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Research · Methods

How the notes are kept.

The standards every note and field note is held to. Each one says what checks it: the site build, the checks that run before every deploy, or a person reading the change. Where a machine checks it, the file that does so is named.

Checked by the build
1
Checked before every deploy
3
Checked in review
7

  1. Every figure is dated

    A figure about the firm carries the date of the data it comes from. In a note it stays as written, beside that date, after newer figures are published.

    Checked in review

  2. Every figure has its method beside it

    Each figure says how it is counted: what is included, which records it comes from, and how it is rounded. On the Record page each published figure is printed with its method.

    Checked in review

  3. One activity figure, never results

    The only published figure about the firm’s trading is one activity figure on the Record page: trades executed. A research note may also print a figure as of its date, which stays as written. Results, revenue and balances are never published; the full record goes out on request.

    Checked in review

  4. Private field names never reach the site

    Before every deploy, the built site is searched for the private field names of the record export, and the deploy stops if it finds one. This backs up the rule above; it cannot catch a result written out in plain words or numbers, which review does.

    Checked before every deploy in scripts/verify-rules.mjs, check private-fields

  5. Figures are rounded down

    Published figures are always rounded down, so they never overstate: trades executed to the nearest 5,000. The rounding happens in the one script that moves figures into the site, and its output is reviewed before it is committed.

    Checked in review

  6. Examples are invented, and say so

    Worked examples use made-up names such as Station A and Outcome A, and round numbers, and say they are made up. No market, event, contract or ticker the desk trades is ever named.

    Checked in review

  7. Corrections are dated and added, never silent

    When something in a published note turns out wrong, a dated correction goes at its foot and the change can be seen. Before every deploy, each published note is compared with its published version: a changed title, summary, link or text without a new dated correction stops the deploy, and so does a note that was removed or renamed.

    Checked before every deploy in scripts/verify-rules.mjs, check silent-edit

  8. Signed before it is published

    Grayson Dodson reviews and signs every note before it is published. Field notes are drafted with the desk’s AI agents, and say so; he edits and signs each one.

    Checked in review

  9. Field notes carry no figures

    The build stops on a field note with a $ or % sign in its title, summary or text, a digit in its title or summary, or a word the record never uses. Cents in a worked example are allowed.

    Checked by the build in src/lib/research.ts

  10. Drafts never reach the site

    Drafts and templates are left out of the build. Before every deploy, the built site is searched for any page, link, feed entry or listing of one, and the deploy stops if it finds any.

    Checked before every deploy in scripts/verify-rules.mjs, check draft-leak

  11. What a reader can check

    Methods are published; data and code are not. Venues can recount trades from their own records. Studies use only public venue data and what the Record page publishes.

    Checked in review

All research How the record is measured