diff --git a/crates/ml/src/cuda_pipeline/gpu_dqn_trainer.rs b/crates/ml/src/cuda_pipeline/gpu_dqn_trainer.rs
index 0f1cd6e18..1da348cbb 100644
--- a/crates/ml/src/cuda_pipeline/gpu_dqn_trainer.rs
+++ b/crates/ml/src/cuda_pipeline/gpu_dqn_trainer.rs
@@ -986,7 +986,7 @@ impl GpuDqnTrainer {
             .map_err(|e| MLError::ModelError(format!("reset popart_count: {e}")))?;
 
         // Reset adaptive C51 z-support — fold 2's Q-scale may differ from fold 1.
-        unsafe { *self.v_range_pinned = -1e-4; *self.v_range_pinned.add(1) = 1e-4; }
+        unsafe { *self.v_range_pinned = -0.005; *self.v_range_pinned.add(1) = 0.005; }
 
         // Keep adaptive gradient clip EMA across folds — gradient scale is a property
         // of the model architecture and loss function, not the data window.
@@ -2480,7 +2480,7 @@ impl GpuDqnTrainer {
                 .map_err(|e| MLError::ModelError(format!("pinned v_range alloc: {e}")))?
                 as *mut f32
         };
-        unsafe { *v_range_pinned = -1e-4_f32; *v_range_pinned.add(1) = 1e-4_f32; }
+        unsafe { *v_range_pinned = -0.005_f32; *v_range_pinned.add(1) = 0.005_f32; }
         let v_range_dev_ptr = unsafe {
             let mut dev_ptr: u64 = 0;
             cudarc::driver::sys::cuMemHostGetDevicePointer_v2(
@@ -6465,8 +6465,24 @@ impl GpuDqnTrainer {
     /// - Mean-centered: no wasted atoms on impossible Q-values
     pub fn adapt_v_range(&mut self, q_mean: f32, q_variance: f32) -> bool {
         const SIGMA_COVERAGE: f32 = 3.0;
-        // Absolute floor prevents collapse to a point at init (Q-mean=0, Q-var=0).
-        const ABS_FLOOR: f32 = 1e-4;
+        // Reward-scale floor: v_range must cover at least the single-step
+        // Bellman shift magnitude. With reward std ~R and gamma, a single
+        // Bellman projection shifts atoms by ~R. If v_range < R, the projection
+        // clips to boundary atoms → near-zero gradient → Q-values can't grow
+        // (stable fixed point trap).
+        //
+        // The experience kernel's rewards are PopArt-normalized to ~unit variance
+        // BUT the Q-values we observe are in the raw logit scale (pre-PopArt).
+        // With smoketest rewards std ≈ 0.007 and gamma=0.95:
+        //   theoretical_q_range = R_std / (1-gamma) = 0.007/0.05 = 0.14
+        //   single_step_shift = R_std ≈ 0.007
+        //
+        // ABS_FLOOR = single-step reward magnitude ensures the Bellman projection
+        // can shift atoms by at least 1 reward unit. This breaks the fixed point.
+        // The 0.007 comes from typical per-bar PnL with tx costs.
+        // At production scale (H100), PopArt variance stabilizes and this floor
+        // rarely binds because Q-values grow much faster.
+        const REWARD_SCALE_FLOOR: f32 = 0.01; // conservative: slightly above typical R_std
 
         let q_std = (q_variance.max(0.0) + 1e-10).sqrt();
         let half_width = SIGMA_COVERAGE * q_std;
@@ -6476,10 +6492,10 @@ impl GpuDqnTrainer {
         let target_min = q_mean - total_half;
         let target_max = q_mean + total_half;
 
-        // Adaptive minimum range: 20% of |Q-mean| + absolute floor.
-        // Fixed MIN_RANGE=0.02 was 200× too wide when Q-values are 0.0001,
-        // wasting atoms and keeping entropy at 100%. Adaptive scales with Q-magnitude.
-        let adaptive_min = (q_mean.abs() * 0.2 + ABS_FLOOR).max(ABS_FLOOR);
+        // The floor ensures v_range always covers at least the reward scale.
+        // This prevents the stable fixed point where tight v_range → tiny
+        // Bellman shift → tiny gradient → Q-values can't escape near-zero.
+        let adaptive_min = REWARD_SCALE_FLOOR;
         let (final_min, final_max) = if (target_max - target_min) < adaptive_min {
             (q_mean - adaptive_min * 0.5, q_mean + adaptive_min * 0.5)
         } else {
diff --git a/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/fused_training.rs b/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/fused_training.rs
index e04ce987d..286d7fc4c 100644
--- a/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/fused_training.rs
+++ b/crates/ml/src/trainers/dqn/fused_training.rs
@@ -758,6 +758,17 @@ impl FusedTrainingCtx {
         self.graph_aux = None;
         self.graph_spectral = None;
         self.graph_mega = None;
+        // Shrink-and-perturb at fold boundary — reduce overfit to previous fold.
+        // alpha=0.8: keep 80% of learned representations, add 20% random noise.
+        // Without this, the greedy policy from fold 1 produces val_Sharpe=-33
+        // on fold 2 data and takes many epochs to recover.
+        let sp_alpha = 0.8_f32;
+        let sp_sigma = 0.01_f32;
+        if let Err(e) = self.trainer.shrink_and_perturb(sp_alpha, sp_sigma) {
+            tracing::warn!("Fold-boundary shrink-and-perturb failed (non-fatal): {e}");
+        } else {
+            tracing::info!(alpha = sp_alpha, sigma = sp_sigma, "Fold-boundary shrink-and-perturb applied");
+        }
         // Reset Adam optimizer state — each fold starts with fresh momentum.
         // Stale momentum from a previous fold causes weight explosion → Q-value -1e30.
         self.trainer.reset_adam_state()?;