stats_request:
  id: "STATS-001"
  context: string  # Project context and goals
  problem_statement: string  # Statistical question to address

  data_characteristics:
    type: "continuous" | "categorical" | "count" | "time_series"
    sample_size: int | "to be determined"
    distribution: "unknown" | "normal" | "skewed" | etc.
    independence: "independent" | "paired" | "clustered"

  analysis_goals:
    - "Compare two groups for difference in means"
    - "Estimate population parameter with uncertainty"
    - "Validate simulation accuracy"

  constraints:
    significance_level: 0.05
    power_requirement: 0.80
    effect_size_interest: "medium" | specific_value

stats_handoff:
  request_id: "STATS-001"
  timestamp: ISO8601

  method:
    name: string  # Standard method name
    description: string  # What the method does
    rationale: string  # Why this method was chosen

  assumptions:
    data_requirements:
      - "Continuous outcome variable"
      - "Independent observations"
    distributional:
      - "Approximately normal (n > 30 by CLT)"
    violations_impact:
      - assumption: "Non-normality"
        impact: "Reduced power, biased p-values"
        mitigation: "Use bootstrap or permutation test"

  implementation_guidance:
    library: "scipy.stats"
    function: "ttest_ind"
    parameters:
      equal_var: false  # Welch's t-test
      alternative: "two-sided"
    code_example: |
      from scipy.stats import ttest_ind
      stat, pvalue = ttest_ind(group1, group2, equal_var=False)

  power_analysis:
    effect_size: 0.5  # Cohen's d
    alpha: 0.05
    power: 0.80
    required_n_per_group: 64
    calculation_method: "scipy.stats.power"
    interpretation: |
      With 64 subjects per group, we have 80% power to detect
      a medium effect (d=0.5) at alpha=0.05.

  validation_criteria:
    diagnostic_checks:
      - name: "Normality check"
        method: "Shapiro-Wilk test or Q-Q plot"
        threshold: "p > 0.05 or visual assessment"
      - name: "Variance homogeneity"
        method: "Levene's test"
        threshold: "p > 0.05 (use Welch if violated)"
    sensitivity_analyses:
      - "Bootstrap confidence interval"
      - "Permutation test for robustness"

  interpretation_guide:
    result_format: |
      t-statistic: {stat:.3f}
      p-value: {pvalue:.4f}
      Effect size (Cohen's d): {d:.3f}
      95% CI for difference: [{lower:.3f}, {upper:.3f}]
    significant_threshold: 0.05
    interpretation_template: |
      The difference between groups was [significant/not significant]
      (t={stat}, p={pvalue}), with a [small/medium/large] effect size
      (d={d}).

  confidence: "high" | "medium" | "low"
  confidence_notes: string

monte_carlo_spec:
  request_id: "STATS-002"

  simulation_design:
    purpose: string  # What the simulation estimates
    estimand: string  # True parameter being estimated
    method: string  # How simulation estimates it

  sample_size:
    n_iterations: 10000
    rationale: "Achieves SE < 0.01 for proportion estimates"
    formula: "n = (z_alpha/2 / margin_of_error)^2 * p * (1-p)"

  convergence_criteria:
    metric: "standard error of estimate"
    threshold: 0.01
    check_frequency: "every 1000 iterations"
    early_stopping: true

  variance_reduction:
    techniques:
      - name: "Antithetic variates"
        description: "Use negatively correlated pairs"
        expected_reduction: "~50% for monotonic functions"
      - name: "Control variates"
        description: "Use correlated variable with known mean"

  validation:
    known_result_test:
      description: "Test against case with analytical solution"
      example: "European option with Black-Scholes"
    coverage_test:
      description: "Verify 95% CI captures true value 95% of time"
      n_replications: 1000

  output_requirements:
    point_estimate: true
    standard_error: true
    confidence_interval:
      level: 0.95
      method: "normal approximation or bootstrap percentile"

mcmc_spec:
  request_id: "STATS-003"

  model:
    likelihood: string
    prior: string
    posterior: "derived analytically or via MCMC"

  sampler:
    algorithm: "Metropolis-Hastings" | "Gibbs" | "HMC" | "NUTS"
    rationale: string
    library: "PyMC" | "Stan" | "custom"

  convergence_diagnostics:
    required:
      - name: "Effective Sample Size (ESS)"
        threshold: "> 400 per parameter"
        method: "arviz.ess"
      - name: "Gelman-Rubin (R-hat)"
        threshold: "< 1.01"
        method: "arviz.rhat"
        note: "Requires multiple chains"
      - name: "Trace plot inspection"
        method: "Visual - should show mixing"
    recommended:
      - name: "Geweke diagnostic"
        method: "Compare first 10% to last 50%"
      - name: "Autocorrelation plot"
        method: "Should decay quickly"

  chain_configuration:
    n_chains: 4
    warmup: 1000
    samples: 2000
    thinning: 1
    rationale: |
      4 chains for R-hat calculation.
      1000 warmup for adaptation.
      2000 samples for ESS > 400 target.

