John has spent more than thirty-five years in professional markets as a trader, technical strategist, trade-system designer, risk manager, and asset manager. A former equity member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he is a registered Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) with the National Futures Association.
He founded JS Services Research and Trading in 1984 and went on to establish DARMA Capital Trading as its advisory successor. Having seen first-hand, from the exchange floor, how markets punish impulse and reward process, he built the fact-based methodology that now governs every DARMA mandate: risk defined before entry, process placed above prediction, restraint treated as credibility.
He sets the firm's strategic direction and leads its trading, risk-management, and analytical work across the advisory programs.
Spencer has traded across equities, futures, and options, with his focus now centered on digital assets. His approach is built around capital efficiency, asymmetric opportunity, and the microstructure of the markets he trades.
He came into markets on an independent path and learned alongside seasoned veterans — across equities, vanilla derivatives, and the exotic, decentralized volatility products native to crypto. A Michigan State University alumnus, he builds proprietary tools and has fostered supportive trading communities worldwide.
At DARMA he leads the decision-intelligence architecture that translates the firm's framework into real-time, profile-aware support, and shapes the digital-asset and agent-economy thesis behind the Index program.
Polina builds the firm's digital presence — the component systems, content architecture, and the careful translation of a four-decade methodology into a clean, durable product.
Her work is defined by meticulous, no-shortcut craftsmanship — the kind that holds together as systems grow more complex. She maintains an independent web practice at polinet.website and is a founding contributor to the firm's platforms.