Quantery 1.6.0: the universe is part of the thesis
Quantery 1.6.0 is out. Every thesis has always declared which stocks it draws from: exchanges, a market-cap floor, excluded sectors. In 1.6.0 that declaration becomes a real object you can see, fetch, name, and audit. A thesis can now target the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100, the Dow 30, or a ticker list you name yourself, and every scan and backtest records exactly which universe it actually used.
The Universes page
A new top-level Universes view sits between Data and Settings. It lists the standard universes with their live status: how many members are stored, when membership was last fetched, and how far back the recorded change history reaches. Exchange universes come straight from your recorded universe snapshots. Index universes are fetched on demand.
Index membership is licensed data, so it works like everything else in Quantery: fetched with your own FMP key, stored in your local lake, never bundled with the app. Plans that don't include the constituent endpoints see a clear status on the page instead of a silently empty universe. Russell 1000 and Russell 2000 appear in the list but stay disabled, and the row says why: membership data is licensed by FTSE Russell and no available source exists yet.
Point-in-time membership, in backtests too
Fetching an index gives you two things: the current constituent list and the recorded history of additions and removals. Backtests use both. At each rebalance date, the engine resolves who was actually in the index on that date by replaying the change history, so a name that joined in 2024 doesn't sneak into your 2021 rebalances.
Where the fetched history doesn't reach, the backtest doesn't pretend. It falls back to the nearest recorded membership, labels the result as a fallback, and counts how many rebalance dates used which mode. The run's report and stored parameters carry the full record: the universe, the membership date, and the per-mode counts. If a backtest leaned on fallback membership for part of its range, you'll know, and so will anyone you show it to.
Name your own universe
The same page manages custom universes: name a ticker list once and it becomes addressable everywhere. Point a thesis at it in the visual builder, scan it, backtest it, or aim a data job at it so prices and fundamentals refresh for exactly those names. There's a paste box for bulk entry and a typeahead that searches your stored symbols by ticker or company name.
Renaming a universe doesn't rewrite the theses that reference it. A thesis pointing at the old name fails with a clear message at run time.
Thesis universe filters now apply on every scan
A thesis's minimum market cap was previously applied at snapshot time and in backtests, and its exchange scope at snapshot time, but scans of the full market ignored both. They no longer do. Every scan now honors the universe the thesis declares: exchanges, market-cap floor, index or custom list, and any explicit tickers.
Because the starter templates all declare real market-cap floors, full-market scan results can shift after updating: fewer tiny names, and rank-based criteria computed against the filtered set. That's the thesis doing what its spec said all along. When filters drop symbols you explicitly asked for, the scan console says so and lists the possible reasons.
Universes over MCP
If your AI assistant is connected over MCP, it can work with universes directly. Four new tools: list_universes (standard and custom, with membership status), get_universe (a custom list's members), save_universe (create a list or replace its members), and delete_universe. Fetching index membership stays in the app, on the Universes page, where the job progress and any plan limits are visible to you.
Getting 1.6.0
Windows and Linux update in-app. On macOS, grab the new build from the download page; in-app updates there arrive once signed builds ship. If you hit anything odd, the Bug Report button in the app's Settings pre-fills an email with your version and platform.
Research tooling, not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Screens, scores, and backtests are informational only; backtested results are hypothetical, exclude costs such as commissions and slippage, and do not guarantee future results. Verify against primary filings and make your own decisions.
Want to try this on your own rules? Quantery is free for 14 days: the full app, no card required.
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