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Assumptions and Limitations

GlowBack already covers a meaningful research workflow, but it is still an alpha system. This page makes the current boundaries explicit so the quickstart and tutorials stay honest.

Execution and fills

  • Backtests use deterministic bar-based execution with configurable commissions, slippage, latency, and participation caps.
  • The engine models realistic order lifecycle events, but it is not a tick-by-tick exchange simulator.
  • Paper/live parity work is still in progress; do not treat paper execution as broker-grade behavior yet.

Data quality and sourcing

  • Sample/demo data is available for smoke tests and tutorials, but production research still depends on the quality of the input data you load.
  • CSV and provider ingestion validate structure, yet corporate actions, survivorship-bias controls, and deeper dataset provenance are still evolving.
  • Alpha Vantage examples are intentionally conservative because free-tier rate limits can dominate the experience.

Portfolio accounting

  • Core long/short/fractional accounting invariants are covered by tests, including signed market value for short liabilities.
  • More advanced cash management edge cases should still be validated with your own scenarios before relying on them for trading decisions.
  • Multi-asset support is strongest for equities and spot crypto; other asset classes remain narrower.

Optimization workflow

  • GlowBack optimization results now surface validation gaps, stability summaries, and an optimization manifest with seed/trial lineage and a Ray distributed-execution preview; resume semantics are supported, but true scale-out orchestration remains active roadmap work.
  • Treat optimization results as research aids, not proof of live robustness.

Live and paper trading

  • The gb-live crate exists, but real broker adapters are intentionally not positioned as production-ready.
  • PaperBroker now records an append-only audit trail for broker events and inventory/risk rejections, and CI includes a backtest-order-stream replay check against the paper broker on sample data.
  • Broader safety controls, parity checks, and auditability still remain prerequisites before any real-money workflow should be trusted.

Options workflow

  • The gb-options crate now has one documented end-to-end engine path: an experimental covered-call workflow that buys 100 shares, prices a short call with Black-Scholes greeks, and records option lifecycle events in Rust/Python/API result payloads.
  • Broader multi-leg options accounting, mark-to-market liability treatment, and richer exercise/assignment flows are still incomplete.
  • Use options support as an experimental surface until the documented engine/accounting path is broader than the current covered-call slice.

How to use this page

  • Start with the Getting Started quickstart to verify your checkout.
  • Use the Examples and tutorials as the source of truth for currently exercised workflows.
  • Check the Roadmap before planning around a feature that sits near one of the boundaries above.