Pricing
Fixed prices, written reports
Every tier ends in the same kind of document: a fragility grade, the numbers behind it, and a fix list. The tiers differ in how many tests we run and how much of the future we lock in.
Quick Audit
$149 founding price
- Reproduction of your backtest from your rules and data
- Holdout split and walk-forward check
- Deflated Sharpe ratio, given the number of variants you tried
- Parameter-plateau and transaction-cost sensitivity
- Year-by-year and regime stability
- A–F fragility grade, printed rubric, and fix list
- One round of clarifying questions by email
Send a high-level description. We’ll confirm scope, then send payment and secure-upload instructions.
Deep Audit
$490
- Everything in the Quick Audit
- Probability of backtest overfitting (PBO via CSCV) over your full variant grid
- Harvey–Liu multiple-testing haircut
- White’s Reality Check and Hansen SPA against a benchmark
- Placebo (shadow) strategies and bootstrap drawdown ranges
- Report hash timestamped by two RFC 3161 authorities
- A 30-minute call to walk through the findings
Send a high-level description. We’ll confirm scope, then send payment and secure-upload instructions.
Sealed Forward Trial
$1,500 setup + $99/mo
- A Deep Audit to set the baseline
- A preregistered protocol: rules, metrics and pass criteria frozen in advance
- Daily hypothetical signals sealed before the outcome, timestamped by DigiCert and FreeTSA
- A closing report with a certificate anyone can verify with openssl
- Monthly fee covers the registry and interim reports; cancel any time
Send a high-level description. We’ll confirm scope, then send payment and secure-upload instructions.
Prices in US dollars. Payment by card through Stripe, or by invoice, after we have confirmed scope. Every engagement is confidential, and we sign an NDA before you send data if you ask (how we handle your data). Turnaround starts once we have the materials agreed at scoping. Sealed-trial results are hypothetical performance and are labelled that way.
Two data tiers
Returns only, or positions and trades
Tier 1: returns only. The minimum for every audit: a returns series and the number of variants you tried. Anonymised is fine. The prices above are Tier 1 prices.
Tier 2: positions, trades and exposures. Add your holdings (and trades, if you have them) for a deeper audit: holdings-based factor exposure, cost and capacity against traded volume, look-ahead and survivorship checks, a positions-to-returns reconciliation, and concentration, leverage and liquidity. It takes us substantially more time, so it costs more: about 1.8× Tier 1.
Both tiers use one file format, the Holdout Data Contract, with sample files and a free validator so you can check your folder before sending it. Position and trade data gets the same confidentiality as returns.
| Plan | Tier 1 returns | Tier 2 positions |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Audit | $149 founding $249 standard | $279 founding $449 standard |
| Deep Audit | $490 | $890 |
| Sealed Forward Trial | $1,500 + $99/mo | $2,750 + $179/mo |
| Data preparation add-on | Quoted separately, from $500, if your files aren’t in our format | |
Not sure which tier you need? Choose “Not sure” on the intake form; we recommend one at scoping, before you pay. The request buttons above start with the Tier 1 price (for the Quick Audit, the founding price while it lasts); if you choose Tier 2, we confirm the Tier 2 price at scoping.
Questions
Frequently asked
What do I send?
A description of the rules (or code: Python, Pine Script, MQL, EasyLanguage or a spreadsheet), the market and timeframe, the backtest results or the data needed to reproduce them, and the number of variants you tried before settling on this one. If you tested a grid of parameters, send the whole grid; it lets us compute PBO. For a Tier 2 audit, add positions and trades. Files follow our data contract, which comes with sample files and a free validator; if your data is in another shape, we can prepare it for you (quoted separately, from $500). Start with a high-level description on the intake form. Once we have confirmed scope (and completed an NDA, if you asked for one), we send payment and secure-upload instructions.
Is my strategy kept confidential? Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. We sign your NDA on reasonable terms, or use our mutual NDA, before you send any data; tick the box on the intake form. Your materials are used only to perform your audit, are seen only by the founder, and are never sold, traded on, or shared beyond the service providers we name. We never publish anything about your audit without your written opt-in. Most audits need only a returns series and the number of variants you tried, and you can send it anonymised. Details: confidentiality & data handling.
What happens to my files after delivery?
We delete your code and data within 30 days of delivering the report, unless you ask us to keep them for a follow-up. After that we keep the report and our correspondence (up to three years, or less if you ask) and the minimal billing records the law requires, as set out in the privacy notice. Intake-form messages are deleted automatically after 12 months. For the Sealed Forward Trial we keep the sealed files for the life of the trial, because the seal depends on them.
What if it turns out my strategy is overfit?
Then the audit has done its job, before real money found out. You get a fix list: which checks failed, what that usually means, and concrete changes to make, such as a smaller search, a wider parameter plateau, or a proper holdout. If you revise the strategy, we can audit the new version as a separate, prespecified test.
Is this investment advice?
No. An audit is a statistical analysis of historical data you provide. We do not recommend any security, strategy, position size or trade, and a grade is not a forecast. Decisions about your money stay with you and, where appropriate, a licensed adviser.
What is the refund policy?
We confirm scope before you pay. If you cancel before we receive your data, we refund in full. Once the analysis has begun, fees are not refundable, except that if we fail to deliver the audit as scoped, we refund the part we did not deliver. If you find a factual or computational error of ours within 14 days of delivery, we correct the report free. We do not refund because the grade was lower than hoped; the grade is the product. Full wording: terms, section 6.
Which markets do you cover?
Equities, ETFs, bonds, FX, crypto, commodities and metals, including futures and CTA / managed-futures programmes. Other markets on request. Intraday strategies are welcome; send bar data at the frequency you trade.