Lab note / November 5, 2026

A public lab without a pretend track record

An implementation note on Ratigan Capital’s static publishing, local progress and deliberate gates on membership and results.

Josh writing in a small blank notebook, keeping lab notes.
Implementation note · not a trading result

This note describes the website implementation visible in its source. It is not Josh’s personal trading diary and does not document a trading result.

Engineering record · not performance evidence.

What exists

The public site is built as static Astro pages. The course contains ten lessons; the four strategy playbooks are labeled untested. Risk calculators work in the browser. Lesson completion is stored in that browser only, not in a member account. Search indexes the public content. The blog has an RSS feed. Lab notes now also have their own feed at /journey/rss.xml; they are not mixed into the research blog feed.

The boundary is intentional

The public build keeps membership disabled. The application endpoint is empty, submission is disabled, and no payment collection has been added. Describing Open, Member and Inner Lab does not make paid access available.

What this build changes

The homepage leads with the personal lab and its system architecture. The Systems page distinguishes implemented educational tools from proposed AI research and journal-review workflows. The digital-assets research page is a question-driven research agenda, not a source of live market findings.

What remains untested

No connected AI research service, automated trading system or verified performance record is demonstrated by this site. A diagram is not an integration. A playbook is not an edge. A publication standard is not proof that a result meets it.

The next evidence gate

Before a future trading result is published, it must state data provenance, the period and sample size, rules, fees and slippage, drawdown and limitations. Deposits must not be presented as investment gains. Winning and losing records must follow the same standard.

Inspect Systems · Read the publication standard · Back to the build log

Education only, not financial advice. This note does not invent personal events, execution history or financial results.

Lab notes RSS · Education only, not financial advice.