The Equity tab is the control room for the portfolio you just generated. If Portfolio Rules is the workbench where you decide how to build the portfolio, the Equity tab is where you see it come alive: the equity curve over time, the drawdown alongside it, the performance metrics and rotation-by-rotation diagnostics.
In simple terms: after pressing GENERATE PORTFOLIO, here you find everything you need to judge the result. A trade-by-trade walk-forward curve showing the real path the portfolio would have followed applying the rules upstream of each rotation (not just the rotation points), paired with a row of gauge indicators summarizing the main KPIs at a glance, detailed metric panels, the rotations table to inspect what entered and when, and the Validation sub-tab showing the Lock-box holdout’s In-Sample / Out-of-Sample comparison. Two curves are always shown together — RAW (one contract) and MM (with Money Management) — because comparing them is the most direct way to separate selection quality from sizing’s contribution.
An important premise. QANTHOS is an analysis, validation and discovery tool, not a financial advisor. The metrics, indicators and colour-coded thresholds in this tab are reading tools: they describe the simulated portfolio’s historical behaviour, they don’t predict its future one nor establish what’s “good” for you. The interpretation, and every operational decision, remain yours.
1. What the Equity tab shows
The tab populates from the generated rotational portfolio: at each rotation the system selects strategies according to the rules, and the Equity tab reconstructs the resulting overall path. Two underlying choices shape the reading.
Trade-by-trade equity. The curve doesn’t simply connect end-of-rotation values: it reconstructs equity trade by trade, so you also see the drawdowns that open and close within a rotation, not just the snapshots at its edges. A more honest representation of the real pain the portfolio would have gone through.
Dual RAW and MM curve, always together. The tab shows two equity versions simultaneously: RAW, computed at one contract per strategy (no sizing), and MM, with Money Management applied. Keeping them side by side lets you read two distinct things — how good the strategy selection is (RAW isn’t affected by sizes) and how much value sizing adds (the difference between the two). When Money Management is disabled, the two curves coincide and the metrics’ MM column is hidden so as not to duplicate numbers.
It’s a walk-forward equity, i.e. the real result. The most important point to keep in mind reading the chart. The curve isn’t a backtest “optimized with hindsight”: it’s built walk-forward. At each rotation the system applies the rules — filters, correlation, rebalancer, money management — using only data available up to that date (lookback windows always look only at the past), selects strategies, and then holds them in the portfolio for the following period, up to the next rotation. That period’s P&L is what the strategies actually produced. Repeating the process rotation after rotation, the curve you get is the result the portfolio would really have achieved applying those rules over time, with no look-ahead. The tab’s title — “EQUITY CURVE OOS — Trade by Trade” — reflects exactly this: every segment is out-of-sample relative to the decision that generated it.
Why it matters. A walk-forward equity is far more reliable than a backtest where rules are tuned with the entire history already in view. Here every rotation’s decisions are made “blind” relative to the future: what you see is the system’s honest behaviour over time, not a result inflated by hindsight. It remains a historical simulation, though — the definitive confirmation comes from validation (Lock-box) and real operation, not from how nice the curve looks.
2. The equity chart (dual RAW + MM)
The chart is the tab’s core. It shows the two overlaid equity curves — MM in the foreground and RAW as a reference — with, below, a drawdown sub-chart aligned in time. In the header, three checkboxes govern what you see:
| Checkbox | Effect |
|---|---|
| RAW | Shows or hides the one-contract curve. |
| MM | Shows or hides the Money Management curve. |
| Rotations | Highlights rotation points on the chart, to see where the portfolio recomposed. |
Next to them, the Refresh (reloads data from the last generated portfolio) and Reset Zoom (returns the chart to the initial view) buttons. The chart has the standard matplotlib toolbar for zoom and pan, and shows a tooltip on hover with the exact equity and drawdown values at the date under the cursor.
RAW and MM, again. The RAW vs MM distinction comes back here as in the Comparison tab, because it’s one of the Builder’s most instructive readings. If the MM curve clearly improves on RAW, your Money Management is working well; if it worsens it or makes it jumpier, that’s a signal worth investigating. The point is being able to separate what you chose from how much weight you’re trading it with.
3. The indicator row (KPI gauges)
Above the chart, a row of gauges translates the main KPIs into visual indicators with colour bands, for an instant judgement without reading numbers one by one. The gauges cover Max Drawdown (%), Sharpe Ratio, Calmar Ratio, annualized volatility (%) and percentage of winning rotations, alongside two comparative indicators — the last rotation’s Co-Loss and MM Efficiency (Money Management’s gain over RAW).
A RAW | MM toggle (defaulting to MM) decides which of the two equities feeds the gauges. It’s independent from the header checkboxes: those control the chart lines, this toggle controls the indicator feed. When a value is undefined, the gauge shows “n/a” instead of a fake zero.
4. The Metrics sub-tab
The right column gathers detailed metrics into collapsible panels (click the header to open/close). The Metrics sub-tab contains four of them.
4.1 OOS Performance (Trade-by-Trade)
The main table, in two columns, RAW and MM, with the entries: Capital, Final Equity, Profit, Return, Annualized Return, Max DD (%), Max DD ($), Worst Day, Worst Month, Sharpe, Trades and Rot Win/Tot (winning rotations over total). When Money Management is disabled, the MM column is hidden because it’s identical to RAW.
