Trader Memory Core

Overview

Persistent state layer that bundles screening → analysis → position sizing → portfolio management outputs into a single "thesis object" per investment idea. Tracks what you thought, what happened, and what you learned — across conversations.

Phase 1 supports single-ticker theses: dividend_income, growth_momentum, mean_reversion, earnings_drift, pivot_breakout.

When to Use

• After a screener (kanchi, earnings-trade-analyzer, vcp, pead, canslim, edge-candidate-agent) produces candidates
• When transitioning a thesis from IDEA → ENTRY_READY → ACTIVE → CLOSED
• When attaching position-sizer output to a thesis
• When checking which theses are due for review
• When closing a position and generating a postmortem with lessons learned

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• pyyaml (already in project dependencies)
• jsonschema (already in pyproject.toml; required by thesis_store.py and every command that imports it, including thesis_ingest.py and thesis_review.py)
• FMP API key (optional, only for MAE/MFE calculation in postmortem)

How to invoke the CLI

Use the stdlib-only launcher trader_memory_cli.py for all CLI work. It transparently routes through uv run --project <repo> when uv is available, so the repo's pinned jsonschema is reachable even from a foreign cwd or from python3 with no global jsonschema (e.g. cron / Hermes profile runs):

# From inside the repo
python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses list

# From any other cwd (cron, profile, distribution runner) — point the launcher at the repo
export CLAUDE_TRADING_SKILLS_REPO=/path/to/claude-trading-skills
python3 "$CLAUDE_TRADING_SKILLS_REPO/skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py" \
  store --state-dir /path/to/state/theses list

Subcommands: store → thesis_store.py, ingest → thesis_ingest.py, review → thesis_review.py. Everything after the subcommand is forwarded verbatim, so existing argument flags (--state-dir, transition, open-position, etc.) work unchanged.

If the launcher reports that jsonschema is not importable AND uv is not on PATH, the actionable fixes (in priority order) are:

1. Install uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) and re-run the launcher.
2. Install the project's dependencies into the current interpreter:

   uv pip install -e /path/to/claude-trading-skills
   # or, as a last resort:
   python3 -m pip install jsonschema

Do not treat the thesis store as unavailable and do not mutate state/theses/*.yaml by hand to work around a missing dependency — schema validation is part of thesis state integrity.

Equity accounting is long-only. Do not ingest parabolic-short plans or record short-equity trades through manual; there is no adapter for those plans. Explicit SHORT directions are rejected before they can be discarded by raw registration, manual ingest, equity opening or shares-report attachment. Generic registration does not import a raw position: use validated futures attachment or open-position --contracts for futures LONG/SHORT.

When both initial prices are supplied, they must be finite numeric/non-bool values. Positive initial stop > positive entry is rejected at manual ingest, shares-report attachment and equity activation (using the actual fill). Absent optional pairs and existing finite nonpositive-price behavior remain compatible. Do not apply this initial-entry rule to an ACTIVE/PARTIALLY_CLOSED long's stop: a profitable long may update its stop above original entry. Manual source prices remain provenance only; authoritative fills still come from open-position. For a backfill with a profit-protecting stop, open the long with its initial stop, then update the current stop after activation.

Explicit legacy short equity records (a SHORT word or a bare SELL, such as SELL_SHORT, Short position or SELL; labels such as Sell to close stay long) are refused before new accounting or MAE/MFE calculations. CLOSED/INVALIDATED legacy shorts can produce historical-only postmortems: P&L, MAE/MFE, position valuation and risk are shown as unavailable (—), with an explicit unsupported-short explanation. This report fetches no prices and leaves thesis/index state, stored outcomes and provenance unchanged; old values are not validated or corrected. ACTIVE/PARTIALLY_CLOSED records still cannot generate postmortems. They can still be marked reviewed or terminated as INVALIDATED without an exit price; these bookkeeping actions preserve all existing monetary fields and provenance. Summary statistics and monthly reports skip explicit shorts and report their excluded count (excluded_unsupported_equity_shorts in summary JSON when nonzero). Old manual provenance was free text: BUY, Long position and other non-short labels retain legacy long accounting. New direction inputs remain strictly LONG. Read-only inspection remains available; no old outcomes are migrated or re-signed. Ambiguous legacy records cannot be classified from a trailing stop alone. Keep short-equity journals external; never relabel one as a futures contract.

