Research · iQuant Labs

The ideas behind the tools.

One readable note per idea — what each tool measures, why it works, and where it fails. Written the way the site is built: plain language, mechanisms over mystique, losses included.
Build The free Bloomberg: how much of a $24,000 terminal can you rebuild for $0? We decomposed what a Bloomberg Terminal actually does, rebuilt every layer that free public data allows — regimes, risk, macro, smart money, sentiment, IPOs — and list honestly what can't be rebuilt. August 2026 · 7 min read India A Bloomberg seat costs ₹20 lakh in India. The data is free. NSE disclosure rules make India the most trackable market in the world for free — named bulk deals daily, FII/DII flows every evening, live IPO subscription. What that makes possible, and the free desk built on it. August 2026 · 6 min read Primer What is a market regime? The weather system your trades live in Returns don't come from one distribution — they come from a handful of persistent states that switch. Understanding regimes is the difference between having a strategy and having a strategy that knows when it works. August 2026 · 5 min read Macro Goldilocks, reflation, stagflation, deflation: the four-quadrant map, explained Two questions — is growth rising, is inflation rising? — split the macro world into four weathers, each with its own history of winners. Reading the map from live asset prices is the useful part. August 2026 · 6 min read Method How to detect a regime change: three honest methods, one hard truth Moving averages, hidden Markov models and quadrant maps all detect regime shifts — late, by construction. The craft is knowing exactly how much lag you're paying and refusing methods that pretend otherwise. August 2026 · 6 min read India · IPO GMP decoded: what the grey market premium actually tells you Every Indian IPO comes with a grey-market number attached; almost nobody checks whether those numbers come true. We graded 268 of them against the actual listings. August 2026 · 6 min read India One market, one desk: reading India on a single page India is the only market where the regime model, the smart-money tape and a live primary market all speak at once. Why it gets its own edition — and why the signals are worth more together. August 2026 · 5 min read Themes How do you measure a theme? Themes are the stories markets tell, and stories can't be charted. Purity-weighted baskets, momentum against the world, breadth as the honesty check — and a warning light for narrow leadership. August 2026 · 5 min read Method We tested topological crash indicators. Here's what survived. Persistent homology and market trees are the frontier of quantitative risk. We audited both against our own gauges before shipping — one earned a place, one earned a caveat. July 2026 · 6 min read Regime Regime investing: what the risk-averse actually get Regime strategies usually earn less than buy-and-hold. The case for them is what happens to your worst year — and the arithmetic of drawdowns most investors never do. July 2026 · 5 min read Regime Why we run three models instead of one Every regime model has a blind spot. Running a probabilistic model against two transparent trend filters turns disagreement itself into information. July 2026 · 4 min read Smart Money Smart money leaves a paper trail Big investors move quietly — but exchanges make them disclose. What bulk deals, insider filings and congressional trades can and cannot tell you. July 2026 · 5 min read Risk Credit usually knows first Bond investors have no upside to be optimistic about — which is exactly why credit spreads are one of the oldest early-warning systems for equity investors. July 2026 · 4 min read Risk Turbulence, absorption, and the anatomy of fragility Crashes are rarely about how far markets fall on a given day. They're about markets starting to move together — and there are ways to measure that before it hurts. July 2026 · 5 min read Method The honest backtest: why we publish our losses Most published backtests are marketing. The difference between in-sample flattery and walk-forward truth — and why a model you can watch fail is worth more. July 2026 · 5 min read
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