Directors

For directors

For whoever signs off: the CEO, CIO, COO or head of trading.

This page alone answers five questions: how long it takes to implement, what it costs, what it saves, how it protects the firm, and why it is needed. Every line repeats a claim made elsewhere on the site.

What it does

DojiPad checks each trading plan against your firm's actual limits before the order is placed. It predicts limit breaches, and it checks its own predictions against what the trader does next. Every decision is kept in an audit trail, and the audit log and acknowledgements are append-only. It runs fully locked down in your firm's own cloud account, set up by your own administrator. Nothing in it can send data out except to the Microsoft services it runs on, and we never hold your keys or have access to it.

What DojiPad is, in detail →
What it's worth

94 bps a year¹

The estimated cost of unmanaged bias. The pilot measures five things on your desk. Measuring recovered basis points needs the execution feed, which is on the roadmap.

¹ Essentia Analytics client research, 2020. Full sourcing is in Exhibit A.

Will it pay for itself? →
How it differs

Your order system checks orders, surveillance reviews trades, and behavioral analytics review decisions after the fact. DojiPad checks the decision at the plan, before the order, against your limits. It replaces none of them.

See the side-by-side comparison →

What it costs
The platform is $40,000 a year per environment. Each trader seat is $10,000 a year. Oversight seats are unlimited, at no charge. They cover risk, compliance, desk heads and auditors. A six-seat desk costs $100,000 a year. Running costs: about $200 a month on your Microsoft cloud bill, plus the AI service's usage, which depends on how much the desk uses DJ, DojiPad's AI coach. See pricing →
How long it takes

Setup first, then 30 days from go-live.

First, your administrator installs DojiPad in your own cloud account, with our guidance, and it is set up with your actual limits, on one desk. The pilot starts the day the desk is live.

Setup takes one to two weeks after your firm's approvals; then a 30-day pilot from go-live. Your side: one administrator, one risk or compliance owner, and the desk's traders. Nothing connects to your order systems, and nothing is installed on traders' computers.

  1. ApprovalsYour timeline
  2. SetupOne to two weeks
  3. Go-liveThe pilot clock starts
  4. 30-day pilotCounted from go-live
  5. DecisionAgainst the criteria agreed at kickoff
Setup is not part of the 30 days.

On this page

  1. 1 Product overview What DojiPad is, on one screen. →
  2. 2 Protection and why it is needed How DojiPad protects the firm, why it is needed, and why firms deploy it. →
  3. 3 Risks it reduces Limit breaches, the record, your data and your order flow. →
  4. 4 How it differs DojiPad compared with the nearest alternative, named. →
  5. 5 Cost Platform, trader seats, unlimited free oversight seats and running costs, with the totals worked out. →
  6. 6 How long it takes Setup after your approvals, then the pilot from go-live. →
  7. 7 Will it pay for itself? How much capital a trader would need to manage for the licence to pay for itself. →
  8. 8 Why a record before the order matters Three exhibits from the research behind this product. →
  9. 9 The pilot One desk, from go-live, credited in full to year one. →
  10. 10 Who builds it The company behind DojiPad, and how support works. →
  11. → Pilot Thirty days from go-live, on one desk, in your own cloud account. The fee is credited in full when you subscribe. →
  12. → Request a briefing DojiPad running live on a simulated firm. We show it first from the list of limit breaches, then from the trader's side. →

Directors · Product overview

What DojiPad is

II.

What it does

CHECKING PLANS AGAINST YOUR LIMITS
Your firm's limits are read in, set up, switched on and kept in versions. DojiPad refuses to guess.
BREACH PREDICTION
A prediction made over the life of each plan, checked against what the trader actually does next.
AUDIT TRAIL
Every limit breach, every acknowledgement, the daily sign-offs, and stamped PDFs. The audit log and acknowledgements are append-only.
DESK OVERVIEW AND ANALYTICS
For each trader: open flags, the worst breach as a multiple of the limit, and the latest plans. Every card states the time period it covers.
III.

What it does not do

DojiPad sees everything and blocks nothing. It has no way to route or block an order.

IV.

