory services →
Systems

Risk system builds

Design and construction of real-time risk engines: portfolio valuation across futures, stocks, and options, with risk metrics computed as the market moves — not after the close.

System builds →
Education

Teaching markets properly

Options as investment vehicles, futures curves and spreads, volatility, and practical risk — taught from first principles for traders, teams, and the curious. Short-form content coming soon.

Education →

The operator

A physicist who ended up running risk

L.A. Molina trained in physics and spent the next three decades in markets: trading, managing risk, and engineering the systems that measure it. He has built a real-time trading and risk application from scratch, run risk through energy-market dislocations, and worked inside a refining company — so the frameworks he teaches are the ones he has depended on.

30+years in trading & risk
2asset classes lived in: energy & financial
1risk engine built end-to-end

Full story

"Most risk failures aren't math failures. They're failures to look at the tails honestly — and to build systems that force you to." — L.A. Molina
  • Energy futures: crude, natural gas, refined products
  • Options as hedging and investment vehicles
  • Real-time VaR, CVaR, and stress testing
  • Curve, spread, and seasonality analysis

Selected work

Built, not theorized

A sample of the systems and research behind the advisory work.

System

Real-time trading & risk application

Desktop application (macOS/Windows) valuing a trading portfolio across futures, stocks, and options in real time, computing VaR, CVaR, and stress scenarios as prices move.

Research

Futures curve & spread analytics

Curve, calendar-spread, and seasonality tooling across CL, NG, RB, and HO — term-structure dynamics and refining crack spreads, updated daily.

Research

Quantitative pair studies

Stat-arb research with honest verdicts — including work that killed the idea, like the ZB/GC spread, and work that validated, like ZB/ZN curve dynamics.

See the work →