Phase 6 — Capital Ladder

Assumption: Precious-metals book via liquid ETFs (GLD, SLV, IAU, GDX) on Alpaca paper today. Futures path not production-verified.

Ladder

Stage	Capital	Gross cap (2x)	Constraints	Gate to next
0 — Research	$0 live	—	Backtests + shadow	GAP-002 closed for active sleeves
1 — Paper proof	$100k–$500k paper	≤2x	Current state	60d paper Sharpe > 0.5 book; max DD < 10%
2 — Seed live	$1M	1.5x	`qgtm_live_trading_enabled=true`, live URL	90d live; TCA < 15 bps median
3 — Scale	$5M	2.0x	Per-name 15%	Realization > 0.7; no SEV1 incidents
4 — Institutional	$25M	2.0x + futures	GC/SI execution, compliance sign-off	Capacity model below
5 — Size	$100M+	Program-specific	Dedicated execution, multiple brokers	ADV participation < 5%

Audit answer for $5M tomorrow: NO — see GO_NO_GO_MEMO.md.

Symbol	Typical ADV ($)	5% ADV cap	At 2x on $5M book
GLD	~$2B+	~$100M	Comfortable
SLV	~$500M+	~$25M	Comfortable
GDX	~$800M	~$40M	Watch crowding

$25M in GLD-heavy book: still feasible in ETFs with VWAP slicing; TCA must prove < 20 bps.

$100M+: ETF impact material — require COMEX micro (MGC) / (SIL) or swap.

INTRADAY_CAPITAL_FRACTION raised to 0.50 to use PDT buying power — increases intraday risk; overnight unchanged.

Role	Responsibility
user	Capital gate, live flag, kill reset approver
Naz	Mobile dashboard, alert ack, paper monitoring