QuantAscent — Screen Guide

A detailed reference for every tab and dialog in the QuantAscent desktop app.

See also: Product Overview for a feature summary | Setup Guide for installation and IBKR configuration

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Navigation

The sidebar on the left groups the app's tabs into three collapsible sections, with Settings below them:

• Strategy Lab — Library, Static Builder, Adaptive Builder, Backtester: where strategies are designed, tested, and cataloged
• Company Research — Company Analysis, Company Screener: single-company analysis and universe screening
• Portfolio — Dashboard, Strategy Manager, Holdings, Strategy Performance, Trade Log, Account: your money
• Settings

Click any tab name to switch views; click a section header to collapse or expand that group. The Portfolio section header also holds the portfolio switcher dropdown, the active portfolio's money-type label, and a Manage Portfolios link that opens the portfolio management dialog.

On a brand-new install the app opens on the Library (the Strategy Lab's front door); after that it opens on the Dashboard.

At the bottom of the sidebar, status pills show notifications and the IB Gateway connection (green means connected, gray means disconnected — click it to open the connection setup wizard). A Help & About link sits under the logo.

Most screens auto-refresh when underlying data changes (for example, after the scheduler runs a portfolio sync). You do not need to manually reload.

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Strategy Lab

The Strategy Lab section is where strategies are designed and tested. Nothing here touches your money — a strategy only trades after you add it to the Strategy Manager (in the Portfolio section) and confirm a rebalance there.

1. Library

The Library is the catalog of every strategy in the app — the ETF trackers plus your own. Three sub-tabs organize the catalog:

Sub-tab	What's in it
ETFs	Single-ETF trackers for broad indexes, sectors, bonds, commodities, and more
Adaptive Strategies	Your adopted walk-forward processes — strategies whose rules are re-derived by the process that created them
Static Strategies	Your own fixed recipes — Percentile, Threshold, and Fixed Allocation strategies, including deployed fixed-allocation baskets

ETFs

Single-ETF trackers for broad indexes (S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Russell 2000), sectors, bonds, commodities, international markets, and more. These are allocations, not strategies — each one holds exactly one ETF. Cards show performance chips, an equity-curve chart, and backtest links, sortable by name (the default) or by performance keys you pick. A Time span row (1Y / 3Y / 5Y / 10Y / All) re-windows every card's chips and chart — and the active sort — to the trailing window, computed the same way as the Backtester's timeframe buttons (Recent 4Q always means the trailing four quarters). Each card has two actions:

• Add to Strategy Manager — the ETF becomes its own new sleeve; same review-and-confirm dialog as everywhere else
• Add to Fixed Allocation — put the ETF inside a fixed-allocation strategy: pick what % of your portfolio it should hold, then add it to an existing fixed-allocation strategy (deployed ones included) alongside what it already holds, or start a new basket with it. Nothing changes until you confirm

Adaptive Strategies

Your adopted walk-forward processes — their rules are re-derived by the process that created them. Each card shows a badge, the strategy's deployment status (Deployed → the sleeve running it), a facts line, and actions:

• Open in Adaptive Builder — the process run lives in the Adaptive Builder's history list
• Rename / Delete
• Add to Strategy Manager — attach the strategy to an existing sleeve or a new one; no trades are placed until you run a rebalance and confirm the orders

If a process derived a rules change at its last derivation, the card shows a Rules change pending note — review and accept or decline it in the Strategy Manager (see Adaptive Strategy Rules Proposals); nothing changes until you do.

Static Strategies

Your own fixed recipes. Each card carries a sub-type badge (Percentile, Threshold, or Fixed Alloc), deployment status, a facts line, and actions:

• Edit — opens the strategy in the Static Builder's Build tab (Fixed Allocation entries open in its Fixed Allocation editor)
• Rename / Duplicate / Delete
• Add to Strategy Manager — same review flow as above

Deployed fixed-allocation baskets appear here too — Edit opens their editor, while allocation, archive, and delete live on their Strategy Manager card.

Tips

• The Library is the app's landing page and the catalog of everything you build: click Edit on one of your own cards to continue working on it, or head to the Adaptive or Static Builder to design something new.
• The ETFs tab covers the hands-off half of a portfolio — add a tracker as its own sleeve, or fold it into a fixed-allocation basket alongside your own strategies.

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2. Static Strategy Builder

The Static Strategy Builder (sidebar: Static Builder) is where you design and refine static strategies — fixed recipes you edit directly. It has two tabs:

Tab	What it does
Metrics	Evaluate which financial metrics have historically predicted returns — IC rankings, quintile analysis, threshold scans, and composite-score analysis
Build	The strategy editor — Fixed Allocation, Multi-Factor: Threshold, and Multi-Factor: Percentile strategies

The page opens on Build. The Builder is a pure editor — open an existing strategy from its Library card's Edit button, or start a new one from the Build tab. To test a recipe against history, run it in the Backtester.

Metrics Tab

The Metrics tab is QuantAscent's quantitative laboratory. It provides tools for evaluating which financial metrics have historically predicted stock returns — the foundation for building evidence-based strategies.

For a deep dive into the methodology behind these tools, see the Research Analysis document.

The tab is organized into two main sections, each with multiple analysis tools:

• Metric Analysis — evaluate individual metrics
• Strategy Analysis — test filters and composite scores

IC Rankings

Computes the Information Coefficient (a measure of predictive power) for every metric in the database, then ranks them by strength. This is the starting point for discovering which metrics are worth building strategies around.

• Results table showing metric name, IC value, 95% confidence interval, p-value, sample size, and direction ("higher is better" or "lower is better")
• Chart shows error bars (the same 95% CI) on each bar so you can see at a glance which signals are clearly above zero vs muddled in noise
• Sortable by any column
• Optional filters: restrict to a specific sector, market cap range, or exclude dollar-denominated metrics
• Compare to: dropdown — by default ranks each metric across the whole market, which matches how the strategy backtester scores stocks. Switching to "Sector peers" or "Sector + size peers" rank-transforms the metric within those peer groups before correlating; this answers the attribution question "is this metric a real signal, or am I just picking up sector / size exposure?". Useful for understanding factor behavior; strategies score on the Whole market view.

