The criteria, in detail
The free-signals market is crowded with claims nobody can check. Three of the four tests carry their own page, because they are the ones free sources most often fail. The full four-test method is on the method page.
What the scorecard is really sorting
You are rarely choosing between two near-identical services. In practice you are choosing between sources — a free chat, a broker tip feed, a social caller, free learning, or a paid verified desk — and each source passes or fails the tests as a category. The scorecard's job is to make that structural difference visible, so a glossy “free signals” pitch cannot hide which category it belongs to. The table sorts the field on the test that decides most cases for a free-seeker: are the losing calls shown alongside the winners.
| Source | Cost | Losers shown? | Why it sits there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free chat channel | Free | No | Operator edits or deletes at will; losing days vanish. |
| Free broker tips | Free | No | Paid by your order flow, not your results; incentives misaligned. |
| Free social caller | Free | No | Deletable posts, affiliate revenue, nothing timestamped. |
| Free book + education | Free | n/a | Teaches you to judge any service; the honest free door. |
| Free trial of a paid desk | Free for a week | Depends | Useful only if the record behind it is checkable. |
| Verified, timestamped desk | Paid | Yes | Per-call on-chain receipt, losers counted, A-D grade. |
The two highlighted rows are the only categories that earn their place — the free learning and the paid verified product. The three criteria below each take one test apart in full.
Why “losers shown” does so much of the sorting
Of the four tests, the one a free source fails most reliably is whether the losing calls are visible at all. A free chat can delete a bad day before anyone screenshots it; a free tip feed simply stops mentioning the trades that went wrong. A win rate is only evidence when the full count of calls, losers included, sits next to it — and that is precisely the part a free funnel has every reason to hide, because the channel is paid on your sign-up, not on its honesty. The remaining tests — the timestamp, the measured grade, the incentives — tend to confirm a verdict this one has already reached. That is why the table sorts on it, and why a source can have a slick site, a busy community and a confident pitch and still belong in a row of crosses.
The three tests with their own page
A record you can re-check
What a real track record contains, and what a wall of free screenshots leaves out.
Locked before the outcome
Why a public timestamp is the test a free chat post cannot fake its way around.
Grades that are measured
How an A-to-D conviction grade is tied to a model's own returns instead of a mood.
The fourth test — incentives that point at the reader rather than a broker — is covered on the method page, because it is quick to check once you ask the right question: who is paid when you trade.