Where it runs

DojiPad is easy to deploy. It runs fully locked down in your firm's own cloud account, set up by your own administrator, and it has no access to your trading flow. The technical detail is on the technology page.

V.

Eight screens, one list of breaches

Limit breaches, Breach prediction, Audit trail, Daily sign-offs, Analytics, Desk overview, Deviation, Your firm's limits.

Protection and why it is needed

Protection
Every plan is checked against your firm's limits while it is still a plan, before the order is placed. When the trader commits a plan, confirming it as the plan of record, it is recorded in an audit trail. So is every limit breach found with it, and each acknowledgement. The audit log and acknowledgements are append-only. Your officers read the breaches on the list of limit breaches. DojiPad sees everything and blocks nothing. It has no way to route or block an order.
Why it is needed
Every control you run today (order checks, surveillance, P&L review) acts when the order is entered or after the trade. The decision is made before both. Until now, nothing worked at that point.

Risks it reduces

  • Limit breaches caught at the plan, before capital moves.
  • A record of every decision for compliance and audit: what was planned, what was flagged, who reviewed it and when.
  • We never hold your trade data: DojiPad runs in your firm's own cloud account. Nothing in your deployment calls back to ARQNXS.
  • No new point of failure in your order flow: it never touches an order.

The four benefits in full

The documented cost of unmanaged trading bias. The desk overview shows the open flags and the worst multiple for each trader. 94 bps a year¹ THE DOCUMENTED COST OF UNMANAGED BIAS open flags 2 worst multiple open flags 1 worst multiple open flags 0 worst multiple open flags 4 worst multiple open flags 3 worst multiple open flags 1 worst multiple Where the cost arises, for each trader, desk by desk.

Cost of trading bias

Unmanaged trading bias has a documented cost: an estimated 94 bps a year¹. The desk overview and analytics show where that cost arises. They show the open flags and the worst multiple for each trader, desk by desk. The worst multiple is how far the largest breach went past its limit. The list of limit breaches is grouped by type of limit.

¹ Essentia Analytics client research, 2020. Full sourcing in Exhibit A.

See it in the product →
The decision timeline: plan stated, limit check, order entry, execution, review. The controls you already run act at order entry and review. The check against your firm's limits comes before both. THE DECISION TIMELINE Plan stated Limit check Order entry Execution Review existing controls act here before both Checked while it is still a plan, before the order exists.

Limit checks before the order

Every plan is checked against your firm's limits while it is still a plan, before the order exists. The check does not wait for order entry, or for a review after the fact.

See it in the product →
The audit trail: committed plan, limit check, limit breach, acknowledgement, each with a time stamp, ending at the daily sign-off. The audit log and acknowledgements are append-only. ADD-ONLY AUDIT TRAIL Committed plan 09:41:07 Limit check 09:41:08 Limit breach 09:41:08 Acknowledgement 11:02:35 daily sign-off edit remove audit log and acknowledgements: append-only

Audit trail

Every committed plan is recorded in an audit trail. A committed plan is one the trader has confirmed as the plan of record. Every limit breach found with it is recorded too, and each acknowledgement. The record starts with the plan, before any order reaches your order system. The audit log and acknowledgements are append-only: DojiPad can add to them but can't change them. Plans and their limit checks can still be edited, and anyone with the database password can change any record, so database access belongs under your firm's controls.

See it in the product →
Today, the decision is reconstructed from holdings data months later. With DojiPad, the committed plan and the limit breach reach the list of limit breaches at order entry. TODAY Holdings data months later Reconstruct the decision WITH DOJIPAD Committed plan + limit breach, with the figure List of limit breaches Plan stated Order entry months later

Risk and compliance see it earlier

Risk and compliance officers see committed plans and limit breaches before the order is entered, with the figure attached. They read them on the list of limit breaches. Without DojiPad, they reconstruct the decision from holdings data, months later.

See it in the product →

Compare

How DojiPad compares with Essentia Analytics

One firm works closest to this space. It deserves to be named, not hinted at.

I.

Side by side on seven points

Seven points of comparison, with the disclaimer the comparison has always carried.

