A backtest that looks good isn’t one you can trust yet. Send us your hypothesis — we scope the data, assumptions and checks it needs, then deliver an independent report with the evidence and its limits. Research and final validation are scoped separately, before you commit.
Report deliveredT+46h
PDF reportTrade evidence book
The PDF report and the trade evidence book are posted to your workspace. Every number traces back to the frozen declaration. Optional desk monitoring can start from here.
Stage 7 / 7Workspace: Report uploadedIllustrative workflow · timing confirmed with scope
01of 8: Strategies
Start with a research question
Discretionary, systematic and hybrid hypotheses all start the same way: a brief in plain English.
Backtesting is how a trading idea earns trust: replaying a strategy over decades of historical market data to measure how it would have behaved — before any capital is at risk. Validraft is built for rigorous, reproducible quantitative research. You don’t need a fully coded algo: discretionary, systematic, and hybrid hypotheses all start the same way — a brief in plain English.
We first check whether the required data and execution model support the question. We then agree on research, candidate development or final validation. Protected out-of-sample testing applies to a frozen candidate in a supported validation scope. Strategies are grouped by the type of edge they claim — pick a group to see example research questions, or describe your own idea and we’ll scope it.
Edge group 01 / 10
Trend, reversal, breakout, gap, and swing behavior.
Example research questions, not results. Each one is scoped against the data on disk before anything runs.
Don’t see your exact approach? Discretionary playbooks and partial rules are exactly what the brief is for — we scope what can be tested honestly before any compute runs.
Browse all strategy families02of 8: How it works
How it works
Every brief travels the same eight-stage architecture — five layers from immutable, point-in-time data to a signed-off report, held together by a lineage spine that tracks every asset and check.
Stage 01 / 08
Your hypothesis, captured and scoped before any compute runs.
You describe the asset, timeframe, rules, and what success looks like — in plain English. We translate it into a precise, testable specification and confirm data coverage and feasibility, so the engagement is scoped to what the data lake can genuinely support.
Touring the stages.
03of 8: Validation report
Validation framework
Your candidate is frozen before validation starts. It then runs through a fixed sequence of gates in six phases — from data integrity to a named reviewer’s sign-off. Each gate records what it observed against its threshold, and the report renders one verdict.
Principle 01
Scope before compute. Missing material data stops the run at preflight, not in the report.
Principle 02
Freeze before out-of-sample. Parameters, costs and data window are locked before protected evidence opens.
Principle 03
Only what applies. The strategy family decides which gates are required, diagnostic or not applicable.
Principle 04
One decision source. The report renders the pipeline verdict. It cannot recompute or soften it.
20-day false-breakout reversal — US equities · Validation · Frozen candidate
Not client data
# Preflight & data integrity
# Feature & signal diagnostics
# Performance, benchmark & implementation
# Statistical validation
# Stress & regime robustness
# Governance & approval
Decision rendered by the pipeline
14 gates run · 2 not applicable
The verdict
A GO means every blocking gate passed within the declared scope and a named reviewer signed off. It is not a recommendation to trade, a profitability guarantee, a safety claim or approval for live trading.
Every blocking gate passed and a named reviewer signed off the result.
Gates passed, but a documented, ticketed threshold override is on record and must be read with the result.
At least one blocking gate failed. You still receive the report — which gate, which value, and why.
04of 8: Monitoring
Post-validation monitoring
A delivered strategy can drift. On the cadence you choose, the desk compares new observations with the baseline in your report and posts a descriptive snapshot to your workspace: health state, rolling Sharpe, drawdown against the stress envelope, and a short note on what changed.
Health
Three health states. Healthy, Watch or Signal decay — always read against the validation baseline in your report.
Cadence
Your cadence. Weekly, monthly or quarterly desk updates, depending on the monitoring plan.
Notes
Descriptive flags. Notes describe drift; they are never trading instructions. No paper or live trading.
validraft.net/dashboard/monitoring
Sample workspaceMonitoring
Desk-updated snapshots
Select a strategy to open its latest snapshot.
Breakout & opening range · Monitor Standard · Weekly
05of 8: Data
Data
Every brief is tested against the datasets your hypothesis actually needs — price, fundamentals, macro, sentiment and alternative signals, on the same immutable, point-in-time lake our research desk runs. Coverage shows the historical depth held in the lake. When a scope needs a newer window, it is sourced, checked and documented before the engagement is accepted.
3.9TB
of raw market, fundamental, macro and alternative data
260B
records across six providers
36,000
US equity tickers, 23,000 of them delisted
36years
of history, from 1990 to 2026
Rounded figures, counted on 4 November 2026.
