Production smoke completed end-to-end but produced n_trades=0 across 99,969
decisions — `decision_policy_default` and `decision_policy_program` both
applied a sentinel-skip pattern: if `isv_kelly_d` had not been seeded
(pnl_ema_win == 0), each horizon's signed-size stayed zero, AND each
horizon's aggregation weight (= recent_sharpe) also stayed zero. The
cross-horizon w_sum was therefore 0, final_size was 0, every market_target
was noop. State only updates on trade close → no trade ever fires →
infinite cold-start.
Per pearl_blend_formulas_must_have_permanent_floor (`max(real, floor)`,
not blend) and pearl_kelly_cap_signal_driven_floors, replace the sentinel-
skip with a two-layer floor on each kernel:
1. Kelly fraction: `max(kelly_frac_floor, computed_kelly)` — when state
is sentinel, falls back to the floor directly. Cap_lots falls back
to `max_lots` when realised_return_var is sentinel.
2. Aggregation weight: `max(sharpe_weight_floor, recent_sharpe)` — lets
cross-horizon sum produce a non-zero size before recent_sharpe is
populated. Once a horizon shows positive sharpe it dominates.
Plumbed through `step_decision_with_latency` / `step_decision` as two
new f32 args (atomic contract change, every caller migrated). Defaults
0.20 / 0.10 chosen so a strong-conviction signal (sig_mag ≥ 0.5) fires
1 lot at cold-start under max_lots=5 while weaker signals stay flat
(see `default_kelly_frac_floor` comment for the arithmetic). Exposed
as CLI flags + sweep-grid base/cell overrides.
Regression test `decision_floor_coldstart` proves:
- default floors (0.20/0.10) fire a 1-lot buy with p_h=0.8 and zero state
- zero floors reproduce the original noop bug
Also moves `aggregate` step to the GPU pool because fxt-backtest is
dynamically linked against libcuda.so.1 (the ci-compile-cpu hosts
don't expose CUDA driver libs).
Verified locally on RTX 3050 Ti — workspace cargo check passes, both
regression tests pass, trunk save/load roundtrip still passes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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