Private curriculum · Victor Citroën · 2026-10-05

The Trading Mastery
Curriculum

A 30–36 month master programme across markets vocabulary, the quant canon, systems & backtesting, and original research. Built by Chiron, run session by session, saved to the 369 Academy.

Phases   0 → 4 Demo accounts   Day 1 order flow + 7 unlimited + 4 prominent Books   5 core Papers   5 canon Tools   10 Research projects   7
◆ The honest frame

Mastering this curriculum will not make you millions by itself. Many finance PhDs cannot trade profitably. What it does: equip you to see edges when they appear, build systems around them, and not blow up when one of them turns. Millions require (a) a real edge + (b) risk management + (c) discipline on top of the foundation.

Every claim on this page is tagged HIGH / MED / LOW confidence. Items marked LOW need verification before you commit real time or money to them.

◆ PHASE 00 · START HEREOpen the Battle Stations

Weeks 1–2. Hands on the gear before hands on the books. Open the paper accounts and place one trade on each — so when Chiron teaches you options Greeks or futures roll, you already know which buttons exist.

◆ Three honest notes before you start opening accounts

Your 12 asset classes = 6 unique logins. ICT isn't a platform (practice on any FX demo). Indices + CFDs share OANDA. Stocks + ETFs + Bonds share IBKR Paper.

Some demos expire. NinjaTrader = 14 days renewable · Bookmap = 14-day trial · Sierra Chart = paid trial. Open the UNLIMITED ones first (Tier A below). Save the ticking-clock ones for Phase 2–3 when you'll actively use them.

Demo ≠ live. Slippage is better, spreads are often tighter, your psychology is different. Phase 0 is platform familiarization, not strategy validation.

🔴 DAY 1 — Order Flow (open tomorrow)

The "crazy charts with bubbles on the candles" — order flow / footprint. Each bubble = one trade print sized by volume · heatmap behind = resting liquidity. You SEE where size trades vs. where it rests. Mostly paid, not free. Pick ONE based on asset class — don't open all.

🎯 TradingLite — crypto bubbles + heatmap (ICT-crypto-twitter aesthetic)
HIGH matchFree view-only tier$29–59/mo paidtradinglite.com
tomorrow
Exocharts — crypto footprint + orderbook heatmap
HIGH7d trial~$50/moexocharts.com
—
ATAS — futures big-trades bubbles + cluster/footprint
HIGH14d free trial~€75/moatas.net
—
Sierra Chart + Numbers Bars — futures footprint (numbers inside candles)
MED15d trial~$36/mo + data
—
Bookmap — heatmap-only complement (no bubbles)
MED14d trial~$100/mo
—
◆ Honest reality on order flow

These are paid tools, not free demos. Free tiers are view-only. Trials range 7–30 days. Pick ONE based on your asset class — don't open all four tomorrow.

Edge warning (MED): order flow data is real market microstructure. HIGH confidence it reflects true activity. MED confidence that reading it live gives a retail trader an edge that survives transaction costs — the skill curve is steep and most retail "tape readers" aren't profitable.

Tomorrow's move: open TradingLite free tier first (no card). See if the aesthetic clicks. If yes, start the paid trial next weekend when you can watch BTC through a US session move.

Tier A — Unlimited, open NOW

OANDA Practice — FX · CFD · Indices · Gold · Oil
HIGHUnlimitedfxTrade.oanda.com
30 min
ICT Trading practice setup — OANDA + TradingView · liquidity sweeps · FVG · order blocks · BOS · A+ Entry Checklist
HIGH stackMED edge until backtestedMethodology, not a separate broker
1 h setup
IBKR Paper Trading — Stocks · ETFs · Bonds · Options basic
HIGHUnlimitedibkr.com
1–2 h
Thinkorswim Paper (via Schwab) — Options deep analytics
HIGHUnlimitedschwab.com
1 h + account
Binance Testnet — Crypto spot
HIGHUnlimitedtestnet.binance.vision
15 min
Bybit Demo — Crypto perps + futures
HIGHUnlimitedbybit.com
15 min
Hyperliquid Testnet — Decentralized perps + order book
HIGHUnlimitedapp.hyperliquid.xyz
15 min
TradingView — universal charting (verify you have an account; free tier is enough)
HIGHFree
5 min

Tier B — Prominent demos (open early, mind the clock)

