A page promises 15% a month, forever, with no losing months. Somewhere on it there is a screenshot of a green account balance and a timer counting down to a discount that expires tonight. You do not need to be a trader to dismiss this. You need about five minutes and a list.
Here is the list. Seven flags, in the order you can check them, and none of them requires you to understand a chart. Use it on anyone selling an automated system, including us. Especially us.
The one thing to remember
You are not evaluating a strategy. You are evaluating whether the claims can be checked. Every legitimate seller of a system leaves you a way to verify the numbers yourself; every fraudulent one leaves you with a reason to trust them instead.
1. It guarantees a return
"8% monthly, guaranteed." "Risk-free income." "Consistent profits every single month." Stop reading. No fund, no bank, no trading desk anywhere on earth guarantees a monthly return, because nobody controls what markets do next.
In the United States this isn't only dishonest, it's a regulatory problem. Guaranteed-profit claims about trading products put a seller in the sights of the CFTC and the FTC, and a firm willing to take that risk in public is telling you what it is. Legitimate material sounds duller: "in backtest," "hypothetical results," "past performance does not guarantee future results."
The other version of this flag is the smooth equity curve. A real strategy has losing weeks, losing months and ugly stretches. A picture that only goes up and to the right is a picture of something other than trading.
2. The screenshots can't be reproduced
Screenshots prove nothing. They're an image file. What matters is whether you can generate the same result yourself.
Ask one question: what would I need to reproduce this? A serious answer names a tool, a period and a set of settings: the strategy running in the NinjaTrader 8 Strategy Analyzer, over these dates, at this fill resolution, with these commissions. An evasive answer talks about proprietary infrastructure, private servers, or results "verified internally."
If the numbers came from a real account, the equivalent is a third-party verified statement, not a photo of a phone. And if the seller can't tell you which data resolution their test ran at, the conversation is already over. The reasons are in what a backtest is, and when you can trust one.
3. There is no drawdown figure anywhere
This is the fastest test on the list, and it is nearly decisive on its own. Search the page for the worst loss. Maximum drawdown, worst month, longest losing streak: any of them.
If profit is in large type and drawdown appears nowhere, the omission is the message. Everyone who has run a system knows their drawdown, because it decides whether you can survive the strategy. Publishing profit and hiding drawdown is advertising a car's top speed without mentioning the brakes.
Anyone can show you the profit. Only an honest seller shows you the worst day.
For reference, the numbers we publish: max drawdown $4,379, win rate 46.2% (this system is wrong more often than it is right) over 4,557 trades in backtest. All of it sits on the performance page next to the profit, and the losing stretches are described on the risk page.
4. The testimonials belong to nobody
Stock-photo faces, first names with initials, and five-star reviews written in the same voice. Reverse image search takes fifteen seconds and settles it most of the time.
Two harder variants. Paid video testimonials, which are lawful in the US only if the paid relationship is disclosed. Check whether it is. And screenshots of chat messages, which are trivial to fabricate and prove nothing.
The cleanest position, and the one we take, is to publish no testimonials at all. A quote from a stranger tells you nothing about whether a system works; a reproducible backtest does.
5. Something is counting down
A discount that ends tonight. "Only 3 licenses left." A timer that resets when you reload the page. All artificial urgency does is prevent the one behavior that protects you: taking a day to think.
Real products have prices, and sometimes promotions with actual dates. What they don't have is a permanently expiring offer or a rotating scarcity counter. If a purchase can't survive twenty-four hours of your consideration, that tells you what it's built on.
Every claim on this site is checkable
The full backtest, the drawdown, the number of trades and the settings needed to run it yourself. Take as long as you want; nothing expires.
6. The algorithm is a secret
"Proprietary AI." "A secret formula developed over 20 years." "We can't explain how it works, that's our edge."
There's a real distinction here, so be fair about it. No serious developer publishes their exact entry logic: that would be handing over the product. But there is a wide gap between protecting source code and refusing to describe the mechanism at all. You are entitled to know:
- What it trades. Which instrument, which contract.
- When it trades. A specific window, or "all day," which usually means all-day commissions.
- How risk is handled. Where the stop goes, when it's placed, what the target is.
- Whether it holds overnight. This changes your risk profile completely.
