2. The terminal and your workspace

Notes and theses (NOTE, THESIS)

Notes are your free-form memory (NOTE), and a thesis (THESIS) is a checkable reason for holding something, with pillars that must stay true and kill conditions that would make you sell.

4 min
3 questions
Lesson 5 of 8

Why you would care

Why did you buy this, and is that reason still true? Six months after buying a stock, most people cannot say exactly why they bought it. So they cannot tell whether the story changed or just the price. Writing the reason down, in a form you can check, is one of the cheapest habits that professional investors keep.

The idea from scratch

Notes

A note is free text. Gloom keeps two kinds:

Ticker notes
one per ticker, in the Notes tab of its research pane (DES NVDA, then the Notes tab).
The scratchpad
NOTE opens a general notes pane with tabs, for anything not tied to one ticker. n new, t title, d delete.

Theses

A thesis (plural: theses) is "why I hold this", written so it can be tested:

Part	Meaning	Example (illustrative)
Instruments	What the thesis is about: one ticker, a pair, a basket	NVDA
Pillars	Things that must stay true for the idea to work	"Data-center sales keep growing over 30% a year"
Kill conditions	Facts that would make you sell	"Gross margin below 60% for two quarters"
Catalysts	Dated events that will test it	"Q3 results, late November"

A pillar is a belief; a kill condition is the exit you promised yourself in advance, before emotions get involved.

Diagram: Thesis on NVDA leads to Pillar: sales growth; Thesis on NVDA leads to Pillar: margins; Thesis on NVDA leads to Kill condition: margin below 60%; Thesis on NVDA leads to Catalyst: next results; Catalyst: next results leads to New data arrives; New data arrives leads to Signal waits for your ruling (pillar weakens); Signal waits for your ruling leads to Accept / dismiss with a reason / snooze. — Wide diagram: scroll sideways to see all of it.

The THESIS board

THESIS opens the board of every thesis you (and your teams) hold, sorted by what needs a ruling first. It also shows the share of your portfolio sitting on weakening or broken theses, and your positions that have no thesis yet, biggest first.

When new data touches a pillar, Gloom raises a signal, but it never acts for you: you accept it, dismiss it with a reason, or snooze it. Resetting a kill condition that fired requires a note explaining why.

See it in Gloom

Gloom screenshot: The general notes pane — The general notes pane: a tab per note and a + to add one. Captured 2026-10-06 on an empty profile.

open them

NOTE: the scratchpad above. Type to write; n adds a tab.
THESIS: the board. THESIS NVDA opens or starts the thesis for NVDA; THESIS NVDA AMD starts one on a pair.
Every ticker's research pane has a Notes tab and a Thesis tab, side by side.

On the board: / searches by ticker or company, p cycles the portfolio in view, w compares your conviction (how sure you are) with the position's weight (how much money is in it). A big position with low conviction is a question worth asking.

Practice and recap

Try it3 tasks

Write a thesis for any company you know, on paper: one instrument, two pillars, one kill condition, one catalyst.
Turn a vague pillar into a checkable one: "the company is doing well" becomes "revenue grows more than 10% a year".
In the app, open DES on a ticker you own and find the Notes and Thesis tabs.

Common mistakes4 mistakes

Writing pillars nobody can check ("great management"). Use numbers and dates.
Skipping the kill condition. It is the most useful line.
Resetting a fired kill condition without saying why.
Holding a large position with no thesis at all. The board lists those first.

Check yourself3 questions

What is the difference between a pillar and a kill condition?
Where does a ticker note live?
What does Gloom do when a pillar weakens?

Answers

A pillar must stay true for the idea to work; a kill condition is a fact that would make you sell.
In the Notes tab of that ticker's research pane.
It raises a signal and waits for your ruling: accept, dismiss with a reason, or snooze.

Words in this lesson7 words

note: Free text you keep, per ticker or in the scratchpad.
thesis: A written, checkable reason for holding a position.
pillar: A fact that must stay true for the thesis to work.
kill condition: A fact, agreed in advance, that would make you sell.
catalyst: A dated event that will test the thesis.
conviction: How sure you are about a thesis.
signal: Gloom's flag that new data touched a pillar, waiting for your ruling.

Educational material about reading market data, not investment advice.