🎯 NinjaTrader + Rithmic demo — Futures (ES/NQ/CL/GC) + DOM order flow
HIGH14d renewableVictor-priority
1 h
Quantower demo — multi-asset pro platform (Futures · FX · Crypto · Stocks)
MED on interpretationAssumed interpretation of "QuantumTrading" — confirmquantower.com
1 h
Tradovate OR Sierra Chart — only if NinjaTrader didn't click
Optional
—
Bookmap trial — Order flow heatmap
14d trialOpen at Phase 3 order flow
30 min

Tier C — Code platform

QuantConnect — systematic backtest + paper live run
HIGHFree tierPhase 3
1 h setup

Already live ✅

FundedNext MCP — live prop evaluation accounts, read-only via Claude Code
HIGH2026-09-20
done
◆ Phase 0 gate

Before Phase 1 starts, you have: all 6 Tier A platforms logged in · one paper trade placed on each · can say in one sentence what each platform is best for. Then say "Chiron, let's start Phase 1".

◆ Overall progress
0%0 of 0 items complete

◆ MAPFive phases, one climb

Each phase has a gate test. Don't jump ahead.

Weeks 1–2 · NOW

Phase 0
Battle Stations

🔴 Day 1 = order flow. Then 7 unlimited paper accounts + 4 prominent demos. Platform familiarization before theory.

Day 1 order flow7 unlimited+4 prominent
Months 0–6

Phase 1
Foundations

Markets vocabulary. BMC. Statquest. Honest ICT backtest. Build your checklist.

7 topics1 course
Months 6–12

Phase 2
Quant canon

The 5 foundational papers. Python for Finance (Hilpisch). SSRN & arXiv literacy.

5 papers1 book
Months 12–18

Phase 3
Systems

Chan ×2. Lopez de Prado AFML. vectorbt, Nautilus, QuantConnect. 5 broker demos.

3 books5 tools
Months 18–36

Phase 4
Original research

Carver. 7 original projects: vol clustering, intraday seasonality, factor neutrality, regime momentum, sentiment opt, strategy discovery, multi-agent book.

1 book7 projects

◆ PHASE 01Foundations

Build the vocabulary and habits. Your Phase 0 accounts are live — now you learn what the buttons mean. By the end you can read any trading article and spot the lazy claims.

HIGH confidence MED confidence LOW confidence (verify)
Price-Return vs Total-Return
HIGH2026-09-01
1 session
How to Justify a Price Target — 4-method convergence
HIGH2026-09-04
1 session
Macro Signals — IP · Durable Goods · CapEx · Yield Curve
HIGH2026-09-07 → 14
15pp note
Range Trading — Two-Extreme Playbook
HIGH2026-09-14
1 session
Honest partial-win scoring of trades (doctrine)
HIGH2026-09-21
1 session
Dividends, ex-div, reinvestment
HIGH
1 session
Stocks vs ETFs vs Indices (PR vs TR at index level)
HIGH
1 session
Bonds — coupon, yield, duration, curve mechanics
HIGH
2 sessions
Options basics — call, put, strike, expiry, intrinsic/extrinsic
HIGH
2 sessions
Futures basics — contract spec, expiry, roll, basis
HIGH
1 session
FX basics — pair quoting, pip, lot, carry
HIGH
1 session
Crypto basics — spot vs perp vs futures, funding rate
HIGH
1 session
Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) — all 4 modules
HIGHCourse
~10 h
Statquest — linear regression, Bayes, PCA, confidence intervals
HIGHYouTube
~15–20 h
ICT / Smart Money Concepts — including A+ Entry Checklist & backtest (on OANDA demo from Phase 0)
MEDBacktest-gated
~3 weeks

◆ PHASE 02Quantitative Fundamentals

Read the canon. Learn Python for data. By the end you can read a quant paper and know when the author is bluffing.

