The methodology, written down.
How to read a backtest, why the mandate exists, what a timestamp buys. If the product is disclosure, this is the editorial page.
Why most backtests flatter
A simulated track record answers an easier question than the one you care about. Here is how to read one without being fooled — and why this site labels them the way it does.
A backtest is a simulation of a strategy on historical data. It answers the question: had you run these rules in the past, what would the record look like? That is a legitimate question. The trouble is that it is not the question an allocator cares about, which is what the rules will do next — and the gap between those two questions is where most of the flattery lives.
The mandate is the product
The same signal should not mean the same trade for a retiree and a prop trader. The risk mandate is how one agent serves both — and why the platform never has to guess what you meant.
What a timestamp buys you
Verification tiers are the spine of this marketplace. They cannot tell you a strategy is good — Iron Harbor is proof — but they make the record impossible to quietly rewrite.