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Quantitative Research, Data and Backtesting / Labels and Validation Design

Purging and Embargoes

A training trade ending on Friday and a test trade beginning on Thursday can share the same price shock. Putting their starting dates in different folds does not separate their outcome information. Purging removes such overlaps; embargoes provide an additional exclusion after a test interval when later training observations may remain too closely connected. This lesson translates the time-ordered design into interval rules and an auditable split ledger.
Learning objectives. By the end of this note you should be able to:
  • identify all overlap configurations, including interval containment;
  • implement purging with an explicit endpoint convention;
  • explain when a post-test embargo has a role;
  • justify an embargo from the information process rather than a universal percentage;
  • distinguish leakage control from independent evidence and selection control.

In this lesson

  1. Purge information intervals
  2. A split that defeats a start-date check
  3. Add an embargo for post-test training
  4. Choose the embargo from the information process
  5. What these controls cannot repair
  6. Keep an exclusion ledger

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