The five foundational papers

#PaperYearAuthorConf.
1Portfolio Selection1952MarkowitzHIGH
2The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance & Theory of Investment1958Modigliani & MillerHIGH
3Capital Asset Prices (CAPM)1964SharpeHIGH
4Efficient Capital Markets1970FamaHIGH
5The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities1973Black & ScholesHIGH
Markowitz 1952 — Portfolio Selection (study + note)
HIGHPaper
2 weeks
Modigliani & Miller 1958 — Cost of Capital
HIGHPaper
2 weeks
Sharpe 1964 — Capital Asset Prices (CAPM)
HIGHPaper
2 weeks
Fama 1970 — Efficient Capital Markets
HIGHPaper
2 weeks
Black & Scholes 1973 — The Pricing of Options
HIGHPaper
2 weeks
Hilpisch — Python for Finance (full book, with notebooks)
HIGHBook
~100 h
Linear regression deep-dive (OLS, R², residuals)
HIGH
1 session
Bayes' theorem — trader framing of belief updating
HIGH
1 session
Principal Component Analysis — why rates have 3 PCs
HIGH
1 session
Volatility clustering — Mandelbrot 1963 + GARCH intuition
HIGH
1 session
Factor neutrality — beta, dollar, sector neutralization
HIGH
1 session
Options Greeks + Gamma curves
HIGH
2 sessions
Order flow — bid/ask, imbalance, VPIN, aggressor volume
HIGH
1 session
SSRN + arXiv q-fin + Alpha Architect — literacy & monthly scan habit
HIGHSource
ongoing
Jane Street — tech talks + Signals and Threads podcast
HIGHSource
ongoing
OpenBB — install & use as research dashboard
HIGHSoftware
1 week

◆ PHASE 03Systems & Backtesting

Build the backtest infrastructure. Replicate 5 published strategies. Learn why most fail out-of-sample.

Chan — Quantitative Trading (2008)
HIGHBook
~3 weeks
Chan — Algorithmic Trading (2013)
HIGHBook
~3 weeks
Lopez de Prado — Advances in Financial Machine Learning (2018)
HIGHBook · dense
~3 months
vectorbt — install & replicate one Chan strategy
HIGHSoftware
1 week
NautilusTrader — event-driven backtest competence
HIGHSoftware
3 weeks
QuantConnect (LEAN) — cloud backtest competence
HIGHSoftware
2 weeks
Phase 3 gate test — replicate one strategy in both vectorbt and QuantConnect
HIGHGate
1 week

◆ PHASE 04Original Research & Edge

Build your own research pipeline. 7 original projects. Earn your first live-money edge — or learn why none survive.

Carver — Systematic Trading (2015)
HIGHBook
~4 weeks
Research 1 — Volatility Clustering Detector (GARCH-ish + regime alerts)
HIGHtradable: MED
2 weeks
Research 2 — Intraday Seasonality Map (minute-of-day heatmap)
HIGHtradable: MED
2 weeks
Research 3 — Factor Neutrality Check (FF 5-factor decomposition)
HIGH
3 weeks
Research 4 — Regime-Dependent Momentum (growth/inflation quadrants)
MED
3 weeks
Research 5 — Sentiment-Driven Portfolio Optimization
LOW/MED
4 weeks
Research 6 — Automated Strategy Discovery (with deflated Sharpe)
MEDOverfit-aware
6 weeks
Research 7 — Multi-Agent Hedge Fund (trend + mean-rev + carry + vol-arb book)
HIGHEducational
8 weeks
Mentor track — Dr. Yogesh Malhotra (claims need verification before anchoring)
LOW · verify
—
QuantConnect paper live run — one of your strategies for 30 days
HIGHDemo
30d

◆ APPENDIX CSoftware stack

Install order matters. Don't pay for Databento or learn KDB-X until you've exhausted the free stack.

ToolRoleWhenMastery
Python 3.12 + venvBaseDay 1—
JupyterNotebook UIDay 1ongoing
yfinanceFree dataDay 21 h
pandas · numpy · matplotlib · scipyCoreDay 2ongoing
statsmodels · scikit-learnStats/MLPhase 2ongoing
OpenBBResearch dashboardPhase 21 week
vectorbtFast backtestPhase 31 week
NautilusTraderEvent-driven backtest + livePhase 33 weeks
QuantConnect (LEAN)Cloud backtestPhase 32 weeks
KaggleFree compute + datasetsongoing—
DatabentoPaid tick dataPhase 4 only—
KDB-XTick-level time-series DBPhase 4 or skip1 month

◆ RHYTHMThe reading cadence

Daily

1 hour

One chapter, one paper section, or one Statquest video.

Weekly

3 hour block

Deep-work: one Chiron session + saved PDF note.

Monthly

1 milestone

Ship a project or a write-up.

Quarterly

Phase review

Gate test + landing-page progress update.

Mastery of the craft is necessary but not sufficient.
The curriculum gives you eyes. The millions come from what you do once you can see.