GC/SI Mandate vs Execution (P0-6)

Allocator mandate: COMEX gold (GC) and silver (SI) futures exposure.
Current production path: ETF proxies (GLD, SLV, IAU, GDX, etc.) via Alpaca equities.

Status: ETF proxy (documented gap)

Layer	GC/SI futures	ETF proxy
Strategy signals	Term structure, squeeze, ratio sleeves	Active in PM_STRATEGY_CATEGORIES
Order routing	Not wired	AlpacaBroker → GLD/SLV/GDX
Data	databento_api_key optional	Alpaca + yfinance

Config stub

QGTM_COMEX_EXECUTION_MODE is reserved for future wiring:

• etf_proxy (default) — current behavior
• paper_futures — reserved; requires Databento + futures OMS (not production)

Conditional GO

For $5M scale, PM must either:

1. Wire COMEX execution (P2 futures pipeline), or
2. Sign written ETF capacity memo accepting basis/slippage vs stated mandate.