Automated trading, honestly documented
Where an automated operation actually earns across five markets — and, in the same breath, what eats the edge.
The Carry Trade, and the Crowded Exit That Defines It
Interest-rate differentials pay you to wait. The payment is rent on a risk that arrives all at once.
Trading the Clock: Why Session Overlap Is the Cheapest Hour
Execution cost in FX is not constant. It is a function of the time of day, and the time of day is free to know.
Spread, Slippage, Swap: Pricing the Three Costs Before the Strategy
Most automated FX strategies are profitable before costs and unprofitable after. The order of those two facts is the whole business.
Mean Reversion in the Majors, and the Regime That Ends It
Currency pairs range far more often than they trend. The exception is expensive.
Your Broker Is Part of the Strategy
Two accounts running identical logic against different execution can produce opposite results.
Leverage Is Not Edge
FX brokers offer leverage that no professional risk desk would permit, and the reason is not generosity.
Funding-Rate Harvesting: The Cleanest Carry in Crypto
Perpetual futures pay a recurring fee between longs and shorts. Collecting it is market-neutral and almost entirely mechanical.
Cross-Exchange Basis: Where the Spread Is Real and Where It Is Bait
The same asset trades at different prices on different venues. Most of that gap is not available to you.
The 24/7 Market Is an Automation Argument, Not a Trading Argument
Crypto never closes. That is the strongest case for automation in any market — and the weakest case for trading it manually.
Liquidation Cascades: Reading the Leverage Map
Crypto's sharpest moves are often not information. They are forced selling, and forced selling is partially observable.
The Risk That Is Not Price: Custody, Stablecoins, and Counterparties
Most catastrophic losses in crypto had nothing to do with a bad trade.
On-Chain Data: A Genuine Edge With a Short Half-Life
Crypto is the only market where the settlement layer is public. That advantage decays as everyone reads it.
Roll Yield: Getting Paid by the Shape of the Curve
A futures position earns or loses simply by moving through time, independent of the price of the underlying.
The Overnight Gap and the Fundamental Exception
Most index-futures gaps fill during the session. The ones that do not are the ones that matter.
Margin Efficiency: The Quiet Advantage of the Futures Market
For the same exposure, futures typically tie up far less capital than the cash equivalent. Idle capital has a return.
Calendar Spreads: Trading the Curve Instead of the Price
Long one expiry, short another. The directional risk mostly cancels and what remains is the relationship.
Liquidity by the Hour: Where Futures Execution Costs Live
The regular session and the overnight session are different markets wearing the same ticker.
Trend Following: The Most Automated Strategy, and Its Real Track Record
Managed futures is the oldest systematic strategy at scale. Its long-run record is instructive in both directions.
The Variance Risk Premium: Being Paid to Insure
Implied volatility exceeds realised volatility most of the time. Most is not always, and the exception is the entire risk.
Covered Calls: What You Are Actually Selling
The most widely recommended options income strategy, and the least widely understood trade-off.
Collars and Protective Structures: Paying for Sleep
Hedging a concentrated position costs return. The question is whether the return you keep is worth more.
Volatility Crush Around Earnings: A Known Pattern, Densely Crowded
Implied volatility rises into a scheduled event and collapses after it. Everyone can see this.
Assignment, Exercise, and the Plumbing Nobody Backtests
Options strategies fail operationally more often than they fail analytically.
The Greeks as a Control System, Not a Vocabulary
Delta, gamma, theta and vega are the instrument panel of an automated options book.
Post-Earnings Announcement Drift: The Anomaly That Survived Publication
Prices continue moving in the direction of an earnings surprise for weeks. This has been documented since 1968 and has weakened rather than vanished.
Factors, Plainly: What Value, Momentum and Quality Actually Pay
The most researched systematic edges in equities, and the least exciting to run.
Index Rebalance Flows: Forced Buyers on a Known Date
Index funds must trade specific names at specific times, and everyone knows in advance.
Pattern Day Trading, Account Structure, and Rules That Shape Strategy
In US equities the regulatory structure of your account determines which strategies you can run at all.
Your Data Decides Your Backtest
A strategy validated on one exchange's feed and run on the consolidated tape is two different strategies.
Survivorship and Look-Ahead: The Two Bugs That Manufacture Edge
Most spectacular backtests are not fraudulent. They are subtly, honestly wrong in one of two ways.