How to check a Telegram signal provider before you pay

Anyone can open a Telegram channel and call it a signal service. Some are run by people who have done the work; many are a screenshot of a winning trade and a payment link. You can tell them apart in about ten minutes, before you pay anything, by checking nine things.

1. Who runs it?

Look for real names, and a way to check them: a professional profile, a company, a history that goes back further than the channel. A provider who stands behind the service puts a name on it. An anonymous admin with a logo for a face can close the channel tomorrow and open another one.

2. Does every signal have a stop-loss?

A complete signal gives the instrument, the direction, an entry price, a stop-loss and a target, at the moment it is sent. The stop is what lets you decide how much to risk before you enter. Signals without one, or with a stop that is moved after the fact, leave you holding a risk nobody defined.

3. Are results shown trade by trade, losses included?

Every system has losing trades and losing weeks. A record that shows only winners is a highlight reel. Ask to see closed trades in order, with the entry, stop and target of each one, and check that the losing ones are there too.

4. Are results measured in R, not in pips or screenshots?

“+900 pips this week” says nothing until you know how many pips were risked to make them. A profit screenshot says nothing without the account size and the lot size. R, the result as a multiple of the amount risked, is the measure that lets you compare one trade, one month or one provider with another. Our guide to R and position sizing explains how it works.

5. Is the win rate quoted with the payoff?

A 90% win rate can lose money if the rare loss is ten times the usual win, and a 40% win rate can be profitable when winners are larger than losers. A provider who quotes one number without the other is leaving out half of the answer. See win rate vs risk-reward for the arithmetic.

6. Is the evidence labelled: backtest or live?

Both are useful, and they are different things. A backtest shows how the rules would have done on past prices; a live record shows what happened to signals that were sent. A careful provider tells you which is which, says how long each covers and includes trading costs. Our guide to reading a backtest lists the seven checks to run on one.

7. Is the largest drawdown published?

Drawdown is the largest fall from a high point to the following low. It is the figure that tells you what a difficult stretch looks like and how small your risk per trade needs to be to sit through it. A provider who publishes it has measured it.

8. How does the provider get paid?

A plain subscription keeps the interests simple: the provider is paid for the signals. Be careful where the service is free on condition that you open an account with a particular broker, because a provider paid per trade or per deposit earns whether or not you do. And never send money to be traded for you: a signal service sends signals, and your capital stays in your own broker account.

9. Can you look before you pay, and leave when you want?

Good signs are a free channel or public page where you can watch how the service communicates, a card payment through a known processor, and a cancel button you can find. Pressure is the opposite sign: countdown timers, “last three seats”, payment by crypto transfer only, or a promise of a fixed monthly return.

The ten-minute checklist

Red flags at a glance

• Guaranteed profits or a fixed return per month.
• Screenshots of profit with no entry, stop or account size.
• No losing trades anywhere in the history.
• Signals without a stop-loss.
• An offer to trade your account or hold your money.
• Free signals in exchange for signing up with one broker.
• Nobody named, and no way to ask a question before paying.

How TFXSignals answers the nine checks

The people behind the service and the way its results are tested are on the About page. The results for each market, year by year and month by month, are on the signals pages, and the plans are on the pricing section.