Financial Glossary
Champion/Challenger
The current model ("champion") competes with a new model ("challenger"). If the challenger is better, it becomes champion.
Explanation
Continuous validation process. Challenger trains on new data; if it beats champion OOS, it gets promoted.
Technical detail
The gate decides on OOS metrics only, via an evolution_score (Sharpe + 2·alpha + 0.5·spearman + 2·precision@top-3) plus hard minimums on Sharpe, alpha, and MaxDD. If the candidate does not beat the champion and the bars (EW and S&P 500), it is not deployed. There is never a manual deploy.
See also
Educational content. Not investment advice. Past results do not guarantee future returns.