# 👻 GRADIENT GHOSTS
### A Data Science CTF Challenge

---

## ☠️ THE MERIDIAN INCIDENT - CLASSIFIED

**Date:** March 15, 2024  
**Source:** Meridian Capital Risk Operations  
**Classification:** INTERNAL ONLY - Unauthorized Distribution Prohibited  
**Clearance Level:** Executive Committee & Board Only

---

### THE COLLAPSE

October 3rd, 2022. 9:47 AM EST.

The algorithmic trading floor at Meridian Capital went silent. Not the productive quiet of focused work, but the stunned silence of watching billions evaporate in real-time.

**ORACLE** - their flagship quantitative trading system - had just executed its largest position liquidation in company history. The model that had printed money for three consecutive years, the algorithm with a Sharpe ratio of 2.1 that the Risk Committee paraded in front of investors, had become a liability overnight.

Six trading days. **Thirty-four percent of net asset value. Gone.**

The phone calls started immediately. Investors. The SEC. Board members demanding explanations. But the quantitative research team had none to give. ORACLE's backtests were pristine. Its validation metrics were textbook perfect. On paper, this should have been impossible.