Quintile Analysis

Select any metric and split the stock universe into five equal groups (quintiles) from lowest to highest. Compare the average return of each group to see whether the metric has a monotonic relationship with future performance.

• Bar chart showing mean return per quintile
• Quality statistics: monotonicity score and Q5-Q1 spread
• Helps you see the shape of a metric's predictive power (linear, U-shaped, tail-driven, etc.)

Threshold Scan

Sweep a range of cutoff values for any metric and see how the selected group performs at each threshold. This directly answers questions like "Below what P/E ratio have stocks historically outperformed?"

• Table showing threshold value, mean return, lift over universe, and statistical significance
• Identifies the optimal threshold region where predictive power is strongest

Conditional IC

Measure how a metric's predictive power changes when you condition on a second variable. For example: "Is FCF Yield more predictive for large-cap stocks or small-cap stocks?"

• Split types: median split, quintile split, or categorical (by sector)
• Results show IC in each subgroup and the difference between groups
• Highlights metrics with regime-dependent behavior

Filter Tester

Define an arbitrary boolean filter (e.g., "ROIC > 5% AND FCF Yield > 3%") and see comprehensive statistics comparing the filtered stocks against the full universe: mean return, statistical significance (t-test and Mann-Whitney), effect size (Cohen's d), and distribution comparisons.

Score Analysis

Test a complete composite scoring system — the same one you'd build in the Build tab. See how the composite score's IC varies across sectors, market cap bands, and time periods.

Score Breakdown

Analyze how individual criteria contribute to the overall composite score. Identify which criteria are pulling their weight and which are adding noise.

Build Matrix

Before using any of the Metrics tools, you need a built metrics matrix. A Build Matrix button at the top triggers the computation (runs in the background with a progress bar). The matrix is saved locally and only needs to be rebuilt when you want to incorporate newer data.

Tips

• Start with IC Rankings to get a broad view of what's predictive, then drill into promising metrics with Quintile Analysis and Threshold Scan.
• A metric with a high IC but poor monotonicity in the quintile chart may only work in the tails — consider using it as a threshold filter rather than a ranking factor.
• The Conditional IC tool is powerful for discovering that a metric works in one sector but not another — information you can use to add sector filters in the Build tab.

Build Tab

The Build tab is the strategy editor. Its layout:

• Strategy type selector — choose what kind of strategy to build
• Strategy selector bar — load and save strategies
• Editor panel — configure the strategy's rules and parameters

Strategy Type Selector

A dropdown offering three modes:

Type	Description
Fixed Allocation	Set target weights for specific tickers
Multi-Factor: Threshold	Score stocks with binary pass/fail criteria
Multi-Factor: Percentile	Score stocks with continuous percentile rankings

A description below the dropdown updates to explain the selected type.

Strategy Selector Bar

Buttons across the top for managing the loaded strategy:

• New — start a blank strategy
• Save / Save As — persist your work
• Delete — remove the loaded strategy
• Copy to Portfolio — copy the strategy into another portfolio (for example, promoting a paper-tested strategy to live)
• Add to Strategy Manager — add the current strategy to the Strategy Manager. The dialog shows the strategy's full rule set for review before you confirm, and lets you create a new sleeve or replace the strategy in an existing one
• A status indicator shows whether you have unsaved changes

Rename and Duplicate live on the strategy's Library card.

Editor Panel (Threshold & Percentile Modes)

The left side of the screen where you define your strategy's rules:

Criterion cards — each card represents one scoring rule:

• Metric — choose from 150+ financial metrics (grouped by category)
• Operator and threshold — e.g., "FCF Yield > 3%"
• Point value or weight — how much this criterion contributes to the overall score

Filters — narrow the stock universe before scoring:

• Sector, industry, market cap range
• Metric filters — hard gates in one list, each with a threshold that is either a fixed value (e.g., exclude stocks with negative earnings) or a percentile: keep the highest or lowest N% of the universe by that metric, with the cutoff value recomputed from each rebalance date's universe rather than fixed. Ties at a percentile cutoff are kept, and a percentile filter is skipped on dates where fewer than 20 stocks carry its metric.
• Multiple percentile filters each cut the same reference universe (the universe after the fixed filters), and only stocks passing all of them are kept — overlapping cuts can retain far fewer than any single one. Percentile filters apply to trading, rebalances, and backtests; Score Analysis and IC previews evaluate the universe before percentile filters.
• The per-date median screen that adopted adaptive strategies carry appears in the same list, tagged. It can be removed but not edited in place; which side it keeps follows the metric's learned direction.
• Fresh filings — only score companies whose latest financial statements were filed within N days (adaptive processes use 135). Unlike a metric filter, companies missing filing-recency data pass rather than being excluded. Off by default on new strategies.

On adaptive strategies the filters list and the freshness screen show read-only, since the process re-derives them at every rebalance.

Portfolio parameters:

• Minimum and maximum number of stocks to hold
• Tiebreaker metric for equal scores
• Rebalance window (how often to re-evaluate)
• Stock Selection — how stocks are ranked when scoring: Whole market (rank every metric across the full universe, the default), Sector peers, or Sector + size peers (rank each metric within its peer group first, so you select on a stock's standing relative to comparable companies rather than the whole market)

Metric insight panel — when you select a metric in a criterion card, a side panel shows that metric's IC (predictive power) and a quintile performance preview, so you can gauge whether the metric is worth including before running a full backtest.

Editor Panel (Fixed Allocation Mode)

A simpler table-based editor:

• Add tickers and assign target percentage weights
• Weights must sum to 100% (or less, with the remainder in cash)

Tips

• The metric insight panel saves time: if a metric's IC is near zero, it's probably not worth adding as a criterion.
• Build from a blank canvas, or duplicate one of your existing strategies from the Library and rework it here.

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3. Adaptive Strategy Builder

The Adaptive Strategy Builder (sidebar: Adaptive Builder) is where you design a process of your own — you author the rules, and the software's only job is to run them walk-forward and score the result. Nothing is suggested or pre-selected: the run button stays off until you have made the structural choices yourself.

