Intraday Flow-Momentum, first-30m predicts last-30m (probe): a killed candidate
Verdict: KILLED Stage: screen prototype
Identity: intraday_mom
The twice-JFE-documented effect (Gao-Han-Li-Zhou) is fully DECAYED post-publication on SPY/QQQ/IWM: dead-zero in 2023-2026, and significantly INVERTED in 2020-2022 (a textbook publish-then-arbitrage overshoot). The only statistically-alive cell (TLT overnight, t=2.9) makes +1.2 bps/day gross against a >=2bp round-trip — a mirage economically. KILLED at screen.
Why it was worth testing
This died at the screen stage, before a full walk-forward was ever run. Screening exists so that ideas which cannot clear a coarse, cost-aware bar do not consume the far more expensive machinery behind it. A screen kill is a cheap kill, and it is published for the same reason as an expensive one: the trial was still spent, and it still raises the evidence bar for everything already in the book.
The result
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Screen net Sharpe | not separately measured |
What this does and does not say
It says this configuration, on this data, net of the costs we charge, did not clear the bar it pre-registered. It does not say the underlying economic effect does not exist, that no implementation of it works, or that someone with different data or different execution would reach the same conclusion. A null is evidence about a test, not a proof about a market.
It also does not say the trial was free. Every hypothesis tested raises the deflated-Sharpe hurdle for every sleeve already in the book, including the ones that survived. That is why the kill count is published beside the survivor count rather than behind it.