Sharp at
the open.
Still sharp at the close.
A single-compound nasal spray built on Semax, studied for attention and short-term memory since 1996 [1]. One spray per nostril twenty minutes before the bell. No caffeine, no jitters, no 3pm cliff.
The desk
protocol
Designed around a trading day rather than a supplement schedule. Once, before the open, is the standard.
- T−20 minOne spray per nostril. Water-based, no taste. Absorbed at the nasal lining. No gut, no liver first-pass.
- The openThe measures that improved in the human study were attention and short-term memory, the two things the first hour asks for [1].
- MiddayNo stimulant peak means no stimulant trough. If the session runs into the US open, a second dose is fine. Never more than four sprays in a day.
- The closeEffect recorded for 20–24 hours in the study. Then CALM-02, if you use The Pair, for the evening.
Every seat
on the floor
Traders
Reaction, attention and a memory for what the tape did twenty minutes ago.
Analysts
Dense reading, model-building, and getting the note out before the market makes it obsolete.
Portfolio managers
Fewer, bigger calls. The cost of a foggy one is not a rounding error.
Quants & developers
Long, unbroken concentration on problems that don’t forgive a lapse.
The papers,
not the adjectives
Numbers link to the study on our research page, including where the evidence is thin.
Attention that holds
In a controlled study of healthy volunteers working eight-hour shifts, a single intranasal dose of Semax improved attention and short-term memory scores. The largest gains were in the people who were most tired.
Memory & learning machinery
Semax raises BDNF, the growth factor the brain uses to strengthen connections, and its TrkB receptor in the hippocampus and cortex, the regions that turn experience into memory.
Drive without the crash
Rather than flooding the system with a stimulant, Semax modulates the brain’s own dopamine and serotonin signalling. There is no caffeine in the bottle, so there is no caffeine cliff at 3pm.
The third coffee
vs. FOCUS-01
| FOCUS-01 | Coffee & energy drinks | “Nootropic stacks” | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active ingredients | One, at a stated concentration | Caffeine, often with sugar | 8–20 in a proprietary blend, quantities hidden |
| Route | Metered nasal spray. No gut, no first-pass liver | Oral | Oral capsules |
| Stimulant | None | Yes | Usually (caffeine) |
| The 3pm crash | No stimulant peak, so no trough | Yes | Depends on the caffeine dose |
| Dose precision | Same volume every spray | Varies cup to cup | Fixed capsule, unknown per-ingredient |
| Independent test certificate per batch | Yes, linked from the carton | No | Rarely |
Straight answers
Not the way you feel caffeine. There is no heart-rate kick. What people report is quieter: the session stays in focus for longer and the mid-afternoon fade doesn’t arrive on schedule. In the human study the measurable change was in attention and short-term memory scores, largest in tired subjects [1].
Yes. FOCUS-01 contains no caffeine, so nothing doubles up. Most people keep the first coffee and drop the third.
About forty metered sprays. At the standard one-spray-per-nostril dose before the open, that’s roughly a month of trading days. Full timing and storage notes are in the dosage guide.
Semax is not a controlled substance in the UK and is not a stimulant. It is also not a licensed medicine and we don’t present it as one. If your employer has a policy on supplements, check it as you would for anything else.
The evidence is real but limited: one small human study, a body of animal and cell work, and thirty years of use in Russia. No large modern trial. We say so on the research page rather than hide it.
FOCUS-01
Nootropic nasal spray · 99.9% Semax