Workflow

1. Register — Ingest screener output as thesis

Read the screener's JSON output and convert to thesis using the appropriate adapter.

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py ingest \
  --source kanchi-dividend-sop \
  --input reports/kanchi_entry_signals_2026-03-14.json \
  --state-dir state/theses/

Supported sources: kanchi-dividend-sop, earnings-trade-analyzer, vcp-screener, pead-screener, canslim-screener, edge-candidate-agent, manual.

Each thesis starts in IDEA status.

For kanchi-dividend-sop, registration is fail-closed: each row must carry one of CLEAN-PASS, PASS-CAUTION, or CONDITIONAL-PASS in verdict. Missing verdicts and HOLD-REVIEW / STEP1-RECHECK / FAIL rows are skipped and never written to thesis state.

Manual brokerage entry (fractional shares)

For trades that did not come from a screener — e.g. fractional-share brokers (IBKR, Robinhood, IBI Smart, Alpaca, eToro) or hand journaling — use the manual source with a free-form JSON file (a single object or an array):

{
  "ticker": "AMD",
  "thesis_statement": "AMD AI accelerator momentum, fractional IBI Smart position",
  "thesis_type": "growth_momentum",
  "entry_price": 142.10,
  "entry_date": "2026-05-02",
  "shares": 7.86,
  "stop_price": 128.00
}

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py ingest \
  --source manual --input amd.json --state-dir state/theses/

Required: ticker, thesis_statement, thesis_type (one of dividend_income, growth_momentum, mean_reversion, earnings_drift, pivot_breakout). stop_price/stop_loss and target_price/take_profit map to exit.stop_loss/exit.take_profit; entry_price/entry_date/shares are kept in origin.raw_provenance — the authoritative entry price/date and share count are set when you open the position (below). shares may be fractional (the schema accepts any positive number). Like every adapter, manual ingest creates an IDEA thesis only — it never mutates status directly.

To record an already-open broker position, run the explicit lifecycle sequence (the --event-date flags backdate the history so it stays chronological):

# 1. ingest → IDEA (stamped at entry_date)
python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py ingest --source manual --input amd.json --state-dir state/theses/
# 2. IDEA → ENTRY_READY (backdated)
python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ transition <id> ENTRY_READY \
  --reason "existing IBI Smart position" --event-date 2026-05-02
# 3. ENTRY_READY → ACTIVE (fractional shares, backdated)
python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ open-position <id> \
  --actual-price 142.10 --actual-date 2026-05-02 --shares 7.86 --event-date 2026-05-02

2. Query — Search and list theses

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py store \
  --state-dir state/theses/ list --ticker AAPL --status ACTIVE

Filter by --ticker, --status, or --type.

3. Update — Transition, attach position, link reports

Each lifecycle operation is available both as a Python function and as a thesis_store.py CLI subcommand. --event-date / --actual-date accept a plain YYYY-MM-DD (widened to midnight UTC) or a full ISO timestamp.

State transition (IDEA → ENTRY_READY only):

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ \
  transition <id> ENTRY_READY --reason "validated" [--event-date YYYY-MM-DD]

--event-date backdates status_history.at (use it when backfilling an existing position so the later backdated open-position stays chronological). Python: thesis_store.transition(state_dir, thesis_id, "ENTRY_READY", reason, event_date=...).

Open position (ENTRY_READY → ACTIVE — the only path to ACTIVE):

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ open-position <id> \
  --actual-price 142.10 --actual-date 2026-05-02 [--shares 7.86] [--event-date 2026-05-02]

--shares accepts fractional quantities. Python: thesis_store.open_position(state_dir, thesis_id, actual_price, actual_date, shares=..., event_date=...). shares (and shares_remaining, when present) must be a finite, positive number no greater than 10¹² (a sanity bound, not an economic constraint — fractional shares below the cap remain unrestricted). NaN, ±Infinity, and absurdly large values (e.g. a malformed position-sizer report) are rejected with a clean error at save time, on open-position, attach-position, and trim alike.

