Evidence-Based Investing for Everyone.
Validation, not hope.
AI gives individual investors professional research tools and knowledge. What’s often missing is context and knowing the right questions.
Our free course, Evidence-Based Investing for Everyone, teaches you how to build rigorously tested strategies from the ground up inside QuantConnect (free account). No programming required.
Built for any investor who wants to use AI to develop systematic, evidence-based investment strategies.
Evidence-Based Investing for Everyone
A beginner’s course for systematic quantitative investing
Five chapters take you from the basics of return and risk, through backtesting and the major families of strategies, to the validation process that decides whether a strategy is real. The course ends where a strategy meets your own constraints and goes to paper trading — every concept explained before it is used.
Course Content
Chapter 16 unitsMeasuring Return and Risk
The two numbers behind every investment
This chapter introduces measures used to describe how an investment has performed — measures like return, risk, correlation and the Sharpe ratio. Each one is explained and then calculated on real market data and real strategies. This lays the foundation for the chapters that follow.
Show the 6 unitsHide the units
Measuring Return and Risk
The two numbers behind every investment
This chapter introduces measures used to describe how an investment has performed — measures like return, risk, correlation and the Sharpe ratio. Each one is explained and then calculated on real market data and real strategies. This lays the foundation for the chapters that follow.
Show the 6 unitsHide the unitsCompounding — How returns build on themselves over time
AI and Backtest Engines — Work with the tools professionals use
Measuring Return — How to measure what an investment earns
Risk Management — The most important skill to develop
Correlation — The power of teamwork
The Sharpe Ratio — Are we getting paid for the risk we take?
Chapter 24 unitsBacktesting Strategies
Test your ideas before you trust them
A backtest applies a set of trading rules to historical data and reports what the result would have been. In this chapter you run backtests in QuantConnect and work through the mechanics that shape the result, such as order types, the bid-ask spread, dividends and trading costs. A backtest ends in a results page where each number answers a specific question, and the chapter works through what those questions are.
Show the 4 unitsHide the units
Backtesting Strategies
Test your ideas before you trust them
A backtest applies a set of trading rules to historical data and reports what the result would have been. In this chapter you run backtests in QuantConnect and work through the mechanics that shape the result, such as order types, the bid-ask spread, dividends and trading costs. A backtest ends in a results page where each number answers a specific question, and the chapter works through what those questions are.
Show the 4 unitsHide the unitsBacktesting — A time machine for your ideas
Market Mechanics — How buying actually works
Momentum Strategies — A deeper dive
Backtest Results — What question each number answers
Chapter 36 unitsThe Universe of Strategies
Every major family, on one map
Most published strategies belong to one of a small number of families. This chapter covers them one at a time — trend and momentum, mean reversion and value, quality and low volatility, carry and income, asset allocation, and market regimes — each illustrated with real examples. It also states which families the course does not cover, and the reason in each case.
Show the 6 unitsHide the units
The Universe of Strategies
Every major family, on one map
Most published strategies belong to one of a small number of families. This chapter covers them one at a time — trend and momentum, mean reversion and value, quality and low volatility, carry and income, asset allocation, and market regimes — each illustrated with real examples. It also states which families the course does not cover, and the reason in each case.
Show the 6 unitsHide the unitsTrend and Momentum — The strategies that follow strength
Mean Reversion and Value — The strategies that buy weakness
Quality and Low Volatility — The strategies that win by losing less
Carry and Income — The strategies that get paid to wait
Asset Allocation — The strategies that own a little of everything
Market Regimes — Why markets have seasons
Chapter 47 unitsStrategy Validation
The backtest is just the beginning
A backtest describes how a strategy performed over one historical period. Whether that performance reflects a real edge is a separate question, and this chapter is about answering it: thirteen tests arranged in four ordered levels. Each level is demonstrated on real strategies, and the chapter ends with you running the full examination on a strategy of your own.
Show the 7 unitsHide the units
Strategy Validation
The backtest is just the beginning
A backtest describes how a strategy performed over one historical period. Whether that performance reflects a real edge is a separate question, and this chapter is about answering it: thirteen tests arranged in four ordered levels. Each level is demonstrated on real strategies, and the chapter ends with you running the full examination on a strategy of your own.
Show the 7 unitsHide the unitsThe Benchmark — Why beating the market is hard
The QSL Strategy Validation Process — Thirteen questions to ask before you trust a backtest
Level 1: Validity — Three tests: is this result measurable at all?
