Independent tool research
Reviews with receipts.
We run the platforms traders actually use through documented, fixed-protocol trials — and every factual claim is verified against its source before a page is published.
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The record
Why Your Trading Strategy Takes No Trades: Two Sensible Rules That Cancelled Out
Why a trading strategy takes no trades: our QQQ scalp's bar-close confirmation and 0.15% VWAP guard could never both pass. How to check your own rules.
TradingView's Invite-Only Indicator Marketplace Rule: What Happens to Access You Already Bought
From 1 November 2026, paid TradingView invite-only indicators can be sold only on its Marketplace. What buyers keep, what ends, and what to ask vendors.
Trend Following Diversifier Backtest: The Return and the Low Correlation Were in Different Variants
A 2008–2026 trend-following diversifier backtest: the tradeable version tracked the strategy it was meant to offset, and the uncorrelated one lost money.
Leveraged ETF Volatility Filter Backtest: Nearly Free for a Decade, Then 7 Points a Year
De-levering QLD to QQQ in high volatility cut drawdown in both halves of a 20-year backtest, but cost 1.4 points of CAGR in one decade and 7 in the next.
Options Backtest Stock Split Adjustment: How a Reverse Split Faked a +78% Week
Unadjusted options data turns a stock split into a fake return. How a 1:20 reverse split broke our backtest, the rule that fixed it, what to ask a tool.
Free Trading Journal Limits: Caps, Imports and the Export Lock-In
Free trading journal limits sit on the way in (import caps, manual entry) and the way out (export). What each free plan allows, read off vendor pages.
AI Trading Journal: What It Can Grade and What It Can't
An AI trading journal can grade what's already in your record, like tags, patterns and stats, but not reasoning you never wrote down. AI prices compared.
Broker AI Stock Screener vs a Standalone One: Where the Screen Lives Matters
A broker AI stock screener sits right by the order ticket, but only sees that broker's world. When a paid standalone screener still earns its fee.
1% Weekly Options Income From Selling Puts: What the Scoreboard Can't Show
Why a 1% weekly put-selling scoreboard can't show a losing week, how to mark the position to market instead, and what ratio rolls hide. With code.
When to Upgrade From a Free Stock Screener: The Triggers That Aren't Filters
Upgrade a free stock screener when delayed data, missing alerts, no export or page caps block a real job, not for filter count. What to check first.
Alpaca Trading API Review: 30 Days of Probes, and a Benchmark That Measured Its Own sleep()
Our Alpaca trading API review: 22 surviving paper-endpoint probe files, zero errors, REST medians near 78 ms, and an order-timing metric we retracted.
Pine Script vs No-Code Backtesting: Which One Fits How You Trade
Pine Script vs no-code backtesting is a choice of method, not product: what each one lets you express, where each hits its ceiling, and how to pick.
TradingView Free Trial Auto-Renew: It Converts to Paid on Its Own, and How to Cancel in Time
TradingView's free trial auto-renews into the paid plan you picked unless you cancel first. Our desk's trial converted: the timing and refund rules.
Which Brokers Removed the PDT Rule? A Dated Tracker, Broker by Broker
Which brokers removed the PDT rule? We read ten brokers' own pages in September 2026. Eight say the flag is gone. Here's what still limits a small account.
Best Options Data API? What You're Actually Buying at Each Price
The best options data API depends on what you're buying: recorded quotes, pre-computed analytics, or metered feeds. Four vendors' tiers, read 24 Sep 2026.
Webull MCP Server: Why the ChatGPT Connector and the Local Server Are Two Different Doors
Webull's MCP server comes in two forms. The hosted connector drafts orders you confirm in the app; the local server places them directly. What that means.
Agentic Trading and Crypto: One Broker Built a Door for AI Agents, the Other a Wall
Agentic trading now covers crypto at one broker via an MCP server and a ring-fenced account. At another, our probe found the eval wallet invisible.
FINRA's AI Trading Agent Rules: What the 2026 Report Says, and Who It Binds
FINRA's 2026 report names six risks of AI agents and asks firms to control them. The obligations land on your broker, not on you. What that means.
Kraken Prop Eval Review: The 17-Plan Fee Matrix, Priced Out Before You Pay
Kraken Prop's full evaluation ladder is public before purchase. What the 17 plans cost, which is hardest, and the two numbers the page never prints.
TradingView Alert Delay: What 1,170 Timestamped Alerts Actually Measured
Popular guides put TradingView alert delay at 100-300ms. Three fully reconciled sessions on our own webhook rig measured medians near two seconds.