For a futures thesis, use --contracts instead of --shares (see "Futures positions" below) — if attach-futures-position already populated the position, omit --contracts and only pass --actual-price/--actual-date.

Trim — partial close (ACTIVE/PARTIALLY_CLOSED → PARTIALLY_CLOSED, or → CLOSED when the whole remainder is sold):

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ trim <id> \
  --shares-sold 4 --price 120.00 --date 2026-05-10

position.shares is the original opened quantity (immutable); position.shares_remaining tracks what is still open. Each trim appends a status_history ledger entry (shares_sold / price / proceeds / realized_pnl). outcome.pnl_dollars is the cumulative realized P&L (Σ all trims + final close); outcome.pnl_pct = pnl_dollars / (entry_price × original_shares) × 100. A trim that sells the entire remainder closes the thesis (default exit_reason: manual, overridable with --exit-reason). --date is the ledger timestamp (override with --event-date). Python: thesis_store.trim(state_dir, thesis_id, shares_sold, price, date, ...).

Status invariants: ACTIVE ⇒ shares_remaining == shares; PARTIALLY_CLOSED ⇒ 0 < shares_remaining < shares; CLOSED ⇒ shares_remaining == 0. Legacy theses (no shares_remaining) are treated as fully open at runtime.

For a futures thesis, use --contracts-sold instead of --shares-sold — close/terminate need no flag changes; they read position.asset_type and dispatch automatically (see "Futures positions" below).

Close or invalidate (→ CLOSED or INVALIDATED):

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ close <id> \
  --exit-reason target_hit --actual-price 165.00 --actual-date 2026-06-01
python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ terminate <id> \
  --terminal-status INVALIDATED --exit-reason "thesis broke"

close accepts an ACTIVE or PARTIALLY_CLOSED thesis; from PARTIALLY_CLOSED it adds the final leg and reports the cumulative outcome.

Python: thesis_store.terminate(state_dir, thesis_id, terminal_status, exit_reason, actual_price, actual_date). For CLOSED, delegates to close() which computes P&L (fractional-share aware). For INVALIDATED, P&L is computed if entry/exit prices are available.

Record review (any non-terminal):

Use thesis_store.mark_reviewed(state_dir, thesis_id, review_date=..., outcome="OK"|"WARN"|"REVIEW") to advance next_review_date and record alerts.

Attach position-sizer output:

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ attach-position <id> \
  --report reports/position_report.json

Python: thesis_store.attach_position(state_dir, thesis_id, report_path) to link position sizing data. Validates that the report mode is "shares" (not budget).

Futures positions (contracts / multiplier / direction)

A thesis whose position.asset_type == "futures" (or quantity_unit == "contracts") is a futures thesis. Futures theses use quantity / quantity_remaining (whole contracts — no fractional contracts) instead of shares / shares_remaining, carry a direction (LONG or SHORT) and a multiplier, and every P&L computation (close, terminate, trim) applies (exit_price - entry_price) × multiplier × quantity × sign (sign = +1 LONG, −1 SHORT) instead of the equity per-unit formula. close / terminate / trim / open-position all dispatch on position.asset_type automatically — no separate futures subcommands for those four operations. USD-denominated contracts only — there is no FX conversion in the P&L path, so a non-USD contract_spec.currency is rejected outright rather than computing P&L in the wrong currency's magnitude.

Attach a futures-position-sizer SIZED report (step 6 of the Shapiro contrarian pipeline — futures-position-sizer → trader-memory-core):

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ \
  attach-futures-position <id> --report reports/futures_position_es_2026-05-10.json

Rejects a NO_TRADE report (sizing_status != "SIZED"), an invalid direction, a non-positive/fractional contracts count, a non-finite/non-positive contract_spec.multiplier, or a non-USD contract_spec.currency. Re-attach status guard is IDEA/ENTRY_READY only — stricter than equity's attach-position (which also allows ACTIVE): re-attaching a futures position on ACTIVE would silently overwrite the entire position dict including direction, flipping the sign of every subsequent P&L computation. Correcting an already-open futures position needs a fresh thesis (or a future dedicated "amend" operation) — not a re-attach.

