> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.questflow.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.questflow.ai/financial-harness/signal-thesis-execution.md).

# Signal → Thesis → Execution

**Short answer:** Signal → Thesis → Execution is the trading loop that maps to a coding agent’s Explore → Plan → Implement. A signal is not a trade. A thesis is not a vibe. Execution is not “the bot fired.” Questflow’s financial harness is built to keep those three stages separate and reviewable.

## The three stages

**Signal.** Something changed: funding, a probability, a wallet, a level, a manager action. Signals are cheap. Acting on every signal is how accounts die.

**Thesis.** Why this matters, what you will do if it continues, what proves it wrong, how large, how long. This is judgment. On Questflow it comes from a fund manager’s distilled framework, not from a one-line prompt.

**Execution.** Venue, size, order type, permissions, kill switch. Deterministic hooks fire here — like a coding agent’s hooks before `rm -rf`. Afterward: verification (slippage, fill, did the thesis still hold).

## Why chat UIs skip the middle

Most “AI trading” products jump from signal to ticket. Missing thesis is how you get revenge trades with a friendly UI. A harness should refuse to execute without an explicit thesis and invalidation — or at least surface that they are missing.

## Where Funds fit

A Fund is a packaged thesis machine: the manager’s loop, running as an AI Agent, that you can follow with your own execution constraints.

Related: What is an agentic trading harness? · What is invest.md?

*Nothing here is financial advice.*