Ballad Markets · Operator guide
Pick where you are starting from and follow the steps. Every tool is explained the same way: what it does, when to use it and what it is not.
Updated 3 October 2026 · checked against the live product
01 · Start here
You can switch paths at any time. Your choice and the steps you tick are saved in this browser.
What a market, an order and a stop are, assuming nothing. Short modules at your own pace, with every term defined where it appears.
CHESKO's record is public: open and closed trades with the reason for each, including the ones that went wrong. These are simulated results at real market prices.
New accounts start with 14 days of full PRO access, no card required. Afterwards you keep the free tier: Alpha Regime, Ballad AI, your workspace and DELIA in simulation.
Alpha Regime sums up seven factors in one daily reading. It does not say whether the market goes up or down: it says how much risk is in the air, which is what sets your size.
Connect your broker's simulation account and let DELIA execute without real money. The pipeline is the same as live, so a simulated week tests everything without risk.
02 · How it works
Each layer feeds the next. Select one to see what it does and which tools live in it.
Vocabulary
CHESKO 2.0 reasons over all of the above: analysts, a bull-versus-bear debate, a risk committee and a portfolio manager who decides. Ballad AI answers your questions.
Tools in this layer
03 · The tools
Seventeen pieces, each explained the same way. Filter by what you want to do or by your plan.
Goal
Plan
17 tools
04 · How the desk decides
This is how to read a CHESKO position. Select each number to see what it means and why it is there.
Vocabulary
Illustrative example · not a real trade and not a recommendation
Thesis
Earnings beat expectations and price is holding weekly support. The committee wants to see buying volume before the second tranche.
Conviction
4 / 5
Horizon
Position · weeks
Entry ladder
3 tranches · 52.00 · 50.50 · 49.00
Stop
46.80 · placed once the ladder fills
Size
Up to 20% of capital · balanced mode
2 / 6
From 1 to 5. The desk only opens at 4 or 5: everything else is analysed and left out. A day without a trade is a decision, not a failure.
05 · Size your risk
The tool finds the idea; size decides whether you survive the ones that go wrong. Change the numbers and watch everything move.
Vocabulary
Your inputs
Result
If the stop hits you lose 100; if the target is reached you make 300. At this ratio, winning 25% of the time leaves you flat: above that, you make money.
Educational material. It ignores fees, slippage and opening gaps: live, the loss can be larger than calculated.
01
A small, fixed fraction of capital per trade, between 1 and 2%. Four losses in a row should sting, not sink you.
02
It goes where the idea stops being true, not where it hurts. If it's hit, the thesis was wrong: never move it away to avoid getting out.
03
Aim for at least 2 to 1. With a hit rate near half, the edge has to come from winning more when you're right.
04
The desk rejects most of what it analyses. A day without a good idea is a day without a trade.
06 · Simulated and real
Mixing them up is the most common mistake when reading results. Here is what each one is.
Vocabulary
CHESKO runs a $10,000 book against real market prices, with no real money. Its figures are simulated results, and that is stated next to each one.
See the record →It's whatever you connect. In simulation, it's all practice. With a live key, the copies are real orders with your money, even though the desk itself runs simulated.
The founder's page shows a client's real account, marked at every market close, with its return shown even when it is red.
See the real account →07 · Security
Ballad Markets never holds your money. You connect your own broker with your own key, and you can cut it off at any moment.
Vocabulary
Create it at the broker with trade permission and withdrawals DISABLED. If the broker supports IP allow-listing, use it.
It is encrypted before it is stored and decrypted only in memory for each call. It never goes back to the browser and never appears in logs.
Move money out. A key with withdrawal permission is rejected. The most it can do is place, cancel and close orders on the account you connected.
Disconnect the key or revoke it at the broker. Orders already resting stay where they are; what stops is anything new.
08 · Your routine
Weekly · about 45 minutes
Daily · about 20 minutes
Weekly · about 15 minutes
09 · FAQ
No. You connect your broker with a key that can only trade. It cannot withdraw: a key with that permission is rejected.
They are simulated: orders against real market prices in a simulation account, with no real money. We say so next to every figure.
Alpha Regime, Ballad AI, your workspace with AMAIA, DELIA in simulation and everything public. New accounts start with 14 days of full PRO access, no card required.
One plan with everything: €49 a month or €490 a year. There is also a one-time payment of €1,470.
CHESKO trades US equities through Alpaca. The scanners run on MEXC's most liquid crypto perpetual futures. Congress covers US congressional disclosures.
No. It measures market stress, and its proper use is sizing. Across 23 years of data it showed no ability to anticipate direction.
Yes. Stop following, disconnect the key or revoke it at the broker. New activity stops immediately; orders already resting stay where they are.
No. It is software and educational content. No Ballad Markets tool or text is a personalised investment recommendation.
The record, the Academy and the Congress Tracker are public. With an account, 14 days of full PRO access, no card required.
Educational content. Not financial advice or an investment recommendation. Trading involves risk of loss. Past results, real or simulated, do not guarantee future results.