Three steps:

1. Define your universe — Whole Market or specific sectors, plus optional market-cap and share-price ranges. (Universes reaching below $300M market cap add a factual liquidity disclosure to results — never a blocker.)
2. Assemble your structure — pick one or more tilt templates (selecting several blends them equally), or build a custom composition of factor clusters with your own weights totaling 100%. Every custom slot carries a fill rule you choose: strongest qualifying signal (largest stable signal in the slot's cluster), most consistent across halves, or a metric you pin. Set the holdings count (5–15).
3. Set your selection rules — bounded dials: training window, stability gate, minimum signal strength, re-learn cadence, and the universe-floor options. The rules that keep labels honest (economic direction, cluster taxonomy, coverage, freshness) aren't adjustable — every judgment call is yours.

Run Walk-Forward draws the record live, quarter by quarter, as it computes: at each quarter the process re-derives its picks using only data available then, holds them one quarter, and chains the returns. Quarters where nothing qualified under your rules show as stood aside — the process held cash while the benchmark kept compounding, and the record says so.

Results show the record chart with stat tiles (CAGR, benchmark CAGR, excess, Sharpe, max drawdown, win rate, and a universe equal-weight comparator), an integrity line (random-portfolio percentile, weight robustness, and — for a candidate promoted out of a sweep — the size of the field it was picked from), and the full process echoed back — universe, every slot with its fill rule, and the dials. From the results panel:

• Record stats → — the full stats popup (design span only until you lock; the held-out span gets its own popup after)
• Metrics by period → — a visual: each quarter's return vs the benchmark, above a grid of which metric filled each slot at what weight; hover for exact values, or flip to Table view for the numbers
• How is this tested? — the plain-language methodology, opened at its Adaptive Strategy Builder section

Lock & Reveal — while you design, the chart shows only the design span; the most recent ~2 years stay sealed. Locking is permanent: the held-out span is computed once, drawn past the LOCKED marker, and stamped on the process. Only a locked process can be adopted.

Previous runs are stored below the designer. Reopen one to see its record (replayed from the saved series, never recomputed), ✎ Edit to load it back into the designer (editing a locked process creates a new, unlocked process), Rename… it from its results panel, or ✕ delete it (with confirmation).

Adopt This Process… (after locking) turns the process into an adaptive strategy — it appears in the Library's Adaptive Strategies tab, ready to attach to a sleeve in the Strategy Manager. At every rebalance it re-derives its rules against current data; a derivation that differs from the rules you last accepted becomes a pending proposal you review — accept or decline — in the Strategy Manager (see Adaptive Strategy Rules Proposals). Rebalances always trade the accepted rules, the preview shows the recipe in force, and you approve every trade list before anything is placed.

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4. Backtester

The Backtester (sidebar: Backtester) lets you simulate how a strategy would have performed over historical data — any strategy in the catalog, over any date range. Run full backtests, analyze results with detailed charts and metrics, and compare strategies side by side. ETF trackers also show their cached results inline on their Library cards, with links that open the full report here.

Layout

• Launcher panel (top, collapsible) — configure and run new backtests
• Results sidebar (left) — scrollable list of saved backtest results with key metrics
• Detail panel (right) — charts, metrics, and analysis tabs for the selected backtest

Launcher Panel

Configure a backtest run with these controls:

Parameter	Description	Default
Strategy	Searchable dropdown of every strategy in the catalog	—
Start / End	Date range for the simulation	10 years ago – today
Rebalance	Days between portfolio re-evaluations (1–365)	30 (equity) / 60 (ETF)
Lookback	Quarters of historical data used for scoring (1–40)	20 (5 years)
Capital	Starting portfolio value	$10,000
RFR	Risk-free rate for Sharpe/Sortino calculations	0.045 (4.5%)
Commission	Cost per trade	$1.00
Slippage	Execution impact as percentage	0.10%

Click Run Backtest to start. A progress bar and live log show period-by-period progress with an ETA. Click Cancel to abort a running backtest.

Adaptive strategies can be backtested here too, but they carry a banner explaining the caveat: the backtest replays the strategy's current recipe, which was derived from data through today, so the result is in-sample. An adaptive process's evidence is its walk-forward record in the Adaptive Strategy Builder.

Results Sidebar

Each saved backtest appears as a card showing the strategy name and four metric pills: CAGR, Alpha (α), Sharpe (SR), and Volatility (σ). Use the sort dropdown (Name, CAGR, Alpha, Sharpe) and filter pills (All, ETFs, Mine) to find results quickly.

• Adopt (+) — on ETF tracker results, adds the tracker to your portfolio (new sleeve or fixed-allocation basket)
• Compare — select 2–5 backtests to overlay on charts and view metrics side by side
• Delete — remove selected backtest results

Charts & Metrics

Equity curve (top) — cumulative return of the strategy vs. SPY benchmark. A timeframe selector (30D, 90D, 6M, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, 10Y, All) re-slices the view. Click legend entries to toggle lines.

Metrics grid — 24 statistics organized in six sections:

Section	Metrics
Returns	CAGR, SPY CAGR, Total Return, SPY Total Return
Risk-Adjusted	Sharpe, Sortino, Calmar, Profit Factor
Risk & Volatility	Max Drawdown, Ann. Volatility, Alpha, Beta
Period Performance	Win Rate, Best Period, Worst Period, Avg Stocks/Period
Universe & Capacity	Avg Mkt Cap, Min Mkt Cap, Est. Capacity, Capacity Used
Trading Costs	Total Commissions, Total Slippage, Friction Drag, Avg Turnover

Values are color-coded green (good) or red (bad) where applicable.

Detail tabs below the metrics grid:

Tab	What it shows
Monthly Returns	Heatmap grid (months × years) color-coded from red (losses) to green (gains)
Allocation	Pie of the strategy's time-averaged composition across all rebalance periods, with Sector / Industry / Market-Cap lenses
Drawdown	"Underwater" chart of peak-to-trough losses over time, with the max drawdown labeled
Rolling Metrics	1-year rolling Sharpe, Beta, and Alpha overlaid on one chart
Holdings Analysis	Horizontal bar chart of the top 15 most frequently selected stocks
Selection	Universe size and mean score over time (not applicable to fixed-allocation strategies)

Compare Mode

Click Compare, then check 2–5 backtest cards. The equity chart overlays all selected strategies with SPY, and the metrics grid switches to a side-by-side comparison table. Click Compare again to exit.

