docs: document copy-positive selection, Copy P&L, cache-based portfolio

Update the dev-facing docs so others can follow the current system:
- live/README: copy-positive-holder selection (replaces lead-time gate),
  Copy P&L as the copyability metric, new Paper portfolio (portfolio.py)
  + Dashboard feeds (watch_sharps.json / portfolio.json) sections, the
  full 8-step daily flow, the cache rolling-180d/replace retention gotcha,
  and a Copy execution (copybot/sync_floors, separate WIP) note.
- README: top portfolio is now precomputed off the cache (correct
  recycling), judge by Copy P&L not win%, copy execution is separate.
- FINDINGS: capital-recycling / $1k-book section + repo-layout refresh.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

FINDINGS.md

@@ -222,6 +222,25 @@ by position win%. Conviction must be measured at the position level (a wallet's
 stake in a market), not per individual buy — a scalper splits one position across many
 small buys, so a per-trade threshold copies far more (and worse) bets than intended.*
 
+## Capital recycling & the $1k book (2026-06-23)
+
+The $1,000 paper book (`live/portfolio.py` → `portfolio.json`, rendered at
+jaxperro.com/trading) surfaced two things:
+
+- **"Saturation" was mostly a measurement artifact.** The old browser replay froze
+  capital in positions whose resolution date the data-api didn't return, so it
+  skipped bets it could afford (340 phantom misses on a 4-wallet book). Computing
+  the book **off the cache** — which stores each bet's resolution time (`res_t`) —
+  frees cash at the true resolution moment: misses dropped to ~0 and the book
+  recycled ~23× over the window. With *real* money this isn't even a problem (cash
+  returns on redemption); it was purely the paper sim mis-measuring.
+- **More wallets help only up to the bankroll's slot count.** A combo backtest over
+  the copy-positive holders showed returns rise with basket size *until* peak
+  concurrent demand exceeds ~$1k ÷ $50 = 20 slots, after which a high-volume wallet
+  just crowds out the others. So: pick wallets that **fit** the bankroll, favor
+  **fast-resolving** markets (capital velocity > bet size on $1k), and don't
+  diversify past what you can fund. Two well-chosen holders beat four that overflow.
+
 ## Repo layout
 
 - `insider.py` — the detector: z-score/p-value, timing/freshness/sizing signals,
@@ -230,8 +249,12 @@ small buys, so a per-trade threshold copies far more (and worse) bets than inten
 - `copyback.py` / `oos.py` — in-sample and out-of-sample copy-trade backtests.
 - `webhook_receiver.py` — push-based live trade watcher (Alchemy → Discord).
 - `smart_money.py` — data foundation + dashboard (true-win-rate scanner).
-- `live/` — current scanner: cache-backed skilled-3% finder + watchlist + daily
-  refresh + dashboard. See `live/README.md`.
+- `live/` — current system: cache-backed finder + **copy-positive-holder sharps
+  selection** (`conviction_scan.py` + `validate_timing.py` → `watch_sharps.json`,
+  ranked by Copy P&L) + **$1k paper book** (`portfolio.py` → `portfolio.json`) +
+  daily refresh. The dashboard (jaxperro repo) renders those two JSON feeds. See
+  `live/README.md`. *Copy execution (`copybot.py`, `sync_floors.py`) is a separate,
+  in-progress system — this finder is selection + tracking only.*
 - `wide/` — bulk subgraph→DuckDB scanner (survivorship-bias-free, all wallets);
   public subgraph frozen at Jan 2026, so historical-only. See `wide/README.md`.
 - `archive/` — the strategies that didn't work, kept for reference. See

README.md

@@ -144,20 +144,26 @@ Keep the two wallet lists in sync: Alchemy's address list (what *triggers*) and
 
 ### 2. Live paper portfolio — `trading/` → [jaxperro.com/trading](https://jaxperro.com/trading)
 
-A **$1,000 paper account that behaves like real money**: it replays every
-watched-wallet trade since inception, **enters when they enter** (if there's
-cash), holds each bet **to resolution**, then settles (win → payout, loss → $0)
-and frees the cash. Shows **Liquid** (cash), **Invested** (open bets marked to
-market), **Realized** (settled P&L), a **Current Bets** table with per-bet entry
-/ mark / P&L / *settle date*, and — crucially — **Missed P&L**: the profit left
-on the table from trades skipped because the bankroll was fully deployed (the
-real cost of a small account). It runs **100% client-side** off Polymarket's
-public API (CORS-open) — zero backend, zero added cost.
+A **$1,000 paper account that behaves like real money**: it mirrors each followed
+wallet's **conviction** bets (top 20% of their own stake sizes) at $50/trade,
+**enters when they enter** (if there's cash), holds to resolution, then settles
+and frees the cash. Shows **Liquid**, **Invested**, **Realized**, a **Current
+Bets** table, and **Missed P&L** (profit skipped when the bankroll was fully
+deployed — the cost of a small account).
 
