Academy / Topic directory
Explore the ideas.
Build your understanding.
Ten areas of study, organized around questions. Start with a topic, then examine its assumptions, evidence, and limitations.
01 / Topic directory
Find your starting point.
Filter by subject, then select a topic to read its guide, key concepts, and practice example.
01Learning guideMarket structureHow do liquidity and market participants affect price formation?Read topicClose topic
A market price emerges from orders meeting available liquidity. The last traded price tells us where a transaction happened, but not how much could be traded at that price.
Key concepts
- Bid, ask, and spread: the bid is a quoted buying price; the ask is a quoted selling price. Their difference is one part of trading cost.
- Depth and price impact: a large order may consume liquidity at several price levels. A narrow spread does not guarantee deep liquidity.
- Participants and venues: investors, dealers, and market makers have different constraints. Trading hours and venue rules affect how orders meet.
Practice example
Suppose the best ask is 100 for 10 units and the next ask is 101 for 20 units. Buying 20 units against those offers costs 2,010 before fees, an average of 100.50. Explain why the best displayed price was not the average execution price.
02Learning guideMacro contextHow do economic cycles, inflation, and policy shape the broader environment?Read topicClose topic
Macro research connects economic activity, prices, and policy to the environment in which businesses and markets operate. It works through possible transmission channels, rather than a fixed rule that one headline must cause one market move.
Key concepts
- Growth and inflation: separate changes in real activity from changes in the price level; distinguish inflation slowing from prices falling.
- Policy transmission: changes in interest rates can affect borrowing costs, demand, discount rates, and exchange rates, with uneven delays.
- Expectations and data: compare a release with prior expectations and check revisions, publication dates, and the period it measures.
Practice example
Build three hypothetical scenarios: slower growth with easing inflation, resilient growth with persistent inflation, and a supply disruption. For each, describe one possible effect on business costs and one observation that would challenge your explanation.
03Learning guideCross-asset relationshipsWhen do relationships between asset classes change?Read topicClose topic
Assets can move together because they share exposures to growth, inflation, funding conditions, or investor positioning. Correlation describes a pattern in a chosen sample; it does not explain the cause or establish a permanent relationship.
Key concepts
- Common drivers: identify which economic or funding conditions could affect both assets.
- Measurement choices: compare returns over matching dates, currencies, and frequencies rather than comparing unrelated price levels.
- Changing regimes: examine whether a relationship differs across calm periods, inflation shocks, and liquidity stress.
Practice example
Imagine two assets whose returns usually move in opposite directions but both fall during a funding squeeze. Write down a shared liquidity explanation and an alternative explanation. Identify the evidence needed to distinguish them.
04Learning guideResearch methodsHow can we distinguish evidence from an attractive explanation?Read topicClose topic
Research starts with a question that evidence could answer incorrectly. A useful process separates the original hypothesis, the data available at the time, the method, and the interpretation of the result.
Key concepts
- Define the claim: specify what is being measured, over which period, and what result would count against the hypothesis.
- Check the data: document sources, missing values, revisions, and survivorship bias. Do not use information that was unavailable at the decision date.
- Test alternatives: compare with a simple baseline, reserve unseen data, and record how many variations were tried.
Practice example
A chart claims that a signal predicted past price moves. Request the signal definition, timestamped inputs, full sample, failed variants, and results on data not used to develop it. Draft a short note separating observations from unresolved questions.
05Learning guideStrategy evaluationWhat assumptions sit behind a strategy, and how might they fail?Read topicClose topic
A strategy is a set of rules and assumptions, not just a performance chart. Evaluation asks whether the rules are reproducible, whether the comparison is fair, and whether the result survives realistic constraints.
Key concepts
- Specification: state the information inputs, decision timing, entry and exit rules, and conditions under which the rules do not apply.
- Fair comparisons: use a relevant baseline and account for fees, spread, slippage, turnover, and any financing assumptions.
- Robustness: examine drawdowns, unseen periods, different environments, and sensitivity to small parameter changes.
Practice example
A hypothetical backtest gains 8% before costs and has 3 percentage points of estimated costs. Its net result is 5%. A comparable baseline gains 6%. Explain why the gross result alone cannot establish an advantage, then list two risks the comparison still omits.
