An experiment in what an agentic-AI research framework can do — published in full so you can check its work, not a tip service to follow. Generic research and education, not advice, not a personal recommendation, not FCA-authorised. Hypothetical book, not real money. Capital at risk.
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Disclosures & Risk

Please read this carefully. It explains what the Research Lab is, what it is not, and the risks involved.

In one line: the Research Lab is an experiment in what an agentic-AI research framework can do. It is generic research and education, published for transparency — not financial advice, not a personal recommendation, and not a tip service. It is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The book is hypothetical (notional money, no real trades). Capital is at risk.

What the Research Lab is

It is an open experiment: we are testing, in public, whether a disciplined, evidence-first process — run with AI agents, and held to one rule (a claim only counts if there is evidence it actually predicts returns) — can produce genuinely good, honest investment research. We publish it openly on purpose, because doing so forces rigour and accountability: every idea is kept on the record, win or lose, and scored over time. The point of the project is the framework and the track record of the framework, not any individual stock.

What it is not

  • Not advice. Nothing here is investment, financial, tax or legal advice.
  • Not a personal recommendation. Everything is generic and published to the world at large. Nothing is tailored to you, your circumstances, your objectives or your risk tolerance, and nothing should be read as a suggestion that you should buy, sell or hold anything.
  • Not a tip service or a signal service. The ideas exist to stress-test the framework, not to tell anyone what to trade.
  • Not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any investment, and not a financial promotion inviting you to invest.
  • Not regulated. Portfolio Lab is not authorised or regulated by the FCA and provides no regulated service.

The book is hypothetical — not real money

The "book" and any performance shown are hypothetical and forward-tracked: a notional £20,000 ISA in which ideas are held, with uninvested cash in short-dated gilts. New ideas are sized by conviction (a typical one ≈ £1,000); our first positions were equal-weight £1,000. A position's size is fixed when it is entered and never revised after the fact — so the record shows what we actually did, not a flattering rewrite. All recorded from the date of publication and marked in pounds for illustration. No real money is invested, no client money is involved, and no orders are ever placed. It is a way of keeping an honest, public score of how the framework's choices would have done — nothing more.

Capital is at risk

The value of investments, and any income from them, can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you put in. Past performance — and hypothetical performance — is not a reliable indicator of future results. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change. Investing in individual shares is higher-risk than a diversified fund.

Independence & conflicts of interest

We want to be straight about who is behind this and whether we have anything to gain:

  • The people behind the Research Lab also run a fully-automated, intraday, quantitative trading strategy that holds no single-name shares. It does not trade any of the companies covered here, so there is no overlap and no conflict between that activity and these ideas.
  • We hold no position in any of the companies we write about, and we do not deal ahead of, or alongside, anything we publish.
  • We are not paid by any company, broker or third party to cover or promote anything. No idea is sponsored. Hargreaves Lansdown is referenced only because the names are tradeable there; we are not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

It is produced with AI

The research is generated and assembled with AI agents. We work hard on accuracy and source everything we can, but it may contain errors, omissions or out-of-date figures. Always verify anything that matters to you against primary sources before relying on it.

How to read the ideas

Where a note shows a "conviction", an "entry", a "stop" or a "target", these are the framework's own recorded decisions for tracking purposes — the levels at which the experiment marks an idea as started, wrong, or finished. They are not instructions, targets or price predictions for you, and they take no account of your situation.

Do your own research

Make your own decisions and, if you are unsure, seek advice from a financial adviser who is authorised and regulated by the FCA. Do not act on anything here without doing your own work.

This is a plain-English summary of how the Research Lab works, and we keep it under review. Nothing here removes legal protections you're entitled to.