A system you can describe in four sentences is not a system with no secrets: it's a system with an owner who understands it. Ours: US micro index futures, one window a day at 8:30 AM ET, stop and target placed in the market in the same instant as the entry with the target at 2× the risk, nothing held overnight. That's the whole shape, and it's on how it works. If a seller can't produce their four sentences, ask yourself whether they can produce anything.
7. It asks for your broker credentials, or your money
This is the flag that separates a bad product from an actual crime.
A trading system is software. It runs on your machine, connected to your account, and you keep the keys. Nobody selling you a system needs your broker password, your account login, or your funds transferred anywhere. Requests like these are the standard opening moves:
- "Send us your login and we'll set it up for you." Now a stranger can trade or withdraw at will.
- "Deposit with us and we'll manage it." Managing other people's money for compensation requires registration with the CFTC and NFA. Almost none of these operations have it.
- "Fund the account through this link." A broker you've never heard of, often offshore, sometimes owned by the same people selling the bot.
- "Pay in crypto for a discount." Not a discount. An irreversible payment with no chargeback.
The correct arrangement is boring: you buy software, you install it, you connect it to an account you opened yourself. On funded accounts the money is the prop firm's and you never wire anything to a software vendor either. If money is moving toward the person selling the bot beyond the price of the bot, walk away.
The five-minute version
Guarantee?Any promised monthly return ends the evaluation immediately.
Reproducible?Named tool, named period, named settings, or nothing.
Drawdown published?No worst-case figure anywhere is an answer in itself.
Real people?Reverse image search the testimonials. Fifteen seconds.
Fake urgency?Reload the page. If the timer resets, so should your interest.
Mechanism described?Instrument, hours, risk handling, overnight: four questions.
Who holds the money?You, always. Credentials and deposits are non-negotiable red lines.
Now run the list on us
A checklist you never point at the person who wrote it is worthless, so here are our answers, in order.
No guarantee. Every figure we publish is labeled as a backtest, and the system loses more often than it wins. Reproducible. The report can be re-run in the NinjaTrader 8 Strategy Analyzer with the settings we publish. Drawdown published. $4,379, printed next to the profit rather than under it. No testimonials. We do not use any. No countdowns. The price is the price. Mechanism described. Four sentences, above. No credentials, no deposits. You open your own broker or prop firm account, we never touch it, and support runs through the contact form as a ticket rather than through any messaging app or phone call.
And the honest caveat, which belongs in the same paragraph: what we publish is a backtest, not a live track record. It covers 88 months and 4,557 trades, and it is still a simulation. If that isn't enough evidence for you, that's a legitimate position to hold.
Hypothetical performance. The figures above come from a simulation over historical data, not from a live account. Simulated results are prepared with hindsight, carry no financial risk, and cannot fully reflect real execution, slippage or liquidity. Past performance, real or simulated, does not guarantee future results.
Frequently asked questions
Are all trading bots scams?
No. Automated execution is ordinary technology used by every serious trading desk, and rules-based systems have existed for decades. What's crowded with fraud is the retail marketing layer around them, where anyone can build a sales page in an afternoon. Judge the seller's claims, not the category. The concept is explained in what a trading bot actually is.
What is a realistic return for an automated system?
There is no single number, and that is the honest answer. Results depend on the account size, the number of contracts, the fees and the market conditions, and any of those can turn a good month into a flat one. Anyone quoting you a specific monthly percentage as an expectation is either guessing or selling.
How do I check a seller before I buy?
Look for a published drawdown, a reproducible backtest with named settings, a described mechanism, a real refund policy and a support channel that keeps a written record. Then search the company name alongside words like "refund" and "review." Ten minutes of this will filter out the overwhelming majority.
Is a small monthly promise safer than a big one?
No. The problem is the word "promise," not the size of the number. A system that guarantees 2% a month is making the same impossible claim as one guaranteeing 30%; it just sounds more reasonable, which arguably makes it more dangerous. Any guaranteed return in trading is a fabrication.
What should I do if I have already paid a scam?
Stop sending money immediately, revoke any account access you granted, and change every credential you shared. If you paid by card or bank transfer, contact your provider about a chargeback or recall as soon as possible. You can also file a complaint with the CFTC or the FTC. Treat any firm that later offers to recover your funds for a fee as a second scam, because that is what it almost always is.
In short: guaranteed returns, unreproducible screenshots, a missing drawdown figure, invented testimonials, fake urgency, a secret algorithm, and requests for your credentials or your funds. Seven flags, five minutes. Point them at every seller you meet, this one included, and let the answers decide.
