Speculative mandate: what it means

Speculative is the fifth posture on Strategy › Profile, after Preservation, Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive. It exists because the risk envelope is yours: "it's my money" is a legitimate instruction, and a book that wants to bet everything on a goal should be able to say so and get a desk that acts like it. It is also the one posture the desk will never suggest and never move a book onto by itself. You choose it, on a paper book, after reading what it means and typing that you accept it.

Where

Strategy › Profile › the Speculative tile, or say it on Strategy › Guidance ("bet the house", "go ham")

What it sets

Every limit is the size of the book: the whole book may be invested (up to twice that on a margin account, if you raise it yourself), one name may be the whole book, one order may be the whole book, and the daily loss stop and the drawdown brake are both set to the book's whole value, so neither protects it (the brake is never reached; the daily stop only ends a day that has already lost about half the book). Up to eight new names and eight orders a session (the only posture whose per-session order cap may go above six), 200 orders a day, six quick round trips a week

What it tells the desk

Pursue your stated goal as an absolute return: every qualified setup is a full-size position the session it qualifies (no half-size starter), a winner gets its add later the same day instead of waiting a day, below 90% invested the strongest names are bought from the ranking without waiting for a breakout, no trimming for caution or macro prints, and a qualified name it passes on comes with its cost or edge number

What it does not change

Every order still passes the risk engine against your numbers; nothing is ever sold short and a sell never exceeds what you hold; a stop at the broker still stands behind every managed exit; your approval line, the kill switch and any halt you set yourself work as on every posture; the Critic still reviews; paper to live is never one click; the system never moves money

To apply

Type I ACCEPT THESE RISKS under the stated risks, then SPECULATIVE and your code (it loosens)

Availability

Paper books only until the real-money runbook covers it

What changes

The posture writes seven limits at once, exactly like the other presets, through the same audited path. You said you are comfortable losing all of it, so five of them are the size of the book: largest single position 100%, total exposure 100%, the largest order 100% of equity, the daily loss stop 100% of equity and the drawdown brake 100% from the peak. With them go a turnover budget of twice the book's equity a session and the same runaway ceiling of 200 orders a day every posture carries.

Read the two stops for what they are at those numbers. A brake at 100% from the peak can never be hit, and a daily loss stop the size of the book only ends a day that has already lost about half of it (the stop follows the book's value as it falls). Almost nothing stops the losses on a Speculative book. Risk › Halts says so on both rows instead of promising a stop that is not there.

The account-size band that holds a small book's order size and loss stop lower on the other four postures does not apply to a Speculative book: the numbers are the book's size at any size. Two platform ceilings still stand, $1 million an order and $10 million of loss in a day, and they only matter to a book larger than that.

Each limit still shows on Risk › Limits with where it comes from, and each is yours to move. Type a lower number on any row and that number is what is enforced from the next order; the row then reads that you set it yourself, with a Reset link back to the posture's number. Two details are particular to this posture. The daily loss stop follows the book's value down, so it ends a day at about half the book: only a typed number under that stops a day earlier, and a larger one counts as loosening. And $4,000 on the largest order or $1,000 on the daily loss stop cannot be typed as a limit, because those are the amounts this posture stores to mean follow the posture. The posture itself never invests more than the whole book. Only if you raise the invested limit yourself on an account with margin can total exposure go past 100%. Loosening keeps the usual ceremony (the words MORE RISK, your code, an audit entry, and the consequence in dollars before you confirm); tightening is one click.

The PM's mandate becomes the return-targeting one. Its system context opens with your goal from Strategy › Guidance ("work toward 400% by Dec 31") and the instruction to treat idle cash while signals are positive as a failure, to size every qualified setup as a full position, to add to a winner later the same day rather than the next, and to state the odds plainly in every summary: a target is what it works toward, not what it expects. Day-trading days and flatten-by-the-close days come from your schedule entries, not from the posture.

How it differs from Aggressive: pace, sizing, selection

Speculative is not Aggressive with wider fences; the desk behaves differently in three ways, and the same numbers appear on the Posture card, in the PM's mandate and in the Critic's grading, so nothing drifts.

• Pace. Up to eight new names a session and eight orders a session (Aggressive: five and five), six quick round trips a week (Aggressive: three), and a name that is working gets its add later the same day, at the next check-in, instead of the next day (never in the same batch that opens it). The PM's mandate states the deployment duty in numbers: below 90% invested with unused qualified names is a breach it must explain with a number, not a mood.
• Sizing. 1% of equity at risk per idea at the stop (on closing-price stops, the paper default, a position can lose about 1.6 times that during the day before the disaster stop sells, and a close under the stop sells at the next open: Risk › Halts › Protective stops), and the whole of it at entry: there is no half-size starter to "see how it goes". No limit cuts that size on a Speculative book (the order and holding limits are the book itself), so the distance to the stop is what decides how big a position is. Tell the desk to take more risk on Strategy › Guidance and it risks 2% per idea instead; the card says what that is in dollars on your book before you confirm. Caution regimes and macro prints do not shrink a Speculative entry.
• Selection. The act line sits one notch below Aggressive's, and whenever the book is under its 90–100% band the strongest names by the desk's blend may be bought from the ranking without waiting for a breakout, up to five a session (Aggressive needs the book at least 30 points under its band and takes three). The allowance is computed by code each session and an entry that cites it when the book is inside its band is refused.

What does not move with any of this: a hard rule you set still wins, a lower number you type on any limit is enforced exactly (with the two details above), the denylist and the risk engine's verdict are final, nothing is sold short, and nothing is ever averaged down.

What it does not change

• The Executor runs every order through the same risk checks; only the numbers are yours. A stop the Executor refuses is still refused.
• No shorting, and a sell is never larger than what you hold. The whole book can be lost; it cannot go below zero by borrowing shares.
• Every managed exit still has its stop resting at the broker behind it, so a position's own stop works even if the platform is down.
• Your approval line is the one you chose. Orders above it still wait for you, whatever the posture.
• The kill switch and any halt you set yourself stop trading exactly as on every other posture.
• The Critic stays on and grades harder: leaning on the goal to skip a stop or size above the band is a finding, and so is citing your guidance for a trade it does not cover.
• The Quant never recommends Speculative and its automatic tuning never steps a Speculative book down a rung or tightens its limits quietly; it recommends, you decide.
• Paper to live is still a staged procedure, never a click, and a live book cannot take this posture yet.
• Nothing here lets any role touch money or broker credentials.

The risks it states, and why you type an acknowledgement

Before the Speculative tile (or a Guidance card that proposes it) can be confirmed, the console lists the risks in plain words and asks you to type I ACCEPT THESE RISKS under them. They are worth reading here too:

• The whole book may be invested, and up to twice that when the account has margin: a bad week can cost more than the cash you put in.
• One name may be the whole book, bought in a single order. One earnings miss or a halt can take most of your equity in minutes.
• Almost nothing stops the losses. The drawdown brake is set to 100% and is never reached. The daily loss stop is the book's whole value, so it only ends a day that has already lost about half the book. Otherwise the desk keeps trading toward your goal however far the book falls.
• The desk may open up to eight new names a session at full size (no half-size starters), add to them later the same day, and send up to 200 orders a day, and the PM is told to pursue an absolute return, so it will trade more, in less liquid moments, with wider stops.
• Most books run this way lose money; a stated goal is a target the desk works toward, not odds in your favour.

The acknowledgement is not a second password. It is there so the audit log records that the words were on the screen when you chose this, and so nobody sharing your screen can put a book on Speculative with one stray click. Going back to any other posture is one click and needs nothing typed.