Direct open, no attach (build the position from CLI flags instead of a SIZED report — --contract-currency is required here since there is no contract_spec to read a currency from, and must be USD):

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ open-position <id> \
  --actual-price 5000 --actual-date 2026-05-10 \
  --contracts 2 --multiplier 50 --direction SHORT --contract-symbol ES \
  --contract-currency USD

Trim / close / terminate — same subcommands as equity, --contracts-sold in place of --shares-sold:

python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ trim <id> \
  --contracts-sold 1 --price 4950.00 --date 2026-05-12
python3 .../trader_memory_cli.py store --state-dir state/theses/ close <id> \
  --exit-reason target_hit --actual-price 4900.00 --actual-date 2026-05-15

Python: thesis_store.attach_futures_position(state_dir, thesis_id, report_path), thesis_store.open_position(state_dir, thesis_id, actual_price, actual_date, contracts=..., multiplier=..., direction=...).

Link related reports:

Use thesis_store.link_report(state_dir, thesis_id, skill, file, date) to cross-reference analysis documents.

4. Review — Check due dates and monitoring status

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py review \
  --state-dir state/theses/ review-due --as-of 2026-04-15

List theses with next_review_date <= as_of. Use with kanchi-dividend-review-monitor triggers (T1-T5) for systematic review.

5. Postmortem — Close and reflect

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py review \
  --state-dir state/theses/ postmortem th_aapl_div_20260314_a3f1

Generate a structured postmortem in state/journal/. If FMP API key is available, includes MAE/MFE (Maximum Adverse/Favorable Excursion) metrics.

Summary statistics:

python3 skills/trader-memory-core/scripts/trader_memory_cli.py review \
  --state-dir state/theses/ summary

Shows win rate, average P&L%, and per-type breakdown across all closed theses.

Output Format

Thesis YAML (state/theses/)

Each thesis is a YAML file with:

• Identity: thesis_id, ticker, created_at
• Classification: thesis_type, setup_type, catalyst
• Lifecycle: status, status_history
• Entry/Exit: target prices, actual prices, conditions
• Position: shares (fractional supported), value, risk (from position-sizer or open-position --shares); or, for futures, quantity/multiplier/direction/contract_spec (from futures-position-sizer or open-position --contracts)
• Monitoring: review dates, triggers, alerts
• Origin: source skill, screening grade, raw provenance
• Outcome: P&L, holding days, MAE/MFE, lessons learned

Index (state/theses/_index.json)

Lightweight index for fast queries without loading full YAML files.

Journal (state/journal/)

Postmortem markdown reports: pm_{thesis_id}.md.

Supported Python Read and Validation API

Use these public functions from scripts/thesis_store.py for replay and other Python consumers:

from pathlib import Path
import thesis_store

thesis = thesis_store.get(Path("state/theses"), thesis_id)
thesis_store.validate_thesis(thesis)

• get(state_dir, thesis_id) loads fresh YAML data without modifying the thesis file or index. It does not validate the loaded content. Missing files raise FileNotFoundError; malformed YAML raises yaml.YAMLError.
• validate_thesis(thesis) checks the JSON Schema and business invariants, returns None on success, and raises ValueError on validation failure. It does not mutate the input or write state.
• Validate loaded or normalized records explicitly before relying on their schema and business invariants. Keep consumers on these supported functions; underscore-prefixed helpers are internal implementation details.

Key Principles

• Forward-only transitions: IDEA → ENTRY_READY → ACTIVE → CLOSED (no backtracking)
• Raw provenance: All original screener data preserved in origin.raw_provenance
• Atomic writes: All file operations use tempfile + os.replace
• Git-tracked state: state/ directory is committed, providing audit trail
• Phase 1 scope: Single-ticker theses only (pair trades and options in Phase 2)

Resources

• references/thesis_lifecycle.md — Status states and valid transitions
• references/field_mapping.md — Source skill → canonical field mapping
• schemas/thesis.schema.json — JSON Schema for thesis validation
• ../../examples/workflows/trade-memory-loop/sample-run-full-path/ — Worked end-to-end Plan → Trade → Record → Postmortem → Backtest → Journal example