Building this in public: what we'll show and what we won't

Walk Forward is a weekly publication from the team at Ferrante Capital. We build and test trading systems, trade them with our own capital, and write about the process. That last clause is the whole idea, so before the archive gets deep, we want to spell out exactly what “writing about the process” will mean here, and what it never will. Consider this the page you get to hold us to.

The disclosure that runs the place

We trade our own capital using the same strategies we discuss.

That sentence appears on our disclaimers page, on the About page, and in the footer of every issue, and it cuts both ways. It means we have skin in the game: this isn’t commentary from the bleachers, it’s the build log of people running the systems with their own money. It also means we are not neutral observers of the things we cover. We have a financial interest in the strategies and instruments we write about. When a piece involves a specific, named instrument our systems hold, the piece will say so plainly, and for anything we affirmatively name, we publish first and trade after. We keep a timestamped log of our own trades so those commitments are checkable rather than vibes.

What we’ll show

The whole funnel, including the dead. Most strategies we test die in testing. You’ll see the kill log, not just the survivors, because survivorship bias is the industry’s favorite magic trick and we’re not doing magic. The autopsy usually teaches more than the eulogy anyway.

Every assumption, attached. When a backtest appears here, its data sources, cost and slippage assumptions, and testing discipline appear with it, along with the required hypothetical-performance disclaimer at full size, every time. Simulated results are simulated. We will never dress one up as a track record.

Live and simulated, clearly separated. If and when live results from our own trading appear alongside research, the live is labeled live, the simulated is labeled simulated, and the two never blend into one flattering curve. Reconciliations come with drawdowns included.

Our mistakes. When we get something wrong in public, we correct it in public, in the same channel, at the same volume.

What we won’t show

No up-and-to-the-right marketing charts. No cherry-picked date windows. No flattering-window highlight reels of any kind, with or without fine print underneath.

And no curtain. There’s no premium tier with the “real” research, no early access, no private channel where the good stuff lives. Every subscriber gets the same issue on the same day. That’s the deal that makes an honest publication possible, so around here it’s a feature, and it’s permanent.

What you should never expect from us

Personal advice. We don’t know you, your account, your risk tolerance, or your tax situation, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. This is an impersonal, educational publication: the same content, for everyone, on a schedule. If you ask us a personal question about your money, you’ll get the same friendly redirect every time: consult your own qualified professionals. That’s not coldness. It’s the arrangement that lets us write honestly about our own trading without quietly becoming something we’re not.

Hot picks. Nothing we publish is a pick, a tip, or an instruction to act, and free content here will never contain buy-this-now entries. We write about how systems get built, tested, killed, and occasionally trusted with our own money. If we ever make you feel like you’re late to something, we’ve broken our own rules, and you should say so. The only deadline in this operation is that the letter ships on Mondays.

Guaranteed anything. Trading involves substantial risk of loss, simulated results carry every limitation simulated results always carry, and nothing we publish promises outcomes, ours or yours. Anyone in this business who sells certainty is selling the certainty, not the trading.

Why do it this way

Partly because the commitment device works on us. It’s hard to hype an idea in one issue when you’ve promised the autopsy in a later one. Publishing the funnel, costs attached, failures included, does our discipline for us, in front of witnesses.

And partly because it’s the open lane. This genre runs on highlight reels, and readers know it, which is why the reflex is to trust none of it. A publication where every number comes with its assumptions and every survivor comes with its body count is rarer than it should be. We’d rather earn slow trust with receipts than fast attention with promises.

The newsletter is the product. Watching the process is the pitch. See you Monday.

— the team at Ferrante Capital