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Trading course red-flag scorecard

Open the seller's public pages and answer the checks below. Each one is tied to a rule or a regulator's warning. The result is a count of red flags, not a verdict on the person.

Before you start

What this scorecard measures

  • Marketing red flags, not course quality. A course can be honest and still weak, or have a flag for an innocent reason. Use the count to decide what to ask, and whether to wait.
  • Use public pages only. Do not pay, sign up or enter data to answer a check. If you cannot tell from public pages, choose "Can't tell": that is an answer too.
  • No score is an endorsement. A clean result means no red flags in what you checked. Never invest or trade because of it.
The checks

16 questions, grouped by what they test

ClaimsIt promises or implies a specific income (a monthly figure, 'financial freedom', 'quit your job') without showing typical results.Official anchor: FTC Business Opportunity Rule 437.4; Codice del Consumo art. 21; AGCM 2025 cases
ClaimsIt uses words like guaranteed, risk-free, sure profit or automatic income.Official anchor: SEC and FTC investor alerts; CONSOB 2025 note on finfluencers; AGCM 2025 cases
ClaimsProof is testimonials, screenshots or a luxury lifestyle, with no statement of what a typical buyer earns.Official anchor: FTC Endorsement Guides 255.2(b); CFTC and FCA alerts
ProofThere is no independently checkable record of live results: no broker statement, no full year, no losing months shown.Official anchor: CFTC Rule 4.35; SEC Marketing Rule 206(4)-1(d)
ProofThe record is a backtest, a demo account or the single best account chosen after the fact.Official anchor: Bailey and Lopez de Prado on backtest overfitting; Harvey and Liu
MoneyThe seller earns from broker, exchange or prop-firm referrals, and does not say so clearly.Official anchor: FTC Endorsement Guides 255.5; AGCM hidden advertising; CONSOB prop-firm communication 2024
MoneyYou are pushed to deposit with one broker, or to buy a funded-account challenge as part of the course.Official anchor: CONSOB communication on prop firms, 8 Jul 2024
MoneyA cheap entry leads to a ladder of dearer tiers needed to 'get the real strategy'.Official anchor: FTC Operation Income Illusion cases
PressureCountdown timers or 'last seats' that reset, or discounts that expire every day.Official anchor: Codice del Consumo art. 23 c.1 lett. g; UCPD Annex I
PressureRefund and withdrawal terms are missing, vague, or depend on your results or screenshots.Official anchor: Directive 2011/83/EU art. 16; Codice del Consumo art. 52 and 59
IdentityYou cannot find a legal entity, address, VAT number and a real contact for the seller.Official anchor: Codice del Consumo art. 22 (omissions); AGCM 2025 cases
AdviceIt sells signals, 'copy my trades' or personal recommendations, and the seller is not authorised.Official anchor: TUF art. 1 c.5-septies and art. 18; ESMA; ASIC INFO 269
AdviceThe seller says 'not financial advice' but tells you what to buy and when.Official anchor: ESMA finfluencer statement 2024; ASIC INFO 269
RiskNo loss statistics or risk warning, while it teaches leverage, CFDs or futures.Official anchor: ESMA product-intervention measures 2018
CommunityA private chat shows only wins, and criticism or questions about losses are deleted.Official anchor: FTC consumer alert 2026; CFTC alert
CommunityReviews are only on the seller's own pages, or look bought, scripted or repeated.Official anchor: FTC Consumer Reviews Rule 16 CFR 465; Codice del Consumo art. 23 bb-ter

Result

Your count

Points: Yes counts the full weight of the check, "Can't tell" half. Weights are 1 to 3 and reflect how often regulators have acted on that practice, see the evidence.

The other side

What a good offer looks like

  • A syllabus you can read before paying, with what you will be able to do at the end.
  • A price page with the total cost, no hidden tiers, and a clear 14-day withdrawal statement.
  • No promise of income, and a statement of what typical buyers achieve.
  • A seller you can identify: legal entity, address, VAT number, contact.
  • Disclosure of every referral or affiliate income, next to the content that carries it.
  • Results shown with losing periods, in a form a third party could check.