Tips

• Every backtest is saved automatically — experiment freely and compare runs later.
• Use the timeframe selector on the equity chart to zoom into specific market periods (e.g., COVID drawdown, 2022 rate hikes).
• The Capacity metrics help you judge whether a strategy is realistic at your portfolio size — high capacity usage means the strategy may not scale.
• ETF trackers ship with cached full-history results — open one to see what a finished report looks like before running your own.

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Company Research

The Company Research section is for single-company work: a deep fundamental profile of any ticker, and a real-time screen across the whole universe.

5. Company Analysis

Company Analysis gives you a deep fundamental profile of any individual stock — key metrics at a glance, interactive trend charts, and earnings data.

Layout

• Search bar — enter any ticker
• Company header — name, sector, industry, market cap
• Key metrics cards — 16+ financial statistics
• Earnings card — recent and upcoming earnings
• News card — coming soon
• Trend charts — 8 default charts plus custom chart builder

Search Bar

Type a ticker into the search field and click Analyze, or pick a ticker from a strategy's holdings using the dropdown selectors. The entire page updates to show that company's data.

Company Header

Displays the company name in large text with metadata below: ticker, sector, industry, country, and market cap. A brief company description is shown with a "more" toggle to expand the full text.

Key Metrics Cards

A grid of 16+ financial statistics covering:

• Valuation — P/E, P/B, P/S, EV/EBITDA, FCF Yield, Earnings Yield
• Profitability — ROE, ROIC, gross margin, operating margin, net margin
• Financial health — Altman Z-Score, debt-to-equity, interest coverage, current ratio

Each metric is formatted appropriately (percentages, ratios, dollar values) with the most recent values highlighted.

Earnings Card

Shows recent earnings results (EPS, revenue, beat/miss status) and the next upcoming earnings date. Expand for a historical earnings table.

News Card

Coming soon. The card is in place and reads "News feed coming soon" — company headlines are planned for a future release.

Trend Charts

Eight default interactive charts are displayed:

1. Price history with 50-day and 10-day moving averages
2. Revenue & earnings over time
3. Profit margins (gross, operating, net)
4. Cash flow (operating, free, capex)
5. Profitability (ROE, ROIC)
6. Balance sheet health (debt ratios, Z-Score)
7. Valuation multiples (P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA)
8. Per-share metrics (EPS, book value, revenue per share)

Custom Chart Editor

Want to see a metric combination that isn't in the defaults? Click + Add Custom Chart to create a custom chart:

• Left Y-axis metric — pick from the full metric catalogue
• Right Y-axis metric — overlay a second series on a separate axis
• Time range — select the history window

Custom charts can be reordered (move up/down), edited, or deleted. A Reset to Defaults button restores the eight defaults.

Tips

• You can jump to Company Analysis directly from the Company Screener or Holdings tab by clicking on a ticker.
• The custom chart editor with dual Y-axes is useful for spotting relationships — for example, overlay FCF Yield against price to see if the stock gets cheaper when cash flow improves.

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6. Company Screener

The Screener lets you filter the entire universe of ~5,000 US stocks in real time. Define conditions, see which companies pass, and click through to Company Analysis for a deeper look.

Layout

• Filter panel (collapsible) — categorical and metric-based filters
• Results table — companies that pass all filters

Filter Panel

The panel has two types of filters:

Categorical filters — dropdown selectors with checkboxes for:

• Sector (e.g., Technology, Healthcare, Energy)
• Industry
• Country
• Exchange

Metric filters — add cards that define numeric conditions:

• Choose a metric from the full catalogue (120+ options)
• Set an operator (>, <, >=, <=, ==, !=) and a value
• Example: "P/E Ratio < 20" or "ROE > 15%"

Click + Add Filter to add more metric conditions. Use Apply Filters to update results. Reset All clears everything and shows the full universe.

A count label at the top ("X of Y companies") updates as you filter.

Results Table

Companies passing all filters appear in a sortable table. Fixed columns include:

• Ticker, Name, Sector, Industry

Additional metric columns are configurable — click Configure Columns to open a dialog where you can pick which metrics appear, grouped by category (Valuation, Growth, Profitability, etc.) with select-all/deselect-all per group.

Double-click any row to navigate directly to Company Analysis for that ticker.

Tips

• The Screener uses the same metrics matrix as the Strategy Lab tools. If you see "No metrics matrix loaded," open the Static Builder's Metrics tab and build or load one first.
• Use the column configurator to add the metrics you care about — the default view only shows a few, but you can display any of the 150+ metrics as columns.
• Combine categorical and metric filters to narrow quickly. For example: Technology sector + ROE > 15% + Debt-to-Equity < 1.0 gives you financially strong tech companies.

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Portfolio

The Portfolio section is where your money lives — what you hold, what your strategies are doing, and how it's all performing. The section header holds the portfolio switcher, the active portfolio's money-type label, and the Manage Portfolios link.

7. Dashboard

The Dashboard is your portfolio's home screen — a single-page summary of where your money stands and how it's performing.

Layout

• Summary metrics row across the top
• Risk metrics table below the summary
• Monthly returns heatmap showing the last five years
• Portfolio performance chart with benchmark overlay
• Recent performance table covering the last 30 trading days

Summary Metrics

A horizontal row of key figures, each color-coded green (positive) or red (negative):

Metric	What It Shows
NAV	Current portfolio net asset value
Peak NAV	Highest NAV ever recorded
Daily PnL	Dollar change today
Daily Ret	Percentage change today
PnL YTD	Year-to-date profit and loss
Realized YTD	Total realized gains/losses this year
Net Exp YTD	Net expenses (commissions, fees, interest) this year
CURR DD	Current drawdown — how far below the peak you are right now

If margin trading is enabled, two additional metrics appear: Leverage and Margin Int YTD.

Returns Card

A dedicated returns card displays both return methodologies side by side:

Period	TWR	MWR
MTD	✓	✓
QTD	✓	✓
YTD	✓	✓
1Y	✓	✓
3Y Ann.	✓	✓
5Y Ann.	✓	✓
10Y Ann.	✓	✓

• TWR (Time-Weighted Return) — measures portfolio performance independent of cash flows. Useful for evaluating your strategy's skill.
• MWR (Money-Weighted Return / IRR) — measures your actual investor return, accounting for the timing and size of deposits and withdrawals. Useful for understanding what you personally earned.

