Fixed where it matters. Free where it pays.

The four rails

Gate ladder, tier model, throttle authority, audit trail.

The gate ladder converts drawdown from equity peak high into one of seven capital states, deterministically. The seven-tier model sets deployment intensity within whichever gate is active, expressed as pool budgets and per-trade risk. Throttle authority makes the final deployment call, resized around open exposure every cycle. The audit trail makes all three reviewable after the fact through decision logs, evidence packets, and the quality workflow.

• The gate ladder answers what state the account is in.
• The tier model answers how much that state permits.
• The throttle answers how much of the permitted amount to actually deploy right now.
• The audit trail answers whether any of it was followed.

Protecting the gains, not just the deposit

Drawdown is measured from the peak, which changes what is being defended.

Measuring from equity peak high rather than from starting capital means the ladder defends accumulated profit with the same seriousness as the original stake. An account up substantially for the year and eight percent off its peak is in Recovery, and it is treated as such. Measuring from the deposit instead would leave a good year's gains completely undefended right up until they were gone.