4.2 Co-Loss Risk (Aggregate)
Measures simultaneous-loss risk across the portfolio’s strategies, aggregated over rotations. Shows the Status (enabled, with the number of rotations analyzed, or disabled), the average, maximum and minimum risk, the unmitigated share (Unmit. Avg) and a synthetic Level — Low, Moderate, Elevated, High or Critical — with colour coding. It’s the aggregate risk reading that a single correlation number doesn’t capture: how often, and how heavily, the portfolio tends to lose “all together”.
4.3 RWC / ART (Rolling Window Consistency)
Measures selection stability over time: how much the portfolio changes from one rotation to the next. A dedicated panel shows the value, with the option to open a rolling view and adjust the window size. A selection that changes little (low turnover) is more stable and, generally, cheaper to manage.
4.4 Portfolio Equity Metrics
A panel of additional metrics on the overall equity’s quality, completing the picture.
Everything reads together. Gauges, metrics table and chart tell the same story from different angles: the chart gives the shape, the gauges the quick judgement, the table the exact numbers. Cross-referencing them is how you avoid being misled by a single metric.
5. The Rotations sub-tab
The Rotations sub-tab lists, row by row, the portfolio’s rotations. For each it shows the Period (rotation date), the number of strategies selected, the Trades and the rotation’s RAW P&L. Empty rotations — those where no strategy passed the filters — are highlighted in red, a useful signal to understand whether the pipeline is too restrictive in certain periods.
A double-click on a rotation opens the detail with the strategies selected at that moment. It’s the tool for answering “what was the portfolio trading in that window, and why”.
6. The Validation sub-tab
The Validation sub-tab is where the Lock-box holdout’s In-Sample / Out-of-Sample comparison appears. When you work in Portfolio Rules with Lock-box in Validation mode, here you find the synthetic verdict — Robust, Borderline, Overfit or Insufficient Data — with the IS vs OOS metrics comparison, the Walk-Forward Efficiency and the robustness indicators. The panel also lists the reasons behind the verdict, so you see why the portfolio is judged a certain way.
The holdout’s full workings — what the Lock-box freezes, the Development and Validation modes, holdout sizing and the “only once” discipline — are described in the Portfolio Rules chapter (Lock-box section). Here it’s enough to remember this sub-tab is its reading window: if you haven’t enabled Validation, the panel stays empty.
Comparison on RAW equity. The IS/OOS validation compares the two phases on RAW equity (one contract): it isolates selection quality from the Money Management layer, so the judgement is about what the system chose, not how it was sized.
7. Exporting data
The bottom bar offers three exports:
| Button | What it exports |
|---|---|
| CSV | The trade-by-trade equity curve in CSV format, for external analysis. |
| PNG | An image of the current chart. |
| Rotations CSV | A diagnostic CSV: for each rotation, the list of selected strategies with P&L, ticker, class and MM contracts. Useful for analyzing the system’s choices after the fact. |
8. Common issues and notes
The tab is empty / “No rotational portfolio”. The Equity tab populates from a generated rotational portfolio. Go to Portfolio Rules, set Type to Rotational, generate, then press Refresh here.
I don’t see the MM column in the metrics. Normal when Money Management is disabled: the MM curve would coincide with RAW, so the column is hidden so as not to duplicate numbers. Enable a Money Management method in Portfolio Rules to see it.
The Validation sub-tab is empty. It only populates when Lock-box is in Validation mode in Portfolio Rules. In Off or Development mode there’s no IS/OOS comparison to show.
There are red (empty) rotations. In those windows no strategy passed the filters. A few empty rotations can be normal; many in a row suggest an overly restrictive pipeline — loosen the quality gates or review Min trades.
The chart is “stepped” instead of smooth. If the data comes from an older generation, equity may be reconstructed per-rotation instead of trade-by-trade. Regenerate the portfolio for the detailed curve.
9. An example workflow
A typical path, not a prescription.
- In Portfolio Rules, build and GENERATE the rotational portfolio.
- Open the Equity tab and press Refresh.
- Look at the gauges first for the overall judgement, then the shape of the RAW and MM curves in the chart.
- In the Metrics sub-tab, read the exact numbers (OOS Performance, Co-Loss, RWC/ART, Portfolio Equity Metrics).
- In the Rotations sub-tab, inspect the rotations; double-click to see the selected strategies wherever something catches your eye.
- If you used the Lock-box in Validation, open Validation and read the IS/OOS verdict.
- Use what you’ve learned to go back to Portfolio Rules, refine, and compare variants in the Comparison tab.
The Equity tab is where a portfolio hypothesis becomes measurable. But a nice historical curve remains a hypothesis: confirmation comes from out-of-sample validation, stress testing and observation over time, not from how the chart looks.
10. To learn more
- Portfolio Rules — portfolio generation and the Lock-box section, of which Validation is the reading window.
- Money Management — the sizing that separates the MM curve from RAW.
- Correlations — the decorrelation stage (the Co-Loss aggregated here reflects it).
- Portfolio Comparison — compares multiple equities against each other.
- Filters Analysis — filters’ rotation-by-rotation impact.