If you haven't made any deposits or withdrawals, TWR and MWR will be identical. The more your cash flows affect timing, the more they'll diverge.

Risk Metrics

A two-row table comparing Lifetime and YTD risk statistics:

Volatility, Sharpe, Sortino, Calmar, Max Drawdown, Beta, Alpha, Correlation, Win Rate, Best Day, Worst Day

Hover over any column header for a tooltip explaining how the metric is calculated.

Monthly Returns Heatmap

A color-coded grid covering the last five years. Each cell shows one month's return — green for gains, red for losses, with intensity reflecting magnitude. Check the vs SPY toggle to switch the heatmap from absolute returns to relative performance against the S&P 500.

Portfolio Performance Chart

An interactive line chart showing your portfolio's cumulative return alongside benchmark indices (SPY, QQQ, DIA). All lines are normalized to a common starting point so you can compare percentage gains directly.

Controls:

• Range selector — 7D, 30D, 90D, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, or Lifetime
• Legend — click any series name to show/hide it
• Hover — move your cursor over the chart to see exact values at any date

Recent Performance Table

The last 30 trading days in tabular form. Columns include daily, 7-day, 30-day, 90-day, and YTD returns (both dollar and percentage), plus peak NAV, drawdown, realized gains broken out by short-term and long-term, and commissions. All values are color-coded.

Tips

• The Dashboard needs at least one day of portfolio data to display anything. Data is synced automatically on startup.
• The "vs SPY" toggle on the heatmap is useful for distinguishing skill from market conditions — a green month during a red market is more meaningful than a green month when everything is up.

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8. Strategy Manager

The Strategy Manager is the central hub for configuring what your portfolio actually does — which strategies are active, how much capital each gets, and how often they rebalance.

Layout

• Allocation bar — visual breakdown of capital across strategies
• Strategy cards — one card per strategy with controls and status

Allocation Bar

A horizontal stacked bar at the top showing how your NAV is divided among active strategies, largest allocation first — each strategy's segment color matches the tint on its card below. The bar updates live as you change allocations. If margin is enabled and you exceed your leverage cap, the bar turns red as a warning.

Strategy Cards

Each managed strategy gets its own card showing:

• Strategy name and type badge (Equity Scoring or Fixed Allocation)
• Active toggle — switch a strategy on or off without deleting it
• Allocation percentage — how much of your portfolio this strategy manages
• Rebalance schedule — daily, weekly, every 4 weeks, or every 12 weeks (week-based options pick a day of the week)
• Rebalance and Schedule… buttons (see Manual Rebalance and Scheduling a Rebalance)
• View and Edit buttons, plus a single Archive-or-Delete button: strategies that have traded show Archive (their history must be preserved), while never-traded strategies show Delete. A Copy button appears if you have more than one portfolio, for copying the strategy's configuration across.

Creating a New Strategy

Click New Strategy to choose a type:

• Equity Scoring — define criteria that score stocks and automatically select a portfolio
• Fixed Allocation — set target weights for specific tickers and rebalance to maintain them

A third strategy — Discretionary — exists automatically and cannot be deleted. It tracks trades made directly in your brokerage account outside of QuantAscent (so they don't show up as "Unknown"), and its allocation updates automatically based on your actual holdings. It doesn't get its own card (there's nothing to configure), but its share appears in the allocation bar.

Editing an Equity Scoring Strategy

The editor lets you configure:

• Strategy name
• Scoring method (threshold-based or percentile-based)
• Criterion cards — each one defines a metric, operator, threshold, and point value
• Weights per criterion
• Rebalance frequency and schedule
• Filters (sector, market cap, etc.)
• Excluded Tickers — a per-strategy manual list of symbols to keep out of this strategy's ranked list (separate from the cross-portfolio global list in Settings)

Editing a Fixed Allocation Strategy

The editor shows:

• Strategy name
• A holdings table with ticker, target weight, and current weight columns
• Add/remove holdings
• Rebalance frequency

Adaptive Strategy Rules Proposals

A sleeve running an adaptive strategy re-derives its rules from current data on the process's cadence. A new derivation that differs from the rules you last accepted never takes effect silently — it waits as a proposal:

• The strategy's card shows a Rules change pending pill. Click it to open the review dialog, which shows the rules in force (accepted, with their data-through date) beside the proposed rules (with their derivation date).
• Accept New Rules makes the proposal the trading rules; declining keeps the current rules. Nothing changes until you choose.
• Rebalances always trade the accepted rules — a pending proposal is never traded, and the rebalance preview notes when a rules change is awaiting your review.
• If the process derives again before you decide, the newer derivation supersedes the older proposal.

Manual Rebalance

Each strategy card includes a Rebalance button. Rebalancing is a single action — for scoring (Equity Scoring) strategies it regenerates the strategy's ranked stock list first, then trades it. There is no separate "Generate" step. (Fixed Allocation strategies have static targets, so there is nothing to regenerate.)

1. Click Rebalance on any strategy card
2. For an Equity Scoring strategy, the stock list is regenerated from current data — this takes a moment and needs no broker connection
3. A preview dialog shows the proposed trades — exit sells, trim sells, and buys — with estimated quantities, prices, and values
4. Review the summary (total sells, total buys, net) and click Execute Rebalance to proceed, or Cancel to abort
5. Execution runs in a background window you can minimize — keep using the rest of the app while it works. The window shows each order's live status (Working → Filled), the order Type actually placed (see below), and its actual fill price as it happens, and stays open with a per-order summary when complete so you can review exactly what executed (close it yourself when done). Holdings and the Trade Log refresh automatically.

Rebalance All Active (in the bottom toolbar) rebalances every active strategy — it shows one combined preview, then executes each strategy as its own rebalance in sequence (one at a time, net-sellers first so the cash they free funds the buyers), rather than as a single netted batch. You watch them go one by one in the same window.

If Interactive Brokers isn't connected, trades can't be placed — so Rebalance instead offers to Connect IBKR, Regenerate List Only (refresh your picks without trading — handy if you use QuantAscent only for research), or Cancel.

You need IB Gateway (or TWS) running for live rebalances. Prices shown in the preview are estimates — orders fill reliably, and buys are re-sized to the cash your sells actually freed.

