Why Free Trading Signals Don’t Work

I get a number of inquiries from traders and a repeat question is some variant of “do you share free trading signals?”. It puzzles me how people can possibly expect a profitable outcome from free trading signals.

What would happen if trading signals were free? Allow me to explain why they don’t work.

Free Signal Providers Don’t Care About You

You cannot expect to become consistently profitable with free trading signals. The reason is simple: A free trading signal provider is not incentivized to help you succeed. If a trade fails, the provider couldn’t care less about you. You get what you pay for.

Losing traders give up and eventually drop off, and signal providers would have to attract the next batch of freeloaders. That’s why you will frequently stumble upon day-trading ‘gurus’ on social media. They can reach a large audience and automate their leads that way.

Traders Don’t Commit to Free Trading Signals

Another reason why free trading signals don’t work is that freeloaders are not committed to their own success. They are just exploring options and are unwilling to spend a dime. Such people are fickle. They are not the audience successful traders want to cater to.

I ran a chat group before where I shared my trades and my analysis for free. I would tell them where and when to place a trade, backed by annotated charts for reference. Do you know what happened there? Nothing.

Traders don’t commit to anything if things are free. They chat me up if they find some time after work and complain how they wished they had taken that trade. “Oh well, next time maybe”. Maybe? Do you understand how frustrating that is? It’s no wonder why these people are not profitable. They simply haven’t set their mind for success and don’t listen to people who are already successful.

Traders who pay for a service will commit. Their mindset is already geared toward success. In exchange, they can be sure that someone will guide them throughout the trading day and they gain the confidence to follow a proven trading process.

Money filters out fickle people.