From idea to hypothesis
What the Research Lead does with what you give it, and how to give it more.
What you can submit
The idea box accepts plain text, chart screenshots, PDFs, Word documents, EPUBs, HTML and spreadsheets. Text is extracted and read in full: a whole book or a proven-strategy write-up can be distilled into several hypotheses in one submission. Images are looked at directly, so an annotated chart is a valid idea.
What a hypothesis contains
A hypothesis names the instrument and venue, the bar timeframe, the signal that opens a position, the rule that closes it, the expected holding period and a risk profile with stop and position-sizing intent. It also states the economic reason the edge should exist, which the analyst later checks against the evidence.
Fee awareness from the start
Every venue in Stratmill carries its real maker and taker fees, and a round trip on a perpetual future costs about a tenth of a percent of notional. The Research Lead is asked to propose edges whose average trade return clears that bar, and ideas that cannot are declined with an explanation rather than quietly coded.
Choosing a venue
Long-only ideas without leverage belong on spot markets; ideas that short, use leverage or trade the funding rate belong on perpetual futures; US stocks and ETFs trade on the equities venue with session hours. The venue decides fees, leverage caps and whether shorting is possible, so it is fixed before any code is written.
Standing instructions and knowledge
If you always want a particular venue, timeframe or style, write it once as a standing instruction for the Research Lead on the Agents page. Attach knowledge files, such as your own notes on a market, and the agent reads them on every call in your workspace.
When an idea is declined
The Research Lead declines ideas with no tradable market, no testable rule, or an edge that cannot survive trading costs. The reason is recorded on the hypothesis so you can refine and resubmit. Declining early is cheaper than coding, verifying and backtesting a dead end.