A TrendUp Now Fall 2024 cohort graduate, Grayson Valente spent years as a professional hockey player across Europe and North America before pivoting into finance. After completing the L-program, earning his CFOA, and interning as a Hedge Fund Analyst and Trader at Liberfield Capital through the SRP, he was hired as a Portfolio Analyst in Private Capital at Lumonic — within weeks of finishing the program.

You spent years playing professional hockey across three countries before transitioning into finance. What drove that decision, and how did you find TrendUp?

Hockey was my primary focus for a long time, but throughout that period I was also working toward my economics and finance degree through LSE. Markets genuinely fascinated me — the way capital gets deployed, how risk is priced, how macro events ripple through investment decisions. So the intellectual interest was always there running in parallel.

When I got serious about the transition, I quickly realized that a degree wasn’t going to be enough on its own. The buy side wants to see that you can actually think and perform like an analyst — not just that you’ve studied finance. TrendUp stood out because it wasn’t a passive credential. The L-program built real analytical depth, the CFOA was a meaningful certification, and the SRP gave direct access to a live fund environment. That full pipeline was exactly what I needed to make a credible case to employers.

How did you find the L-courses and the process of earning your CFOA?

The content was rigorous in a way I appreciated. L1 and L2 built strong foundations in equities and options — the kind of analytical framework that’s directly applicable in practice. By L3, we were working through futures, complex derivatives, and portfolio-level risk management, which aligned closely with what I’d end up doing during the SRP at Liberfield.

The one-on-one reviews after each level kept the standard high. Having a professional track your work and give you targeted, honest feedback is something you don’t often get in an academic setting. By the time I sat the CFOA exam, I felt genuinely prepared. Having that certification on my LinkedIn and resume immediately changed the quality of conversations I was having with employers — it signals that you’ve been held to a real standard.

You completed your SRP at Liberfield Capital as a Hedge Fund Analyst and Trader. What did that experience look like on the ground?

It was substantive from day one. I was conducting research to identify key stock catalysts, developing and maintaining valuation models, helping issue investment recommendations, and working on derivatives and long/short pairs trading strategies to complement and hedge equity positions. I was communicating investment ideas directly to the Portfolio Manager — both verbally and through written analysis. It was a real junior analyst role, not a passive observership.

The TrendUp preparation made a meaningful difference. I wasn’t using the internship to learn the basics — I came in with the analytical framework and the CFOA already behind me, which meant I could focus on contributing and performing from the start.

You moved from the SRP directly into a Portfolio Analyst role at Lumonic in private capital. How did that happen so quickly?

The SRP wrapped up in May 2025 and I was starting at Lumonic in June. The sequence moved fast, and I think it came down to arriving at conversations with a complete picture: CFOA certification, live hedge fund experience, and the ability to discuss investment ideas with real substance. Buy-side interviewers can tell the difference between someone who has genuinely been tested and someone who has just read about it.

TrendUp gave me the credibility to get in the room and the preparation to perform once I was there. Private capital is where I wanted to be, and this got me there in a matter of months.

What would you say to someone coming from an unconventional path — a professional athlete, or someone without a traditional finance background — who’s considering TrendUp?

The finance industry isn’t naturally set up to evaluate people like us fairly. Recruiters pattern-match for target schools and conventional internship sequences, and if your resume doesn’t fit that mould, you start at a disadvantage. TrendUp addresses that very directly — the CFOA is a verifiable, industry-standard credential, and the SRP gives you real buy-side experience you can speak to confidently in any interview.

Professional sports taught me that the gap between where you are and where you want to be closes through deliberate preparation and being willing to outwork the competition. TrendUp gave me the right vehicle for that in finance. If you bring that same mentality to the program, the opportunities are genuinely there.