00 // Research

Field notes from the AI engineering floor.

Long-form, opinionated writing on AI inside financial firms — from Kasim Javed, founder of KJ Capital. Written for CIOs, CTOs and heads of ops in brokerages, hedge funds, wealth managers and fintechs.

Abstract chart showing a large drawdown, editorial illustration

Field note · Founder12 min

How I lost £1.2M trading — and what retail brokers taught me on the way down.

I lost £1.2M of my own money trading gold and bitcoin over three years. This is not a redemption arc. It is a technical dissection of the machinery that took it, and why I now build AI systems inside the firms on the other side of that trade.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Abstract dissection of a book of orders, editorial illustration

Field note · Dealing12 min

Anatomy of a modern B-book.

The B-book has become one of the most misunderstood constructs in retail derivatives. This note is the honest, technical anatomy — what it is, what it is not, and what AI actually changes.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Abstract graph of decaying retention curve, editorial illustration

Field note · Retention12 min

The retention lies brokers tell themselves.

Retention conversations inside broker leadership teams are usually the least honest conversations in the building. Here are the four stories brokers tell themselves and the money each one costs.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Abstract regulatory architecture, editorial illustration

Field note · Compliance12 min

The uncomfortable truth about AI compliance in retail brokers.

The common story in broker corridors is that regulators are behind on AI. They are not. This is the uncomfortable, honest picture of where broker AI compliance sits in 2026 — and what that means for anyone still hoping to ship without an envelope.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Abstract map with staged milestones, editorial illustration

Field note · Strategy12 min

The broker AI readiness map.

Retail broker leadership teams keep asking the same question in different words: where do we start with AI? This note is the practical map — four readiness stages, a sequenced build order, and the honest picture of what compounds first.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Three stacked architectural layers, editorial illustration

Field note · Compliance13 min

The 3-layer AI architecture that keeps you FCA-compliant.

AI pilots in UK financial services often stall when the compliance envelope is designed last. This is a three-layer architecture for making policy, grounding and evaluation part of the system from the start.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Hedge fund research floor at night, editorial illustration

Field note · Hedge funds12 min

Why hedge fund research desks lose to AI-native competitors in 2026.

The single biggest structural repricing in the hedge fund industry in the last decade is happening quietly, inside a small number of funds that treated coverage as an engineering problem. Everyone else is coverage-constrained and does not know it yet.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Grid of vendor scorecards on warm sand, editorial illustration

Field note · Vendor landscape15 min

The financial AI vendor scorecard: four questions that expose weak products.

Financial firms need a fast way to distinguish a polished demonstration from an operable AI product. These four due-diligence questions test evaluations, failure handling, controls and commercial judgement.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Sand-castle moat dissolving in wind, editorial illustration

Field note · Brokerages12 min

MetaTrader is a moat, not a product — and AI is dissolving it.

MetaQuotes does not sell a trading terminal. It sells a switching cost. The reason every retail brokerage runs the same platform is not that the platform is best — it is that the traders on it will not follow to a new one. AI collapses that argument.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Balanced scale with KYC documents, editorial illustration

Field note · Compliance11 min

The KYC copilot economics: build vs. buy vs. hybrid.

Every firm asking about a KYC copilot in 2026 has the same three options on the table. The right answer is almost never the one their board has already assumed. Here is the unit economics behind each shape.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Two silhouettes at a terminal with warm glow, editorial illustration

Field note · Hedge funds10 min

Why your Bloomberg Terminal seat costs you 4 quant hires per year.

Bloomberg is the most defensible piece of infrastructure in finance and the single line item that most quietly starves a fund’s AI budget. Here is the accounting nobody writes down, and the transition plan that actually works.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Measuring rulers over neural diagram, editorial illustration

Field note · Engineering12 min

The evals problem: how financial firms actually measure AI in production.

The single most consistent gap between AI systems that survive in regulated finance and ones that quietly die is the evaluation layer. Most firms know they need it. Almost none have built one that works. This note is the shape of the one that does.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Funnel with traders flowing through, editorial illustration

Field note · Brokerages10 min

AI trader onboarding: 3 systems that convert 40% better.

Three AI-assisted systems can target friction in trader onboarding: guided KYC, conversational suitability and first-deposit support. This is how to design and measure them without assuming an outcome.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Locked retrieval pipeline diagram, editorial illustration

Field note · Wealth management11 min

The compliance-safe RAG pattern for UK wealth managers.

Retrieval-augmented generation is the default architecture for wealth-management AI. Naive RAG is also the fastest way to fail a compliance review. Here is the pattern that survives one.

Kasim Javed · 2026

90-day calendar transitioning to a running system, editorial illustration

Field note · Engagements10 min

First 90 days of an AI Operator retainer: what actually ships.

The AI Operator retainer is our smallest and most misunderstood engagement. It runs at £8k/month and, in most firms, replaces a hire the firm cannot yet make. This is the honest first-90-days log — what actually ships, week by week.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Editorial illustration of layered loan documents and screens

Field note · Founder12 min

What I learned borrowing from 30 lenders.

I have borrowed from — or applied to — over thirty UK/EU lenders in the last decade. Personal, SME, bridging, credit cards, invoice finance, BNPL. This is the honest technical dissection of what separated the ones I would build for from the ones I would never work with.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Editorial illustration of two loan quotes side by side, one visibly nicer

Field note · Strategy12 min

The iwoca gap — why UX beats price in lending.

iwoca does not lend the cheapest money. It lends the nicest money. This note is the strategic dissection of what that means, why it is not solvable with a price cut, and what every UK lender should be building in response.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Editorial illustration of borrower portal layout and components

Field note · Product12 min

The anatomy of a modern borrower portal.

A modern borrower portal is not a design exercise. It is a servicing containment surface with specific components that pay back in specific ways. This note is the screen-by-screen anatomy.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Editorial illustration of a collections dashboard with hidden gaps

Field note · Collections12 min

Why your collections numbers lie.

Every collections director I have spoken with in the last two years has been reporting numbers to the board that flatter reality. Not fraudulently — structurally. This note is the technical dissection of why.

Kasim Javed · 2026

Editorial illustration of a four-stage progression map

Field note · Strategy12 min

The 2026 AI readiness map for UK lenders.

Every lender is somewhere on a four-stage AI readiness map. Where you are determines the sequenced build order that pays back fastest. This note is the map.

Kasim Javed · 2026

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