  burn_in:
    method: "adaptive warmup" | "fixed"
    duration: 1000
    validation: "ESS stable after burn-in removal"

  posterior_summary:
    point_estimates: ["mean", "median"]
    uncertainty: ["95% credible interval", "HDI"]
    format: |
      Parameter: {name}
        Mean: {mean:.3f}
        95% HDI: [{hdi_low:.3f}, {hdi_high:.3f}]
        ESS: {ess:.0f}
        R-hat: {rhat:.3f}

# Progress: STATS-001

**Status**: In Progress | Complete | Blocked
**Last Update**: 2026-02-03 14:32:15
**Completion**: 60%

## Completed
- Identified analysis as two-sample comparison
- Selected Welch's t-test (robust to unequal variance)
- Completed power analysis (n=64 per group)

## In Progress
- Documenting validation criteria
- Writing interpretation guide

## Blockers
- None

## Estimated Completion
- 15 minutes remaining

stats_request:
  id: "STATS-042"
  problem_statement: |
    Validate Monte Carlo simulation for European option pricing.
    Need to ensure estimates are accurate and uncertainty quantified.
  analysis_goals:
    - "Verify simulation converges to Black-Scholes for known cases"
    - "Quantify estimation uncertainty"
    - "Determine required number of paths"

stats_handoff:
  request_id: "STATS-042"

  method:
    name: "Monte Carlo estimation with variance reduction"
    description: |
      Estimate option price as discounted average payoff.
      Use antithetic variates and control variates for efficiency.
    rationale: |
      Monte Carlo is flexible for complex payoffs.
      Variance reduction critical for practical path counts.

  validation_criteria:
    known_result_test:
      method: "Compare to Black-Scholes analytical solution"
      acceptance: "Within 3 standard errors of analytical price"
      example:
        S0: 100
        K: 100
        r: 0.05
        sigma: 0.2
        T: 1.0
        bs_price: 10.4506  # analytical
        mc_tolerance: "3 * SE"

    coverage_test:
      method: "Repeated simulation coverage"
      procedure: |
        1. Generate 1000 independent MC estimates
        2. Compute 95% CI for each
        3. Count how many contain true BS price
        4. Accept if coverage in [93%, 97%]

  convergence_criteria:
    metric: "Standard error / estimate"
    threshold: 0.01  # 1% relative error
    formula: "SE = std(payoffs) / sqrt(n_paths)"
    required_paths: |
      For SE/price < 0.01:
      n = (std/price / 0.01)^2
      Typically ~100,000 paths for vanilla options

  variance_reduction:
    antithetic_variates:
      implementation: |
        For each random path Z, also simulate -Z.
        Average payoffs from both.
      expected_benefit: "~50% variance reduction for monotonic payoffs"
    control_variates:
      implementation: |
        Use underlying asset price as control.
        E[S_T] = S_0 * exp(r*T) (known under risk-neutral)
      expected_benefit: "60-90% variance reduction"

  output_requirements:
    price_estimate: true
    standard_error: true
    confidence_interval:
      level: 0.95
      method: "normal: estimate +/- 1.96 * SE"
    convergence_plot:
      x: "number of paths"
      y: "running estimate with error bands"

  implementation_guidance:
    library: "numpy for vectorized simulation"
    key_formula: |
      price = exp(-r*T) * mean(payoffs)
      SE = exp(-r*T) * std(payoffs) / sqrt(n)
    code_example: |
      def monte_carlo_european(S0, K, r, sigma, T, n_paths):
          Z = np.random.standard_normal(n_paths)
          ST = S0 * np.exp((r - 0.5*sigma**2)*T + sigma*np.sqrt(T)*Z)
          payoffs = np.maximum(ST - K, 0)  # call
          price = np.exp(-r*T) * np.mean(payoffs)
          se = np.exp(-r*T) * np.std(payoffs) / np.sqrt(n_paths)
          return price, se

  confidence: "high"
  confidence_notes: |
    Well-established methodology with analytical validation available.
    Variance reduction techniques are standard practice.