The Keator Capital Resources Center brings together research notes, trading education, recommended reading, and practical tools for understanding market structure, options risk, volatility, and signal-based decision making. Our goal is to help traders think more clearly, manage risk more intelligently, and understand the market as a layered signal environment rather than a simple price chart.
Most traders focus on whether a trade wins or loses. In fast-moving 0DTE markets, the path matters just as much as the final result. Touch risk measures whether the short strike is threatened before the trade reaches its profit target. This concept is central to how Keator Capital evaluates low-stress trade quality.
A curated library of books and research themes that shaped our approach to options, market structure, volatility, quantitative trading, signal processing, and disciplined decision-making.
Foundational material for understanding options pricing, implied volatility, Greeks, spread construction, and the behavior of defined-risk strategies.
Resources focused on systematic research, data-driven trading, backtesting, model validation, and the discipline required to separate durable edge from curve fitting.
Markets are noisy systems. These resources explore probability, uncertainty, pattern recognition, and the challenge of making clear decisions from imperfect data.
Long-term survival depends on risk control, emotional discipline, position sizing, and the ability to avoid unnecessary trades when conditions are unclear.
Plain-English explanations of the core ideas behind options trading, market structure, volatility, and defined-risk strategy design.
A defined-risk options strategy that sells one option and buys another farther out of the money. Credit spreads allow traders to define risk, collect premium, and structure trades around probability and expected movement.
0DTE options expire the same day they are traded. They offer fast opportunity but require strict risk control, precise timing, and a deep understanding of touch risk, volatility, and intraday path behavior.
Delta helps estimate how sensitive an option is to movement in the underlying asset. In our research, delta is also used as a practical way to select short strikes and control touch risk.
A trade can eventually win and still become stressful if the short strike is touched before profit. Keator Capital focuses heavily on touch-before-profit risk because path matters, especially in 0DTE trading.
SPX does not move in isolation. Sector participation, QQQ and XLK leadership, IWM and RSP breadth, HYG/LQD credit behavior, and VIX movement all help reveal whether a market move is supported or fragile.
When SPX rises while VIX also rises, the market may be sending a warning. This type of divergence can signal hidden stress, reversal risk, or weakening confidence beneath the surface.
A pivot is more than a local high or low. It is a transition in market energy where price, volatility, breadth, and structure begin to shift. Identifying high-quality pivots is central to our research.
Defined-risk strategies allow traders to know their maximum loss before entering a position. This supports disciplined sizing, cleaner risk management, and more consistent decision-making.
A look inside the research themes behind AlphaQuant, our signal-processing and market-structure engine. These notes explain the concepts behind the system without exposing proprietary implementation details.
The AlphaQuant engine uses Fast Fourier Transform concepts to study market movement as a signal field. By separating meaningful frequency behavior from background noise, the system helps identify where directional pressure may be shifting.
Markets rarely move in straight lines. They impulse, retrace, continue, fail, and reset. Our wave-structure research focuses on identifying when a pullback may be a healthy retracement and when a pivot may be preparing for continuation.
The breadth layer studies whether the broader market is confirming or contradicting SPX movement. Sector ETFs, technology leadership, credit-sensitive assets, broad-market participation, and volatility behavior are all part of the alignment map.
Volatility often reveals stress before price fully responds. VIX movement, volatility expansion, and SPX/VIX divergence are studied as warning signals for reversals, failed pivots, and risk-off transitions.
In 0DTE trading, it is not enough to know whether a trade eventually wins. The path matters. AlphaQuant studies whether a short strike is likely to be touched before the profit target is reached.
The machine-learning layer is designed to learn from historical pivot events, volatility conditions, breadth signals, spread structure, and trade outcomes. Its goal is to help classify trade quality, side selection, risk level, and no-trade conditions.
Structured learning paths for traders who want to understand options, market structure, signal-based analysis, and disciplined risk management.
Start with the basics: calls, puts, credit spreads, risk-defined trades, delta, expiration, position sizing, and why risk control matters more than prediction.
Learn how intraday structure, volatility, opening range behavior, market breadth, and pivot quality affect short-duration options trades.
Explore the research concepts behind signal processing, FFT analysis, wave-state modeling, breadth confirmation, and machine-learning-assisted trade selection.
Practical resources designed to help traders prepare, size, track, and review their trades with more discipline.
A structured checklist for reviewing SPX, VIX, QQQ, sector breadth, volatility behavior, and morning pivot conditions before considering a trade.
Coming SoonEstimate max risk, target profit, return on risk, contract count, and position sizing for defined-risk options spreads.
Coming SoonTrack entry reason, pivot structure, delta, spread width, profit target, stop, hold time, touch risk, and emotional quality of the trade.
Coming SoonA guide to interpreting SPY, QQQ, XLK, IWM, RSP, HYG, LQD, VIX, and sector ETF alignment as part of a broader market read.
Coming SoonA plain-English reference for options terms including delta, theta, gamma, IV, skew, credit spread, expiration, touch risk, and defined risk.
Coming SoonA practical worksheet for defining account risk, trade size, daily limits, and when to reduce size or skip trades entirely.
Coming SoonTechnology does not remove risk. Keator Capital's research is built around the belief that risk must be measured, respected, and controlled before any trade is considered.
Not every market condition deserves a trade. A disciplined system must know when opportunity is present and when uncertainty is too high.
A spread can still be profitable even after stress, but automation requires cleaner behavior. We study whether the short strike is touched before the trade reaches its profit target.
Backtests that ignore fill quality can look far better than real execution. Our research compares natural pricing, mid pricing, and realistic fill assumptions.
The same trade can be responsible or reckless depending on size. Position sizing determines whether a strategy survives normal losing streaks and volatility shocks.
A strong backtest is not proof of future performance. It is a research tool. We test out-of-sample behavior, slippage, drawdown, touch risk, and failure conditions.
Keator Capital focuses on defined-risk structures because the first job of any trading system is survival. Growth comes after risk is controlled.
The information provided in the Keator Capital Resources Center is for educational and research purposes only. It is not financial advice, investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, option, or financial instrument. Options trading involves substantial risk and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance, backtested results, research examples, or hypothetical models do not guarantee future results. Always evaluate risk carefully and consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions.