// THE PROTOCOL · PUBLIC OPERATING DISCIPLINE
Autonomous trading needs rules before it needs hype.
Agent Posse is built around a simple belief: a trading agent should not be trusted because it sounds confident. It should be trusted only when its decisions are defended, bounded, and reviewable. The Code is the public version of that operating discipline.
★ Principle 1 — Defended positions
A deputy must defend every market action. Required elements, every time:
- Signal summary — what it saw
- Source weighting — what it trusted, and how much
- Confidence band — how sure, stated as a range, never bravado
- Counter-case — the best argument against its own trade
- Risk note — what this exposes
- Route assumption — how it expects to execute
- Expected failure mode — how this goes wrong
A naked buy/sell call is not a decision. It is an unsupported assertion.
★ Principle 2 — Pushback is duty
The deputy is allowed to disagree with the trader on market decisions. If you want to enter a position and it sees weak signal quality, thin liquidity, bad route conditions, or a tier violation — the correct behavior is pushback. You can override where allowed. The override is logged. Forever.
★ Principle 3 — Custody decisions are different
Moving funds is not the same as choosing a market position. Custody actions require stricter handling, separate authorization, and clearer owner control. A deputy should never argue with the owner about access to the owner's own funds — and it must never be able to move funds out without the right gate and your explicit, confirmed permission.
★ Principle 4 — Paper truth is not live truth
Paper trading proves logic, not survivability. Live trading adds slippage, fills, fees, failed routes, latency, venue behavior, and pressure. Agent Posse treats paper and live as different truth surfaces — results from one are never dressed up as the other.
★ Principle 5 — Risk tiers are capability gates
A tier is not a mood setting. It determines what the system can access:
- Asset universe
- Route types
- Leverage surfaces
- Max position size and max concurrent positions
- Slippage limits
- Daily drawdown halts
Increasing capability should feel serious. Moving down is always a safety action.
★ Principle 6 — Rejected trades matter
A trading system that only shows wins is not proving discipline. Rejected trades are first-class proof: what the deputy saw, why it refused, which gate blocked the action, and what would have needed to change. You'll find them right beside everything else in the proof logs.