# Lite Sortino Ratio Calculator

> Lite Sortino Ratio Calculator is a paid API for AI agents from api.delx.ai, paid per call via x402, $0.001/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Computes a Sortino-like ratio using downside standard deviation of negative returns, returning the ratio and sample count as deterministic JSON.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://api.delx.ai/api/v1/x402/sortino-lite
- Price: $0.001/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/lite-sortino-ratio-calculator-8d299a02
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_j4XHbk5tuIAx65C5s92Yo

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability lite-sortino-ratio-calculator-8d299a02 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Calculate the Sortino ratio for this return series: [0.02, -0.01, 0.03, -0.04, 0.01, -0.02, 0.005] — I want to see how it penalizes downside volatility specifically.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a quick, cheap, deterministic Sortino-like ratio from a return series without deploying a full analytics library or stack. It is ideal for lightweight agents, serverless pipelines, or environments where installing scipy/pandas is impractical. Prefer it over full Sharpe ratio endpoints when downside-only penalty is specifically desired. Not suitable when you need a Sharpe ratio, full analytics report, or live market data integration.

## Known failure modes

- Empty or missing returns array — likely returns an error or undefined ratio
- Insufficient negative returns to compute downside standard deviation (e.g., all positive returns) — n may be zero, ratio undefined or null
- Non-numeric values in the returns array — may return an error or NaN
- Payment failure via x402 — request not processed if USDC payment is not confirmed

## How this service works

Lite Sortino using downside stdev of negative returns. Call when penalizing downside volatility without a full analytics stack. Returns sortino-like ratio and n as deterministic JSON for $0.001 USDC via x402 on Base. First-party local math only—no RPC, live market feed, API keys, storage, or mediagen. Advisory only; the caller owns capital, risk, and production controls.

## Output

Returns a deterministic JSON object containing a Sortino-like ratio (computed from the downside standard deviation of negative returns in the input series) and n (the count of observations used in the calculation). No external data sources are consulted; the result is purely a local mathematical computation.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "returns": {
   "type": "array",
   "description": "Input field: returns."
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "n": 4,
  "mean": 0.00875,
  "schema": "delx/util-sortino-lite/v1",
  "sortino": 0,
  "downside_stdev": 0
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/lite-sortino-ratio-calculator-8d299a02/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.delx.ai](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.delx.ai/llms.txt)