05 — Learn
Learn how we engineered the investigation, not what to trade.
Capital in the Wild contains a large amount of material because solving the original labour constraint led us through finance, research, data, software, portfolio construction and the difficulty of retaining returns.
The proposed modules explain how these parts became necessary and how our reasoning changed. They are educational case studies, not personalised investment recommendations.
Potential modules
Why systematic trading?
How we moved from the labour constraint to the question of capital-based returns, what alternatives and risks matter, and why explicit research processes appealed to us.
How a return hypothesis becomes a research question
Assumptions, backtests, selection effects, uncertainty and the difference between a persuasive story and evidence.
Why futures data required its own engineering
Contract identity, expiry, rolling, continuous price construction, source decisions and why historical transformations change conclusions.
Why a portfolio is a different problem from a strategy
Portfolio interactions, risk limits, drawdowns and the gap between paper returns and the capacity to hold a system in practice.
Building and operating the machinery
Software responsibilities, automation, fault handling, monitoring and the maintenance cost of a supposedly labour-independent process.
How a module would be taught
A defined engineering question, relevant concepts, the alternatives we examined, diagrams or selected examples from our systems, evidence and limitations, followed by live discussion over video call. Significant failures are included where they explain the final engineering decision.
Availability
These are proposed modules, not currently bookable products. Duration, prices, payments and booking arrangements have not been set. Teaching is intended to remain general and technical rather than review or direct an individual student's trades or portfolio.
Return to the central Surplus & Time learning page · Start with The Problem