Order type follows your Order Mode setting. The execution window's Type column shows what was actually placed. With Settings > Trading > Order Mode set to Market, rebalances use true market orders during regular trading hours and automatically fall back to a marketable limit order (lifting the current ask for buys, hitting the bid for sells) outside regular hours. With Limit modes, orders are priced at the live market the moment they're placed.

How long an unfilled order keeps working before it cancels is set by Settings > Trading > Order Deadline: a fixed timeout you choose, or until the end of the trading day (GTD).

Excluded tickers. If a rebalance turns up a symbol IBKR can't trade, the Invalid IBKR Tickers Detected prompt removes it from this rebalance and offers to Exclude Permanently — adding it to the cross-portfolio Excluded Tickers list (in Settings) so it's skipped on every strategy from then on, with a replacement surfaced on the next list generation. Choose Skip for Now to leave the global list unchanged. You can still keep per-strategy manual exclusions in a strategy's editor.

Scheduling a Rebalance

You don't have to rebalance the instant you decide to. Click Schedule… on a strategy card to pick a day and time — later today or on the next trading day — for that strategy's rebalance to fire. The horizon skips holidays (on a Friday you can schedule Monday, or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday), and the time defaults to 10:00 AM ET, clear of the volatile first minutes after the open.

1. You approve the same frozen rebalance preview you'd approve for an immediate rebalance — the plan you approve is exactly what runs at the scheduled time. Nothing is re-generated later.
2. Scheduled items appear in the Upcoming Schedule panel, each tagged with a SCHED chip and showing the day and time it will run.
3. Each scheduled item has Reschedule and Cancel actions.

A scheduled rebalance is a one-shot, explicitly authorized trade — it will not regenerate or second-guess the plan you approved, and it's the only way a trade runs unattended. Rebalance All Active can also be scheduled as a batch.

Requires the app and your IB Gateway (or TWS) to be running at the scheduled time. If either is closed when the schedule fires, the trade won't be placed.

Scheduling When the Market Is Closed

If you click Rebalance (or Rebalance All Active) while the market is closed, QuantAscent offers to queue the work for the next session instead of running it against a closed market. The preview dialog adds a Schedule Instead… option (and Schedule All Instead… for the batch) that places the approved plan in the Upcoming Schedule for the next market open. Manual Holdings orders behave the same way — they queue to the next open rather than being blocked (see the Holdings tab).

Renaming, Archiving, and Deleting Strategies

• Rename — open a strategy's editor and edit the Name field (prefilled with the current name) to rename it.
• Archive — click Archive on a strategy card to retire a strategy you've finished with. Archived strategies move into a collapsible Archived section at the bottom of the tab and are excluded from the Strategy Performance chart and table and from the strategy pickers elsewhere in the app. Each archived strategy has:
• View History — a lifetime summary: active period, lifetime return, realized P&L, and trade counts (buys and sells).
• Unarchive — bring it back into your active strategies.
• Delete — only strategies that have never traded can be deleted, so the card shows Delete only for a strategy with no trade history. Once a strategy has traded, deleting it would orphan those trades, so the button becomes Archive instead (its history stays intact).

Tips

• Archiving (rather than deleting) preserves a traded strategy's full history; deactivating (the Active toggle) keeps a strategy in your active list but pauses its trading.
• The allocation bar is the fastest way to check whether your strategies are using the amount of capital you intend.

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9. Holdings

The Holdings tab shows every open position in your portfolio with real-time data from Interactive Brokers, and lets you place orders directly.

Layout

• Holdings summary card — aggregate account and performance metrics
• Holdings table — all open positions with detailed columns and a frozen TOTAL row

Holdings Summary

A summary card at the top showing:

Metric	Description
NAV %	Share of net asset value currently invested
Invested	Total market value of open positions
Total NAV	Account net asset value
Total PnL	Unrealized dollar P&L (color-coded)
Total Return	Percentage gain or loss (color-coded)
Daily PnL / Daily Return	Today's dollar and percentage change
vs SPY / vs QQQ / vs DIA	Today's performance relative to the major index ETFs

If margin trading is enabled, Buying Pwr, Leverage, and Excess Liq appear as well.

Holdings Table

The main table lists every position with columns:

• Ticker — the symbol
• Strategy — which strategy owns this position
• Qty — shares held
• %NAV — the position's share of net asset value
• Avg Price — average cost basis per share
• Days Held — how long the position has been open
• Mkt Value — quantity times current price
• Daily Ret / Daily PnL — today's percentage and dollar change (green/red)
• Total PnL / Total Ret — unrealized dollar and percentage P&L (green/red)

Click any column header to sort (the TOTAL row stays frozen at the bottom). Each row also carries two quick-action buttons: ▤ opens Company Analysis for the ticker and ↗ opens its price chart.

Order Placement

Select a holding and use the order panel to place trades directly through IB Gateway:

• Buy or Sell toggle
• Quantity input
• Strategy assignment — tag the trade to a specific strategy
• Orders execute through your connected IBKR account and run in the background — an Orders window tracks each order's live status and fill price, you can place several at once and keep using the app while they work, and each row has a Cancel button to stop a still-working order. Unfilled orders follow your Order Deadline setting (timeout or end of day).
• Placing an order while the market is closed doesn't block you — QuantAscent offers to Queue Order at IBKR so it executes at the next market open (it explains that the opening price can differ from the last quote, and that the order auto-cancels shortly after the open if still unfilled).

Tips

• The strategy column tells you which strategy is responsible for each position. If you place manual trades, they show up as unassigned until you tag them.
• Positions update automatically after trades execute — no manual refresh needed.

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10. Strategy Performance

This tab tracks how each of your strategies is performing independently, so you can see which ones are earning their allocation.

Layout

• Controls bar — date range, toggles, and filters
• Cumulative return chart — multi-strategy overlay with benchmarks
• Performance summary table — returns across multiple time windows
• Risk metrics table — per-strategy risk statistics

Controls

A single horizontal bar with:

• Window selector — 7D, 30D, 90D, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, or Lifetime
• All / None buttons — quickly show or hide all strategy lines
• Weighted checkbox — toggle between allocation-weighted returns and raw strategy performance
• Custom date range — enable a custom start/end date with calendar pickers
• Defaults… — open the Chart Defaults dialog to configure persistent default settings (see below)

Cumulative Return Chart

An interactive line chart where each strategy gets its own colored line. Benchmark indices (SPY, QQQ, DIA, IWM) appear as dashed lines for comparison. All series are normalized to a common starting point.

