Project Argent

Project Argent is the experimental quantitative trading and investment arm of the AetherOS ecosystem. Its mission is to develop and deploy autonomous, agentic systems that leverage the Economic Maneverability Score as a primary source of alpha (market edge) in real-world energy and commodity markets. The project is named in honor of USAF Colonel Henry "Bud" Argent, a fighter pilot whose real-world combat success was cited by John Boyd as a primary validation of his Energy-Maneuverability and OODA Loop theories. Project Argent aims to embody this legacy by translating Boyd's strategic philosophy into profitable, real-world economic maneuvers.

Core Philosophy: Virtuous Trading via Tactical Advantage

Project Argent operates on the principle of Virtuous Trading. This philosophy dictates that a trade is "virtuous" if and only if it is initiated from a position of tactical advantage, backed by a superior understanding of the underlying energy state of the market. This advantage is provided by the Economic Maneverability Score, which serves as the project's core leading indicator. The project treats the economy not as a random walk, but as a dynamic battlespace where energy is the ultimate measure of strength. A high EEM score signals a stable, energy-rich environment, analogous to a pilot having an altitude and speed advantage. This is an opportune moment to acquire undervalued assets (go long). A low EEM score signals instability and energy deficit, analogous to an opponent being in a low-energy state. This predicts volatility and presents opportunities for defensive positioning or shorting. The agents of Project Argent are designed to be "Guardians" of capital. They adhere to a strict risk management protocol inspired by the Agentic Maneuverability Score, ensuring they never commit more capital than the system's "maneuverability" allows, thus preserving the ecosystem's resources.

Technical Description

Project Argent is an ensemble of modular, agentic systems designed to execute the full OODA Loop for trading.

Agent Architecture

The system is composed of several specialized agents working in concert: Observation Agent: A data-ingestion engine that continuously monitors the public APIs (EIA, FRED, etc.) and computes the real-time EEM Score and its derivatives (e.g., rate of change). Prediction Agent: A suite of machine learning models (initially LSTMs, later potentially Transformer-based) trained to find correlations between EEM score dynamics and future price movements (ΔP) in target assets. Decision Agent: A core logic engine, likely based on Reinforcement Learning or a sophisticated rules-based system. It takes inputs from the Prediction Agent and the current portfolio state, calculates the "virtuousness" of a potential trade, and issues a final decision (Buy, Sell, Hold, Short). Action Agent: An execution module that interfaces with broker APIs (e.g., Alpaca, Interactive Brokers). It is responsible for placing orders, managing positions, and enforcing strict risk management guardrails (e.g., stop-losses, position sizing). Qualitative Agent (Future): An LLM-based agent designed to augment the quantitative signals by analyzing news, political events, and market sentiment, providing a layer of human-like intuition.

Deployment Roadmap

Project Argent follows a phased, professional methodology to mitigate risk and validate its strategies. Phase 1: Backtesting: All proposed trading strategies are rigorously backtested against years of historical EEM and market data to measure their theoretical performance (e.g., Sharpe ratio, max drawdown, ROI). Phase 2: Paper Trading: Successful strategies are deployed in a simulated environment using live market data but no real capital. This tests the real-world performance of the data pipelines and execution logic. Phase 3: Guarded Pilot: A small, fixed amount of real capital is allocated to a live trading account. The agent operates under extremely strict guardrails (e.g., max 1% of capital at risk per day) and is closely monitored. Phase 4: Scaled Deployment: As strategies are proven profitable and robust in the pilot phase, their capital allocation can be gradually increased. The ultimate goal of Project Argent is to generate a sustainable source of surplus energy (profit) that can be reinvested into the AetherOS ecosystem, funding future research, hardware upgrades, and the continued growth of the digital commonwealth. Template:Project Navigation