-> **What the tracker taught us:** $1,000 across many hyperactive wallets gets
-> fully deployed almost instantly — you can follow only a few percent of their
-> trades. Concentrating on a handful of high-conviction wallets with bigger
-> stakes is the only way a small bankroll meaningfully mirrors them.
+It's now **precomputed server-side off the cache** (`live/portfolio.py` →
+`portfolio.json`) rather than replayed in the browser: the cache stores each bet's
+resolution time, so capital **recycles at the true resolution moment** (the
+client replay used to phantom-lock capital when the data-api lacked resolution
+dates). The page is a static renderer of `portfolio.json` + `watch_sharps.json`,
+with the old client-side replay kept as a fallback.
+
+> **What the tracker taught us:** $1,000 across many hyperactive wallets saturates
+> instantly — concentrate on a few wallets that fit the bankroll. And **win% lies
+> about copyability**: judge candidates by **Copy P&L** (the sharps table's headline
+> column — actual flat-$50 copy result, scalpers exposed), not win rate. *Actually
+> placing* the trades is a separate in-progress system (`copybot.py`); this repo is
+> selection + paper tracking.
 
 ---
 

live/README.md

@@ -37,17 +37,28 @@ underdog/longshot prices — the copyable alpha), `balanced`, or `favorite`
 | enumerate | `enumerate.py [days]` | recent liquid markets (Gamma `end_date_min`) → top traders → candidate pool (`candidates.json`), accumulates across runs |
 | cache | `cache.py` / `collect.py` | pull each wallet's resolved bets **once** into `cache.duckdb` (24s → 0.003s on re-read). Stores `res_t` per bet, so any date cutoff reads the same cache |
 | score | `skill.py [N]` | the 5-gate funnel over cached candidates → `watch_skilled.json` (webhook-compatible) |
+| sharps | `conviction_scan.py` + `validate_timing.py` | conviction-profile scan → copy-positive-holder selection → `watch_sharps.json` (see "The repeatable find") |
+| portfolio | `portfolio.py` | $1k paper book off the cache → `portfolio.json` (see "Paper portfolio") |
 | dashboard | `dashboard.py` | self-contained `dashboard.html` — sortable, archetype-tagged, live recent-trade lookup |
 | backtest | `backtest_june.py [arch]` | copy an archetype's June-1+ entries, $1000, no lag → P&L |
 | clean test | `clean_test.sh` | **the honest test**: re-select on pre-June-1 data only, then backtest June-1+ forward |
 
 ## The cache is the point
 
-`cache.duckdb` holds ~26k wallets / 12.5M+ bets, pulled once. Every score —
+`cache.duckdb` holds ~30k wallets / 14M+ bets, pulled once. Every score —
 any archetype, any cutoff, the clean OOS test — now runs in **seconds** instead
 of hours of API pulls. `MAX_AGE_DAYS=14`: the broad pool refreshes biweekly; the
 watchlist is force-refreshed daily (`cache.invalidate`) for forward tracking.
 
+**Retention gotcha — the cache is NOT append-only.** Each wallet's refresh does
+`DELETE FROM bets WHERE wallet=?` then re-inserts a fresh pull, and that pull is a
+**rolling 180-day window** (`WINDOW_DAYS`) capped at ~2k bets/endpoint
+(`max_pages`). So wallet *coverage* grows (new wallets are kept), but any single
+wallet's history is a capped, rolling, overwrite-on-refresh snapshot — bets older
+than ~180d are dropped on the next re-pull. For a permanent long-horizon archive,
+use the append-style `../wide/pmkt.duckdb` subgraph dataset instead, or change the
+pull to upsert + drop the cutoff.
+
 ## The clean test (why the favorites are a mirage)
 
 `clean_test.sh` selects favorites using **only bets resolved before June 1**,
@@ -84,27 +95,79 @@ wallet's scale (a whale's $200 bet isn't conviction; a minnow's is).
 
 - `conviction_scan.py` — train pre-June / validate June on conviction bets →
   218 matches, **62/83 profitable forward (p≈0)**. → `conviction_wallets.json`.
-- `validate_timing.py` — the copyability gate: entry→resolution **lead time** on
-  winning conviction bets separates copyable sharps (multi-day lead) from
-  "last-minute" wallets (median lead <24h) we can't mirror in time — could be
-  genuine insiders or just fast-resolving-market specialists, can't tell which.
-  Also drops wallets inactive >30d. → **~31 validated copyable sharps** in
-  `watch_sharps.json` (shown live on jaxperro.com/trading). It additionally
-  precomputes every stat the dashboard renders — incl. **`copy_pnl`**, the
-  authoritative flat-$50 copy P&L (replay entries, mirror exits, settle held bets
-  at clob resolution by token_id). **Copy P&L is the real copyability signal** —
-  position win% over-counts scalpers (see FINDINGS "the scalper trap"); the table
-  defaults to sorting by it.
+- `validate_timing.py` — the **copyability selection** (rewritten 2026-06-23).
+  For every conviction wallet it runs a flat-$50 copy replay and keeps only the
+  ones genuinely profitable to copy: `copy_pnl > 0` **and** a real hold-to-
+  resolution edge (`held_pnl > 0`, held win-rate ≥55% over ≥8 resolved held bets),
+  active in 30d, median lead ≥1h (drops sub-hour snipers). It also precomputes
+  every stat the dashboard renders — including **`copy_pnl`**, the authoritative
+  flat-$50 copy P&L (replay their entries, mirror their exits, settle held bets at
+  CLOB resolution by `token_id`). → **~14 copy-positive holders** in
+  `watch_sharps.json` (read live by jaxperro.com/trading; the table defaults to
+  sorting by Copy P&L).
 