Level 2: Edge — Three tests: is there a real edge here?
Level 3: Quality — Four tests: how good is the edge, and is it the strategy’s own?
Level 4: Overfitting — Three tests: did we find an edge, or invent one?
The Research Process — Your own strategy, from first idea to final verdict
Chapter 54 unitsFrom Validation to Paper Trading
What it takes to actually run one
A strategy that has passed validation still has to fit the person running it — their capital, time, risk tolerance and other constraints. The units here cover those constraints, how to combine strategies into an ensemble, what to monitor once one is running on paper, and how to set stopping conditions in advance. The course ends at paper trading; running a strategy with real money is treated as what comes after it.
Show the 4 unitsHide the units
From Validation to Paper Trading
What it takes to actually run one
A strategy that has passed validation still has to fit the person running it — their capital, time, risk tolerance and other constraints. The units here cover those constraints, how to combine strategies into an ensemble, what to monitor once one is running on paper, and how to set stopping conditions in advance. The course ends at paper trading; running a strategy with real money is treated as what comes after it.
Show the 4 unitsHide the unitsYour Constraints — What you can actually run
Creating an Ensemble — Combining strategies, and how much to put in each
Monitoring — What to watch, and when to worry
The Kill Rule — Knowing when to stop, decided in advance
Every skydive is preceded by a gear check. Strategy Validation is the same discipline.
Strategy Validation
Learn how to validate a strategy backtest by using a repeatable testing process and produce your own comprehensive Strategy Report.
See the full validation processSpecimen — QSL Strategy Report
13 tests
Every strategy carries its test record.
L1Validity of the testpass
L2Existence of the edgepass
L3Quality and durability of the edgefail
L4Overfitting controlsfail
A Strategy Report states, for one strategy, which tests it passed and which it failed. The course ends with you producing your own.
Built by former institutional equity derivatives professionals.
QS Lab was built by former institutional equity derivatives professionals who spent over 40 years at JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Nomura, Morgan Stanley and other major financial institutions, advising institutional clients, investment funds and family offices on risk management.
Marcus and Martin met at JPMorgan in 1999, working together in the Equity Derivatives division. Within their first year they executed one of the largest equity derivatives transactions in Europe that year. Many more followed.
Marcus Di PrimaManaging Director
JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Mediobanca, Commerz Financial Products & Zurich Insurance Group. 20+ years in institutional equity derivatives with a passion for flying, sailing, skydiving, kitesurfing, landscapes and trading.
Martin BertschManaging Director
Nomura, Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley. 20+ years of experience in equity and fixed income derivatives, with a passion for travelling, hiking, and photography.
What they discovered early: complementary skills and a shared focus produce better results than either person working alone. That principle has shaped everything they have built since.
Both retired from institutional finance at an early age. For most of their careers, working inside investment banking meant being restricted from making investment decisions in their own accounts — a standard condition for anyone operating close to material non-public information. When they left, that constraint lifted. They began building their own quantitative investment infrastructure from scratch.
QS Lab grew from that experience. The tools, frameworks, and validation processes that institutional investors use to evaluate strategies are not complicated — but they have always been inaccessible. Recent advances in technology and AI have changed that. Every serious investor can now work with the same rigour that professionals apply, with the right guidance.
This is our passion — and we want to share it with you.
With the right tools and guidance, you can go further than you’d expect.
Common questions.
What people ask before they join. Anything else, email contact@quantstrategylab.com.
Is the course really free?
Yes. The course is free and self-paced, and you work inside QuantConnect on a free account. There is no paywall and no card required.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. The course requires no programming and no prior statistics. You work inside QuantConnect, a professional research platform, using its tools, and each idea is explained in plain English before it is used.
Who is the course for?
Any investor who wants to learn systematic, evidence-based strategies — from a complete beginner to an experienced independent investor. The material assumes no background and builds from the ground up.
When does the course open?
It is not open yet. Join the early-access list and we will email you the moment it opens.
What will I learn?
How to build an investment strategy and test it the way a professional would before trusting it — five chapters and twenty-seven units that move from the basics of return and risk to the validation process that decides whether a strategy is real.
What is QuantConnect?
A professional research and backtesting platform used by quantitative investors. The course teaches you to use it with a free account, so you learn on the same tools professionals use.
Do you sell trade signals or manage money?
No. QS Lab is education. We teach the methodology and the validation process; we do not sell signals or manage anyone’s money.