Available on request
Listed in provider catalogs, sourced, verified and documented for the scopes that need it.
Historical depth by provider
[ 1990 → 2026 ]
CME futures
CME futures data across continuous rolls: minute bars, ticks, L2/L3 order book, and contract metadata.
On requestThe full CME Group order book history: L1, L2 and L3 for 650,000+ symbols since 2010.
US equities
US equity cross-section with trades, minute aggregates, adjusted bars, reference, corporate actions, and processed daily bars.
On requestNBBO quotes since 2003, US listed options since 2014, forex and crypto since 2009.
Fundamentals & multi-asset markets
The broadest dataset family in the lake: fundamentals, events, ownership, index membership, ETF holdings, FX, crypto, and COT.
On requestEarnings call transcripts, SEC filings, intraday bars and ESG ratings.
Macroeconomic indicators
Vintage-aware macro data: 230 FRED/ECB series with point-in-time layouts for regime and macro overlays.
On requestAny of FRED's 853,000 series from 127 sources, with vintages where ALFRED keeps them.
News & sentiment
FMP news streams across equities, press releases, forex, macro, and crypto, then locally classified with FinBERT sentiment scoring.
Congressional trading
Congressional trading exports preserved as snapshots and normalized into event ledgers for alternative-data tests.
On request13 more datasets, from insider trades and corporate lobbying to government contracts and patents.
Tell us what the hypothesis needs. If the feed is available and licensable, we source it, ingest it into the research lake, and document the data assumptions before validation starts.
Planned, not yet in the lake
These feeds are not part of the active lake yet. They are the next provider candidates we plan to evaluate, license where required, normalize, and document before they can be used in validation.
News stream · Analyst and ratings events · Earnings calendar
Options chains · IV history · Greeks and surfaces
Spot FX · Historical rates · Currency metadata
CoinAPITrades · OHLCV · Exchange reference
Market metadata · Odds history · Resolution history
Provider names and marks are shown for identification only. Validraft is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by the listed providers. Coverage shown reflects the current research lake; some feeds refresh on demand for scoped engagements.
06of 8: Confidentiality
Privacy & confidentiality
A trading hypothesis can be the most sensitive thing you send us. Validraft separates two ideas clearly: personal data is handled under the privacy notice, and strategy materials are treated as confidential engagement materials by default.
Scope
Strategy materials stay scoped. Briefs, parameters, files, reports, and monitoring notes stay tied to the engagement they came from.
Reuse
No public reuse of your logic. Client hypotheses are not added to a public template library, marketing example, or cross-client benchmark.
Delivery
Private report delivery. Reports and workspace updates are delivered through authenticated access or agreed private channels.
NDA
NDA path for sensitive work. Standard briefs stay lightweight; sensitive business, Tier C, or institutional scopes can move under NDA before details are shared.
Data surfaces we design around
Operational practices
07of 8: Positioning
Positioning
Validraft is built for the moment when a backtest looks promising, but you need an independent desk to test whether the evidence survives proper validation.
Validraft position. Human judgment where it matters, standardized validation where it must be repeatable.
You operate everything
Flexible if you already own the pipeline, but every data bug, look-ahead issue, and overfit parameter choice is yours to catch.
Independent validation desk
Human-scoped validation, institutional gates, and a descriptive report without turning the engagement into open-ended consulting.
Custom research project
Useful for bespoke build-outs, but often heavier, slower, and harder to compare because methodology changes engagement by engagement.
| Dimension | DIY tools | Validraft | Consultants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit | DIY tools:Builders who want full control | Validraft:Founders, traders, and managers who need an external validation read | Consultants:Bespoke research or platform build-outs |
| Client effort | DIY tools:High | Validraft:Brief-driven | Consultants:High-touch |
| Validation gates | DIY tools:Whatever you implement | Validraft:Standardized control stack | Consultants:Variable by engagement |
| Delivery model | DIY tools:Self-service tool | Validraft:Scoped report | Consultants:Open-ended project |
08of 8: Research notes
Research notes · Latest field notes
Field notes on evidence quality: from point-in-time data and execution realism to statistical gates, immutable reporting, and post-validation monitoring.
A strategy that works at only one lookback is describing the sample, not the market.
Splits, dividends and spin-offs change the price series; how they are applied decides what the backtest measures.
Public disclosures describe trades that already happened; a signal can start only when the filing becomes public.
Next step
Start with a sample, then ask whether your question is feasible. We agree on the analysis, data, price and delivery before any work starts.
72
Public controls
Documented on the methodology page
6
Validation phases
From data integrity to sign-off
3
Possible outcomes
Each one is a deliverable
$79
Starting price
Research and backtests, scoped first