THE CLOSEST COMPARABLE PRODUCTSEVEN POINTS OF COMPARISON
DOJIPAD INSTITUTIONAL
ESSENTIA ANALYTICS
Where it acts
Before the order, while the position is still a plan
After the fact. Decision patterns reconstructed from holdings and trade history
What it needs
Committed plans, kept inside your firm's own cloud account
Portfolio and trading data shared with a vendor hosted platform
Predictions
A breach prediction at each committed plan, scored against the next plan. Scoring against executions needs the execution feed
Nudges and insights derived from historical pattern analysis
When behavior changes
In the session, while the decision is still open
In review, after the cost is incurred
Privacy model
Two separate sides. The coaching conversation never reaches the firm
Analytics visible to the firm by design
Checks against your firm's limits
Every plan checked against your firm's actual limits while it is being planned
Not a control on the firm's limits
Record
An audit trail: limit breaches, acknowledgements, daily sign-offs and stamped PDFs, with the audit log and acknowledgements append-only
Reports and dashboards

Essentia established the category: behavioral analytics for professional investors. It also established the published evidence that behavior at the level of each decision carries a measurable cost. We consider that work foundational. Our characterizations of Essentia are based on publicly available product descriptions as of September 2026. Retail trading journals and coaching apps are not compared here. None of them run inside a firm's own cloud account, hold the firm's limits, or produce oversight records.

DojiPad is easy to deploy and has no access to your trading flow. It runs as a private copy in your own cloud account. Read how it is deployed on the technology page →

III.

What the comparison shows

IN SHORT

The difference is in how the two are built, not a matter of degree. Essentia analyzes decisions after they are made, from data that leaves the firm. DojiPad Institutional checks decisions while they are being made, from inside your firm. One gives you a quarterly look in the mirror. The other is an instrument in the cockpit. A desk can reasonably run both. Only one of them is there while the plan can still change.

Request a briefing How it works

Will it pay for itself?

Unmanaged bias costs discretionary managers an estimated 94 bps a year.¹ The table shows how much capital a trader would need to manage for the licence to pay for itself, if DojiPad helped recover part of that cost.

Share of the 94 bps recovered Capital per trader to cover one seat ($10,000) Capital per trader, six-trader desk including the platform fee ($100,000)
100%$1.1m$1.8m
25%$4.3m$7.1m
10%$10.6m$17.7m

Illustrative arithmetic on a published industry figure, not a forecast of results. The 94 bps is the size of the problem, not a promised return. Licence only: Azure running costs (about $2,400 a year, plus Azure OpenAI usage) are extra. Below about $1.1m per trader, a seat doesn't pay for itself even at the full figure.

¹ Essentia Analytics client research, 2020. Full sourcing in Exhibit A.

Why a record before the order matters

Pre-trade compliance checks coded limits once an order exists. Surveillance reviews executions and communications after the fact. Retrospective analytics rebuild decision quality from holdings data, months later. Each one is necessary. Each one misses the same thing: the plan, the reasoning, and the sizing logic. All of that formed before any order was placed. Below are three exhibits from the research behind this product.

FROM OUR RESEARCHYEARLY COST OF UNSEEN TRADING BEHAVIOR
94BPSPER YEAR. The average excess return Essentia Analytics reports finding for its clients. That return had been lost to behavioral biases. The figure covers roughly $150B of assets under daily analysis.
$500M book
$4.7M / yr
$1B book
$9.4M / yr
$5B book
$47M / yr

The dollar figures apply the 94 bps to each book size. They are indicative only; the precise number differs by desk. The main point does not differ. These biases act while the trade is still a plan. That is exactly the stage the controls you already run cannot see. Every control your firm runs today acts after this cost is already incurred.

SOURCE · Essentia Analytics client research, stated publicly by CEO Clare Flynn Levy (Markets Media interview and company publications, August 2020). Essentia's decision analysis methodology is published in the peer reviewed Journal of Investing.

A / C

The pilot

$10,000 for one desk, 30 days from go-live, credited in full to year one. The success criteria are agreed at kickoff.

Read the pilot terms →

Who builds it

ARQNXS is founder-led and backed by private angel investors. Support comes directly from the founder, at any hour, with a response within one hour.

About ARQNXS →