The useful starting point
A factsheet should help you explain the strategy in your own words before you evaluate its historical return.
Start with the economic thesis
The thesis explains why the strategy is designed to behave as it does. Read it before the performance table. Identify the inputs, the instruments and the conditions the model is trying to respond to. A good explanation should be understandable without relying on a claim that the system uses advanced technology.
If the strategy combines components, determine what each contributes. Several sleeves can share the same signal source or security exposure. A combined portfolio name does not tell you whether those components are independent.
Understand construction and execution
Construction explains how signals become target exposures. Execution explains how and when orders are expected to reach the market. Look for the treatment of cash, weights, leverage, instrument availability and rebalancing.
Then compare the execution assumptions with your intended broker. Closing-auction orders, fractional quantities, crypto access and session restrictions may differ. These are practical reasons why research and live results can diverge even when the strategy logic is unchanged.
Read risk alongside return
Drawdown, volatility, turnover and recovery periods provide context for a return. Each metric has a definition and a measurement window. A historical maximum drawdown is the largest observed decline in that sample; it is not an upper bound on future losses.
Review costs and compare the strategy with a benchmark over a consistent period. If the research uses leverage, ask how financing was treated. If a result is presented as independently reviewed, inspect the supporting report and its scope.
Keep the version you reviewed
Factsheets can change as data, research or product versions evolve. Check the date and retain the relevant document when making a comparison. Do not mix a metric from an older version with a construction description from a newer one without checking the difference.
Open the app’s Data Room for current documents. If you cannot explain the strategy’s behaviour and main limitations after reading, take those questions to support before activating software that can trade unattended.
