Researching better decisions under pressure.
We are investigating whether real-time cognitive support can help humans make better decisions in high-stakes moments — not by replacing human judgment, but by providing timely intervention when cognitive drift begins.
Research Origins
The research question emerged from a common observation in trading: the moment when a trader knows, at some level, that a decision is suboptimal — yet proceeds anyway.
Post-hoc analysis reveals the warning signs were present — behavioral changes, hesitation patterns, physiological markers. The conscious mind recognized the problem only after the decision was executed.
This led to a foundational research question: Can technology detect these pre-conscious signals and deliver an intervention before the decision crosses the threshold from intention to action?
That question initiated this research program.
What we're building
TradeUpCoach is a real-time cognitive support system. It watches your trading session, learns your patterns, and intervenes when it detects you're drifting toward a mistake.
But underneath TradeUpCoach is something bigger: a cognitive operating system we call CognitiveOS. It's designed to understand human decision-making in real time, across multiple data streams, and provide support at the moment it's needed most.
Trading is our starting point. The principles we're developing apply anywhere humans make high-stakes decisions under pressure.
Research Principles
Human-centered design
The system is designed to augment human decision-making, not replace it. Final authority remains with the user. The intervention's role is to prompt reflection, not to direct action.
Preemptive intervention
Current tools provide retrospective analysis — what went wrong and why. Our research focuses on whether real-time detection and intervention can prevent errors before they occur.
Privacy by design
Cognitive and behavioral data is sensitive. The system will process data locally where possible. Cloud-transmitted data will be encrypted and never shared with third parties.
Evidence-based development
The system design is grounded in peer-reviewed research from cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and human factors engineering. We will validate effectiveness through controlled study, not intuition.
Long-Term Research Vision
The current research focuses on trading as an initial domain. However, the underlying methodology — real-time cognitive state estimation and targeted intervention — may generalize broadly.
Potential future applications include surgical decision support, aviation crew resource management, emergency response coordination, and other domains where humans make consequential decisions under time pressure.
We hypothesize that real-time cognitive support will become as standard as other safety-critical systems. This research program aims to establish the foundational methodology.
Interested in this research?
We are currently in Phase 0 and recruiting research participants. We welcome inquiries from traders and researchers.