06Learning guideRisk foundationsWhat do concentration, correlation, and uncertainty mean?Read topicClose topic
Risk includes more than day-to-day price movement. It also includes permanent loss, concentrated exposures, inability to exit, operational failures, and uncertainty about the model used to measure those risks.
Key concepts
- Concentration: different holdings may depend on the same company, industry, currency, or funding source.
- Drawdown and recovery: a decline is measured from a previous peak; recovering the loss requires a gain on the smaller remaining amount.
- Stress and liquidity: consider several adverse scenarios and whether assets could be sold under those conditions.
Practice example
A hypothetical portfolio falls from 100 to 80. The drawdown is 20%, but returning from 80 to 100 requires a 25% gain. Explain the different denominators, then describe a risk that this price-only calculation does not capture.
07Learning guideBehavioral disciplineHow can bias affect the way we interpret information?Read topicClose topic
Behavioral discipline makes the reasoning behind a decision visible. The aim is to notice when confidence, emotion, or selective attention changes how evidence is interpreted.
Key concepts
- Confirmation bias: actively seek evidence against your preferred explanation, rather than collecting only supporting examples.
- Anchoring and recency: question whether an initial number or a recent event is receiving more weight than it deserves.
- Process review: record expectations before an outcome, then distinguish decision quality from luck afterward.
Practice example
Write a hypothetical research view in a journal with supporting evidence, contrary evidence, and a condition that would change your mind. Later, review the original entry before reading your explanation of the outcome.
08Learning guideDigital financeWhat technologies and market structures underpin digital assets?Read topicClose topic
Digital finance uses software and network infrastructure to record and transfer claims or assets. Understanding a token requires examining both the technical mechanism and the rights, dependencies, and market arrangements around it.
Key concepts
- Ledgers and settlement: distinguish a transaction being submitted, included, and treated as final under a network or service policy.
- Custody and control: distinguish control of a private key from a claim held with a custodian; identify who can authorize or block a transfer.
- Additional dependencies: study smart contracts, bridges, external data feeds, issuer redemption terms, and trading venue liquidity.
Practice example
Draw a hypothetical transfer from an exchange account to a personal wallet. Mark the exchange withdrawal step, the network transaction, and receipt at the destination. For each, identify who controls it and what evidence would show completion.
09Learning guideLearning practiceHow can a case discussion make reasoning easier to examine?Read topicClose topic
A useful case discussion makes a reasoning process inspectable. Begin with the same information set for all participants, then compare explanations before revealing the eventual outcome.
Key concepts
- Bound the case: specify the question, decision date, available evidence, and unknown information.
- Compare interpretations: assign participants to develop different explanations and identify evidence that would separate them.
- Reflect and revise: record what changed your view and what remains uncertain after the discussion.
Practice example
Use a hypothetical company with rising sales but falling operating cash flow. List explanations such as slower customer collections or inventory buildup. Identify the financial statement details needed to investigate each, then write a provisional conclusion.
10Learning guideResearch communicationHow can we communicate sources, uncertainty, and limitations clearly?Read topicClose topic
Clear research communication lets a reader trace a conclusion back to evidence. It separates observed facts, calculations, assumptions, and judgments, and explains where the conclusion may fail.
Key concepts
- Sources: give the publisher, document or dataset, observation period, and retrieval or publication date as relevant.
- Uncertainty: state the assumptions and alternatives that materially affect the conclusion; avoid precision that the evidence cannot support.
- Charts and summaries: label units, time ranges, baselines, and transformations, and make the main limitation visible alongside the finding.
Practice example
Rewrite “the model proves this will happen” as a conditional finding. State which sample was examined, what pattern appeared, which assumptions were used, and what additional evidence is needed before generalizing.
02 / A study example
Start a discussion, not a prediction.
A hypothetical learning prompt—not a report of an actual trade or a recommendation to act.
A model worked in the past.
What do we still need to know?
A chart shows a strong historical fit. The sample period, assumptions, and out-of-sample results are not available.
- Which missing information would change your assessment?
- What alternative explanation could account for the result?
- How would you describe the uncertainty without overstating confidence?
03 / Faculty
Meet the instructors.
Learn about the people who teach the framework — their roles, focus, and the principles they bring to the academy.