Robinhood MCP Server: What 73 Tools and an OAuth Handshake Look Like Up Close
We connected to Robinhood's trading MCP server over raw JSON-RPC. It answered as robinhood-trading v1.4.0 and enumerated 73 tools. The full surface.
TradingView AI Chart Copilot: Who Publishes It, and the 15-a-Day Cap That Isn't There
TradingView AI Chart Copilot is a free beta Chrome extension. Its install link, its publisher and its real usage limit are not what the guides say.
How to Test a Trading Tool Before You Recommend It
The trial protocol this desk runs before any tool gets written about: a falsifiable hypothesis, a fixed method, recorded metrics, and a public log.
TradingView Review: What Our 30-Day Desk Trial Has Measured So Far
TradingView charts, screener and alerts under a fixed 30-day desk protocol: day 23, ten completed baskets, and the pass our ledger failed to reproduce.
The Claude Trading Bot Playbook: What the Viral Backtest Won't Tell You
A viral Claude trading bot playbook turns a prompt into a Pine Script strategy in an afternoon. Here is what its backtest cannot measure, with receipts.
Trading Tools Workflow: How Screener, Chart and Journal Chain Together
A trading tools workflow is three jobs in order: the screener narrows, the chart decides, the journal grades. The value sits in the handoffs.
Market Regime Detection: How Our Desk Classifies Bull, Bear, and Sideways
Market regime detection in plain terms: the two rules our desk runs on SPY and QQQ, what happens when they disagree, and what neither can tell you.
What Is a Stock Screener and How Do Traders Actually Use One?
A stock screener filters the whole market into a shortlist. What the filter types do, how a desk specifies a daily screen, and the mistakes that waste one.
Why Keep a Trading Journal (and How to Keep One You'll Actually Use)
A trading journal exists to make your own decisions checkable after the fact. What to record, what to review, and why most journals get abandoned.
TradingView Free vs Paid: Where the Paywall Actually Lands
TradingView free vs paid: Basic caps charts, alerts and history, not chart quality — and real-time exchange data is a separate purchase from every tier.
Broker MCP Servers: What an AI Agent Can and Can't Touch
A broker MCP server hands an AI assistant real account access. The three permission bands that matter, what community bridges reach, and how to bound it.
TradingView's Creator Program: What Script Authors Actually Get
TradingView's Creator Program lets Pine authors sell invite-only scripts. The eligibility bar, the 0% fee that expires, and how payouts actually work.
Prop Firm Crackdown 2026: What's Actually Verified Before You Pay
The 2026 prop firm crackdown is thinner on documented fact than the headlines suggest. What holds up against primary sources, and what does not.
TradingView AI Screener: What the Vendor Says It Builds (Untested Here)
TradingView's AI Screener turns plain English into Stock Screener filters. What the vendor's pages say it builds, costs, and may change or withdraw.
TradingView + Claude via MCP, Desk-Tested: What It Can and Can't Do
We ran a TradingView MCP server with Claude: the obvious pip install grabs another author's package, and a US ETF came back tagged as a crypto exchange.
No-Code Backtesting Software: What It Can and Can't Prove
No-code backtesting proves a rule ran mechanically on stored data. What that is worth, what it can never establish, and what the pricing tiers really gate.
AI Stock Screeners: What Plain-English Filters Can't Fix
An AI stock screener changes how a screen is written, not what a screen can know. Five limits that survive natural-language filtering, and the fixes.
Pattern Day Trader Rule Eliminated: What Actually Replaced It
FINRA removed the $25,000 pattern day trader minimum effective June 4, 2026. What replaced it, and why brokers have until October 20, 2027 to implement.
Running an Autonomous Trading Agent: The Operational Reality
An autonomous trading agent fails on infrastructure long before strategy. Clocks, silent overwrites, phantom data and delivery latency, from our own logs.
TradingView Alternatives: What You Actually Give Up
Most TradingView alternatives are cheaper or narrower. What each one costs, what it replaces, and the three things that are hard to replace.
ThetaData Review: What Real Options Data Fixed in Our Backtests
ThetaData sells recorded NBBO options quotes, not modelled prices. What the retail tiers cost, what our desk did with them, and where the data stops.
Backtesting Mistakes That Only Real Market Data Reveals
The backtesting mistakes that survive a code review are data mistakes: invented rows, the wrong adjustment basis, and fields that vanish between runs.
How to Validate a Trading Strategy Before It Trades a Dollar
How to validate a trading strategy: the seven checks our desk runs before a rule goes live, and why every one of them can only ever remove a strategy.
Options Backtest Fill Assumptions: Mid vs. Taker on Real NBBO Data
Options backtest fill assumptions can decide the verdict. On six years of real NBBO quotes, the same credit spread flips from profitable to losing.