When Weighted mode is on, strategy returns are scaled by their allocation percentage, and the chart title updates to reflect this. The legend shows each strategy's allocation weight.

Click any series name in the legend to show or hide it. Hover for exact values at any date.

Performance Summary Table

A table showing returns for each strategy and benchmark across standard time windows:

1D, 30D, 90D, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, and Lifetime — all color-coded green or red. Columns are automatically hidden if your data doesn't span that period yet.

Risk Metrics Table

Per-strategy risk statistics calculated over the selected date range:

Volatility, Sharpe, Sortino, Calmar, Max Drawdown, Beta, Alpha, Correlation (to SPY), Win Rate, Best Day, Worst Day

Chart Defaults Dialog

Click Defaults… to open the Chart Defaults dialog and configure persistent preferences for this chart:

• Default time window — choose which range the chart opens to (7D, 30D, 90D, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, or Lifetime)
• Series visibility — check or uncheck individual strategies and benchmarks to control which lines are shown by default when the chart loads

These settings are saved per portfolio and persist between sessions. Use the Select All / Deselect All buttons to quickly configure each group.

Tips

• Compare the Weighted view against the raw view to see how allocation sizing affects your results. A strategy with great raw returns but a tiny allocation may not be moving the needle.
• Use the custom date range to isolate specific market periods (e.g., a downturn) and see how each strategy held up.

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11. Trade Log

The Trade Log is a complete record of every trade your portfolio has executed, organized for both performance review and tax reporting.

Layout

• Realized stats panel — today's and year-to-date realized gains
• Closed trades tree — expandable view of all completed trades
• Open positions table — unfilled lots still held

Realized Stats Panel

Three highlighted cards at the top:

• Today's Activity — today's realized P&L, closed lots, and commissions
• Realized YTD — year-to-date totals: Economic (with ST/LT breakdown), Wash Adj, and Tax, color-coded green or red
• Open Positions — total cost basis, position count, and strategy count for what's still open

Closed Trades Tree

The main view is an expandable tree. Each parent row represents a sale and shows:

Sale Date, Buy Date, Symbol, Contract ID, Qty, Sell Price, Type (short-term or long-term), Strategy, Profit, ST Gain, LT Gain, Return %

Profit values are color-coded green for gains, red for losses. Expand any sale to see the individual lot matches — which specific purchase lots were matched against the sale using FIFO (first-in, first-out) order:

• Lot purchase date
• Lot reference number
• Matched quantity
• Cost per share
• Long-term or short-term classification

Open Positions Table

A read-only table showing positions that haven't been closed yet, with columns: Buy Date, Symbol, Contract ID, Type, Strategy, Quantity, and Average Price.

Tips

• The ST/LT classification matters for taxes — long-term gains (held over one year) are taxed at a lower rate. The Trade Log tracks this automatically.
• Use the Account tab's report generator to export a Realized Gains Schedule or Wash Sale Schedule based on this data.

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12. Account

The Account tab tracks the money flowing into and out of your portfolio — deposits, withdrawals, and how your investment gains compare to what you've contributed.

Layout

• Summary cards — four key figures
• Account balance chart — portfolio value over time with cash flow markers
• Transaction history table — every deposit and withdrawal
• Reports section — generate and manage portfolio reports

Summary Cards

Four large-format cards across the top:

Card	Description	Color
Total Deposited	Sum of all deposits	Green
Total Withdrawn	Sum of all withdrawals	Red
Net Contributions	Deposits minus withdrawals	Neutral
Investment Gain	Current value minus net contributions	Green/Red

Account Balance Chart

A line chart of your portfolio value over time. Deposits appear as green upward triangles and withdrawals as red downward triangles, each with a dotted vertical line marking the date. Hover over any marker to see the transaction amount and your account balance at that point.

Range selector: 30D, 90D, 6M, YTD, 1Y, or Lifetime.

Transaction History

A scrollable table listing every deposit and withdrawal with date, type (color-coded), amount, and running account balance. Sortable by any column.

Reports

Generate portfolio reports from a dropdown of six types:

Report Type	What It Covers
Quarterly Portfolio	Performance statement for any quarter — returns vs benchmarks, monthly returns, risk metrics
Annual Portfolio	Full-year review with quarterly breakdown and benchmarks
Broker Reconciliation	Positions and account value checked against your IBKR statement
Wash Sale Schedule	Wash sale replacement lots for tax purposes (PDF + Excel)
Realized Gains Schedule	Short-term and long-term realized gains (PDF + Excel)
Tax Year Summary	Tax-ready summary for your CPA (PDF + Excel)

Each report type shows a matching period picker — quarter and year for quarterly reports and tax schedules, year for annual reports, or an as-of date for the Broker Reconciliation — so you can generate historic reports for any period your data covers (for example, Q4 of last year). Defaults are the last completed period.

Click Generate to create a report (runs in the background; the PDF opens automatically, and failures are reported in a dialog). The five most recent reports appear in a quick-access table below. Click View All to open the Generated Reports manager, where you can filter by type, sort, open a report or show it in its folder, select multiple files to delete (always with confirmation; a tax schedule's Excel companion is removed with its PDF), and bulk-delete reports older than a chosen age.

Tips

• The Investment Gain card is the clearest measure of whether your strategies are making money — it strips out the effect of deposits and withdrawals.
• Reports are saved as files in your data directory and persist between sessions.

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13. Settings

Settings is where you configure QuantAscent's connection to IBKR, manage backups, and tune global preferences.

Layout

Settings is organized into five tabs across the top of the page. The first two — Account and Data — are global and apply to every portfolio. The last three — Connection, Trading, and Portfolio — are scoped to the currently active portfolio; a context bar above the cards reminds you which portfolio you're editing.

Settings save automatically as you change them — a brief "✓ Saved" confirmation flashes at the top of the page. There is no Save button.

Account Tab

Sign-In & Subscription — your QuantAscent sign-in status. The status badge next to your email reflects your access, for example Active (full access), Free trial, No subscription, Subscription expired, or Access revoked (contact support if that's unexpected).

