ad astra* looks for signals: inflection points, anomalies and contradictions, rather than trends everyone already knows. We focus on where finance, technology, energy, politics and geopolitics push on each other.
The Pulse on our home page refreshes around the clock. Every hour, our system collects headlines from a fixed list of sources we have chosen: official data publishers such as the Federal Reserve, BLS, BEA and EIA, and established national outlets. Every few hours, an AI model reads those headlines and writes a two-to-three sentence summary for each desk.
These summaries are not reviewed by a human before they appear, and they are labelled "Automated summary". The model is instructed to use only what the linked headlines say, and every summary links to the stories it is based on. Treat it as a guide to what is happening, and click through for the details.
The story at the top of the page is the one spreading fastest across our sources. We group headlines about the same event, then count how many different outlets have covered it, giving more weight to recent coverage and to official data sources. A story needs at least two outlets to qualify. It measures news velocity, not importance, so the desk cards below still matter.
We include a small number of contrarian outlets, such as ZeroHedge, because what they amplify is itself a signal. They are labelled "Contrarian" on the Wire, count for half in the top-story ranking, cannot put a story on top by themselves, and are never used as evidence of a fact.
Our weekly Signal Notes are different. They are researched and drafted by an AI agent working from a written brief, then reviewed line by line by a human editor who checks every number and link before anything is published.
Every number has a named source and a link. Each note anchors on at least one primary source. Opinion pieces and forum chatter are labelled as such and never used as evidence of fact. Hypotheses are marked as hypotheses. Each note states its confidence and what would change our mind.
We have one. We favor fiscal discipline, competitive markets with light and smart regulation, individual rights and social mobility, and we are wary of tribal politics on all sides. That lens shapes which signals we think matter. It does not get to bend the facts, and when the evidence cuts against our priors, we say so.
Signal Notes have Like and Forward buttons so we can tell what is worth writing more of. We count views, likes and forwards anonymously: no cookies, no accounts, and we do not store IP addresses. Your browser remembers that you liked a note so you can undo it; that stays on your device.
Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice. We do not give buy or sell calls or price targets.
If a Signal Note gets something wrong, we correct it on the page and note the change. If an automated summary misstates its sources, the next refresh replaces it, and we adjust the system that wrote it.