Quantitative equity research

Original research at the
1-day to 30-day horizon.

The information gap between high-frequency execution and fundamental analysis. Too slow for systematic flow desks. Too fast for sell-side coverage. Underserved by institutions — and where Unfair publishes.

Notes synthesize SEC filings, insider transactions, congressional disclosures, credit spreads, options flow, dark-pool prints, and short-interest velocity into structured event-driven and breakout research. Methodology is transparent; backtests are walk-forward; analysis is single-author.

Latest research

2026-05-13
CSCO chart preview
CSCOearnings · event-driven

Q3 FY2026 earnings refresh — beat, raise, restructure

Record $15.8B revenue (+12% YoY), Networking +25%, AI orders FY26 raised $5B → $9B. Same-day restructuring of <5% of workforce framed as capital reallocation into silicon, optics, security, and AI. AH +14.9%. Triple-pass sentiment analysis on the unedited call transcript.

Read note →

Research index

19 published notes
APP chart
APP2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Extreme call skew with above-average premium concentration. 5-hypothesis ranking (momentum / pre-earnings / dealer hedging / informed / MNPI).

options-spikeevent-driven
ETN chart
ETN2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Industrial-electrification name with anomalous options positioning. Pre-earnings vs informed-flow framework applied.

options-spikeevent-driven
GEV chart
GEV2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

GE Vernova call premium spike against the power-generation backdrop. Hypothesis discrimination by signal magnitude.

options-spikeevent-driven
HAL chart
HAL2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Halliburton unusual options activity ahead of energy-services cycle commentary. Flow-quality scoring layered on top.

options-spikeevent-driven
IRM chart
IRM2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Iron Mountain — REIT with elevated put/call skew. Distinguishing routine pre-earnings hedging from directional positioning.

options-spikeevent-driven
MGM chart
MGM2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

MGM Resorts — anomalous near-dated options interest. Consumer-discretionary positioning frame.

options-spikeevent-driven
NTRS chart
NTRS2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Northern Trust — financials-name with elevated call flow against the rate-sensitivity context.

options-spikeevent-driven
SMCI chart
SMCI2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Super Micro — extreme call skew against the AI-server narrative. Informed-flow vs momentum-chasing discrimination.

options-spikeevent-driven
TSCO chart
TSCO2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Tractor Supply — call premium concentration in a rural-retail name. Hypothesis: pre-earnings drift or sector rotation read.

options-spikeevent-driven
WBD chart
WBD2026-04-24

Options-spike signal triage

Warner Bros. Discovery — media-name elevated activity. Per-entity baseline calibration applied to filter ambient market state.

options-spikeevent-driven
ACN chart
ACN2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Accenture — services-name with concentrated call premium ahead of consulting-sector commentary. First in the options-spike series.

options-spikeevent-driven
COST chart
COST2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Costco — defensive consumer-staples name with anomalous options interest. Routine pre-earnings vs informed-flow framing.

options-spikeevent-driven
DHR chart
DHR2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Danaher — life-sciences exposure with elevated near-dated options activity. Distinguishing macro-rotation drivers from name-specific signal.

options-spikeevent-driven
DOW chart
DOW2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Dow Inc. — chemicals with put/call skew. Cyclical-pricing read layered on top of options-flow signal.

options-spikeevent-driven
LYV chart
LYV2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Live Nation — entertainment with anomalous call interest. Tour-season seasonality vs informed-flow hypothesis.

options-spikeevent-driven
WMT chart
WMT2026-04-23

Options-spike signal triage

Walmart — defensive consumer-discretionary with elevated options interest. Consumer-spending read against the macro backdrop.

options-spikeevent-driven
ANET / FTNT chart
ANET / FTNT2026-04-22

Q1 inversion — networking vs security

Comparative analysis. Arista Networks (networking) and Fortinet (security) printed inverted Q1 reactions despite shared AI-infrastructure-adjacent narratives. Cross-name signal-mix decomposition.

comparativeearnings
CSCO chart
CSCO2026-04-21

Breakout to 52W high

Pre-earnings technical breakout on rising volume. Combined signal-cache read (congressional + insider + institutional) framed the run-up. Proof-of-concept for the Unfair-branded research-note workflow.

breakout

Methodology

Notes are produced from a three-layer pipeline. Inputs are independent; synthesis is constrained. The same infrastructure runs every note.

Data layer

8 sources

Unusual Whales (options flow, dark pool, congressional, short interest, 13-F, ETF flows), Finnhub (analyst estimates, earnings), FRED (credit spreads, treasury, VIX), SEC EDGAR (Form 4, 8-K, XBRL), USAspending (government contracts), FINRA (short volume historicals), House Clerk + Senate EFD (PTR PDFs).

Signal layer

14 active signals

Each signal extends a common BaseSignal interface and outputs (direction, conviction, decay_rate). Combiner enforces macro-direction caps, per-signal contribution limits, correlation penalties, and a 0.15 dead-zone floor. Weights are SLSQP-optimized with L2 regularization and t-stat gating against a walk-forward 252-day in-sample window.

Research layer

PDF publication

Notes are matplotlib-charted, HTML-templated, Chrome-headless-rendered. Earnings call audio is captured live via yt-dlp and transcribed via Whisper-medium chunked. Transcripts feed an 8-pass analyzer (structure / Q&A directness / sentiment / forward-looking / numerical / hedging / mentions / FinGPT) before any narrative is written.

Backtest framing

Run 15-synced baseline: 14-year walk-forward, 8-signal long-only portfolio, half-Kelly sizing, 252-day in-sample / 21-day out-of-sample windows. OOS Sharpe 0.93, IS Sharpe 2.41, annual return 16.3%, max drawdown 28.9%, alpha 2.77. Conviction-threshold lock at 0.30. Survivorship-bias-free universe via historical S&P 500 constituent membership. Combiner guards documented; deactivated signals (volatility_regime, macro_regime) excluded from weight allocation. Live system runs the same combiner math as the backtester.

About

Unfair is a single-author quantitative equity research publication. Notes are published as PDFs and indexed here. All notes are free; there are no paywalls or tiered access.

The platform behind the notes is a 521-ticker signal pipeline with 14 active alpha generators, a constrained adaptive-weights combiner, and a Half-Kelly sizing framework with hard risk limits. The publication exists to make the analysis public and citable; the trading infrastructure remains private.

Notes are opinionated and cited. Every numerical claim traces to a primary source. Every signal reading reflects the platform's state at the timestamp noted. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and nothing published here is investment advice.

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