Setting	Description
Keep me signed in on this computer	Skip the sign-in dialog on subsequent app launches
Sign In / Sign Out	Start a session (if you launched in read-only mode) or end it and clear local credentials
Manage Account ↗	Open the hosted account profile in your browser

Getting Started — replay the guided onboarding tour that walks through each part of the app.

Appearance

Setting	Description
Privacy Mode	Mask every dollar value in the UI with $•••• (account balances, deposits, P&L $, cost basis, market values, chart axes, etc.). Percentages, share counts, and tickers stay visible. Useful for screen recording or sharing tutorials without revealing account size. Takes effect immediately. Default: off.

Data Tab

Strategy Library — select which metrics matrix the research tools use by default. Useful if you've built multiple matrix versions with different date ranges or parameters.

Backup

Setting	Description
Backup Folder	Choose where backup files are stored (folder picker) — backups run automatically on the daily schedule

Database

Setting	Description
Check for Updates	Manually check whether a newer database version is available
Sync Now	Download and install the latest database

Software Updates — shows the installed app version and lets you check for app updates manually (updates are also checked automatically on every launch).

Connection Tab (per portfolio)

IBKR Gateway

Setting	Description
Account Mode	Select Live Trading (port 7496) or Paper Trading (port 7497)
IBKR Host	IP address of the machine running IB Gateway (default: 127.0.0.1)

Flex Credentials

Setting	Description
Flex Token	Your IBKR Flex Web Service token (see Setup Guide for how to get one)
Query ID	The numeric ID of your Flex Activity Query

These are stored locally — never sent anywhere except to IBKR. Each portfolio keeps its own token and Query ID.

Trading Account

Setting	Description
IBKR Account	The specific IBKR account number this portfolio's orders route to. Bind it manually if you trade more than one account, or let it auto-bind on first connect/sync. Before any trade, QuantAscent checks that the connected account matches — it warns you on a cross-account mismatch or a Live (Real Money) ↔ Paper (Fake Money) mismatch rather than misrouting the order.

Trading Tab (per portfolio)

Execution

Setting	Description
Order Mode	How orders execute: Limit (mid-price), Market (immediate), or Limit then Market (try limit first, fall back to market)
Order Deadline	How long an unfilled order keeps working: After timeout (cancel once the Order Timeout elapses) or End of day (GTD) (keep working until the market close, then cancel). Applies to manual orders and rebalances.
Order Timeout	How many seconds to wait for an unfilled order before cancelling it — used when Order Deadline is After timeout (the box hides when End of day is selected). Can be set up to a full trading day.
Min Trade $	Minimum dollar value for a rebalance trade. Trades below this threshold are skipped to avoid commission drag on tiny orders (default: $50)
Margin Mode	Turn margin trading on or off
Max Leverage	Maximum leverage ratio (up to 4x)
Extended Hours	Allow orders to fill during pre-market (4:00 AM–9:30 AM ET) and after-hours (4:00–8:00 PM ET) sessions. Only limit orders can fill outside regular hours. Defaults to off. Live (Real Money) accounts only — IBKR doesn't fill or report extended-hours orders on paper (Fake Money) accounts, so the checkbox explains this and reverts if you try to enable it on a paper portfolio.

Excluded Tickers

Setting	Description
Excluded Tickers	A cross-portfolio list of symbols screening may surface but IBKR can't trade. Symbols here are excluded from every strategy's and portfolio's buy list, on top of any per-strategy manual exclusions. The list auto-fills when a rebalance hits an untradeable ticker and you choose Exclude Permanently; you can also edit it directly (comma- or space-separated) to add or remove symbols.

Portfolio Tab (per portfolio)

Inception & Rebuild

Setting	Description
Portfolio Start Date	The inception date of your portfolio, used as the default start for full data rebuilds
Rebuild	Wipe the portfolio, trade, and strategy logs and rebuild everything from your IBKR Flex statements. A timestamped backup is taken first.

Tips

• Paper Trading mode (port 7497) is the safest way to test strategies with real market data but fake money. Switch to it here before experimenting with live trading.
• Backup settings are worth configuring early — your portfolio log and trade database are valuable and not stored anywhere else.

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Manage Portfolios (Dialog)

Manage Portfolios is a dialog window opened from the link in the sidebar's Portfolio section. It lets you manage multiple portfolios — each with its own positions, trade history, strategies, and performance data.

Layout

• Portfolios table — list of all active portfolios
• Action buttons — Create Portfolio, Rename, Archive, Delete
• Archived section — a collapsible list of archived portfolios below the table

Portfolios Table

Column	Description
Name	Portfolio display name
Type	Live (Real Money) (green) or Paper (Fake Money) (yellow) — determines which IBKR port is used
IBKR Account	The IBKR account number the portfolio is bound to, if any
Created	Date the portfolio was created
ID	Internal identifier

Actions

• Create Portfolio — starts the guided portfolio-creation flow: choose the money type (Real Money (Live Trading) or Fake Money (Paper Trading)), set a name and optional description, then enter the portfolio's IBKR Flex credentials in the connection wizard that follows. QuantAscent pulls the portfolio's trading history immediately after. Each new portfolio gets its own isolated data directory.
• Rename — change a portfolio's display name
• Archive — hide a portfolio from the switcher while keeping all its data. Archived portfolios move to the Archived section below, where they can be restored anytime.
• Delete — remove a portfolio and its data. Only a portfolio that has never traded can be deleted. If a portfolio has any trade history, QuantAscent declines (deleting it would orphan its records) and offers to Archive it instead.

To switch between portfolios, use the dropdown in the sidebar's Portfolio section — the app reloads to show the selected portfolio's data.

Tips

• Use a Paper portfolio for testing new strategies before running them in your Live portfolio.
• Each portfolio is completely isolated — strategies, trades, and performance data are separate. This means you can run different strategy sets in different portfolios without interference.

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Help & About (Dialog)

Access the Help & About dialog from the sidebar. It provides quick reference information and diagnostic tools.

Contents

• Version — the current QuantAscent version number
• Log Files — a button to open the log folder containing app.log and crash reports. Useful for troubleshooting.
• System Info — Python version, PySide6 version, and platform details
• Report a Bug — describe the issue and click Submit Bug Report. Your system info and log file are included automatically and the developer is notified by email.
• Licenses — open-source license notices