Demo account first. Live capital, last.

Every idea starts on a StrategyQuantX demo account. No real funds, no real risk — the demo account is the classroom.

• Formulate the hypothesis in plain math
• Generate or encode the strategy in StrategyQuantX
• Run on a demo account with realistic spreads and slippage

Backtest on long, out-of-sample history. Read the equity curve before the metrics — shape tells you what the numbers hide.

• Walk-forward and Monte Carlo robustness tests
• Reject strategies that depend on a few lucky trades
• Keep the full trade log for later review

Does the edge survive different regimes, parameter perturbation, and transaction-cost sensitivity? If not, it is not an edge.

• Parameter sensitivity and regime breakdown
• Cost and slippage stress tests
• Reject if not robust across conditions

Run live, unobserved data on the demo account for weeks. A strategy that only works in hindsight is worth nothing.

• Track live demo performance vs. backtest expectation
• Monitor drawdown and execution drift
• Do not proceed until live demo matches the thesis

Only after the demo proves the thesis. Start with the smallest meaningful position and a hard risk cap. This is the teaching point of the whole studio.

• Size to a fixed fraction of capital at risk per trade
• Hard daily and strategy-level loss limits
• Treat live as confirmation, not discovery

Live performance is monitored against the demo benchmark. Strategies that degrade are retired; those that hold are scaled deliberately.

• Compare live vs. demo drift continuously
• Retire on rule-based degradation, not feeling
• Scale only after sustained, reviewed confirmation