-Identifiers for a follow-worthy wallet: on its **≥$200 bets** — win ≥65%, avg
-entry 0.35–0.70 (edge, not favorites), +copy-ROI, FDR-significant, **median lead
-≥24h** (copyable), and it **holds out-of-sample**.
+**Copy P&L is the one number that matters for picking copy targets.** It replaced
+an earlier lead-time gate. The lesson (see FINDINGS "the scalper trap"): position
+**win% over-counts scalpers** — `cache.won` (curPrice ≥ 0.5) scores a sell-at-
+profit as a "win", so a wallet can show ~100% conviction win% yet *lose money when
+copied* (ArbTrader: 99.5% win, **−$790** copy P&L). Conviction itself = the top 20%
+of a wallet's **own** stake sizes, measured at the **position** level (a wallet's
+total stake in a market, not per-trade — a scalper splits one position over many
+small buys). Judge by Copy P&L, never win%.
 
-## Daily (`daily.sh`)
+## Paper portfolio (`portfolio.py` → `portfolio.json`)
 
-1. discover (enumerate last 14d) → 2. freshen cache (force-refresh watchlist +
-top up new wallets) → 3. re-score (instant from cache) → 4. regenerate dashboard
-+ snapshot to `history/`. Schedule via launchd/cron (Mac must be awake).
+A $1,000 paper book that mirrors a chosen set of wallets' conviction bets at a
+flat $50/trade, **computed off the cache** (not client-side). The cache stores
+each bet's resolution time (`res_t`), so capital **recycles at the true resolution
+moment** — fixing the phantom capital-lock the old browser replay suffered (it
+missed resolution dates for high-volume wallets and skipped bets it could afford).
+Edit the `WALLETS` list at the top of `portfolio.py` to change who's followed.
+Output `portfolio.json` (equity, splits, current/resolved/missed tables, per-
+wallet) is read by the dashboard in one request. Hold-to-resolution model (the
+cache has no sell events — the right model for the holders we select); a small
+live `/positions` pull supplies the "current open bets" panel.
+
+> **Caveat carried through the whole stack:** every P&L here is *idealized* — no
+> slippage, fees, or copy lag, and the wallets were selected in-sample. Treat the
+> headline % as a ceiling, not a forecast (the project's own history: an in-sample
+> copy backtest hit +168% then collapsed out-of-sample).
+
+## Dashboard feeds (jaxperro.com/trading)
+
+The dashboard (in the `jaxperro` repo, `trading/index.html`) is static and reads
+two precomputed JSONs from this repo via raw.githubusercontent:
+
+- **`watch_sharps.json`** — the sharps table (copy-positive holders + per-wallet
+  Copy P&L, win%/record, avg bet, leads).
+- **`portfolio.json`** — the $1k paper book up top.
+
+Both are committed + pushed by `daily.sh`, so the page is just a renderer (no
+per-wallet API calls). It keeps a client-side replay as a fallback if the feed is
+unreachable.
+
+## Copy execution (separate, in progress)
+
+Actually *placing* the copied trades lives outside this finder — `copybot.py` +
+`sync_floors.py` (a teammate's work). `sync_floors.py` recomputes each followed
+wallet's p80 conviction floor from the fresh cache into `../config.json` so the
+bot's entry gate stays in parity with the dashboard's top-20%-by-stake definition.
+This finder's job is selection + tracking; execution is downstream.
+
+## Daily (`daily.sh`, launchd 10:00)
+
+1. **discover** (`enumerate.py 14`) — recent liquid markets → candidate pool.
+2. **freshen** — force-refresh the watchlists, then `collect.py` tops up new/stale.
+3. **re-score** (`skill.py`) → `watch_skilled.json`.
+4. **sharps** (`conviction_scan.py` + `validate_timing.py`) → `conviction_wallets.json`
+   + `watch_sharps.json` (the copy-positive holders).
+5. **floors** (`sync_floors.py`) — copy-bot conviction floors → `../config.json` (local).
+6. **portfolio** (`portfolio.py`) → `portfolio.json` (the $1k paper book).
+7. **dashboard** (`dashboard.py`) + snapshot to `history/`.
+8. **publish** — commit + push the JSON feeds, then ping Discord (`daily_webhook`
+   in the gitignored `../config.json`).
+
+Schedule via launchd/cron (Mac must be awake).
 
 ## Usage