Free forex signals vs paid: what is different, and how to test before paying

There are two kinds of free signal channel. One is a marketing funnel for a paid service, and its signals are real because the paid service depends on them being real. The other is free because its purpose is something else: a broker referral link, a "mentorship", an account-management pitch. Work out which one you are looking at first.

What our free channel is

The free Telegram channel posts one to three signals a day from the same desk that posts VIP. Same process, same format: pair, direction, single entry, three targets, stop. No card, no registration. Every one of those signals is also on the results page after it closes, scored the same way as everything else.

It exists so you can follow real signals against a public record for as long as you like before deciding whether the paid plan is worth it. That is the trial. We do not run separate free trials or discounted first months, and the reason is simple: a trial has to be short enough to be a trial, and a short window of signals tells you nothing. Two weeks of a free channel against a record going back to 2023 tells you more than any seven-day trial could.

What VIP adds

The paid plan does not post different signals. It posts more of them, with management.

• Volume. Five or more signals on active days, forex and gold, against one to three in the free channel.
• Management updates. Target hit, stop to entry, partial close, early close at entry. The updates are the desk's live decisions on each trade and, for someone trading by hand, they are most of the value. The stop loss guide covers what they mean.
• Daily direction. A short view on where the dollar and gold are leaning before London.
• Support in the thread. Questions about a specific trade, answered by people who placed it.
• The copier at member pricing. VIP signals can run automatically on MT4 or MT5; the copier guide is about whether you should.

The plan and price details are on the plans page. The yearly plan is billed once, at £540; the "£45 a month" figure on that page is that number divided by twelve, not a monthly charge. We say it here because members have misread it, and it should be clear before anyone pays.

The sponsored route

There is a third way in: VIP without a subscription, funded by a partner broker's referral. You open an account through our link, meet a trading condition, and the seat is free while the condition holds. The rules, the broker and the condition are on the sponsored VIP page. It suits people who were going to open a broker account anyway. It does not suit people who want to trade elsewhere, and a seat that lapses stays lapsed.

The two-week test

Whatever provider you are considering, free or paid, run this before spending anything.

1. Follow the free channel for two weeks in a journal, not an account. Write down every signal with its entry, stop and targets the moment it is posted. Do not wait for outcomes.
2. Score them yourself. For each signal, note which target was reached first, or the stop. Use the closing message if there is one; use the chart if there is not.
3. Compare your scoring to theirs. If the provider has a results page, every signal in your journal should be on it with the same outcome. If it is not, or the outcomes differ, you have learned the most important thing about them.
4. Run the month through your take-profit rule. The take profit guide explains why the rule changes the result more than the signals do. Our backtester does this for our own record with any date range.
5. Only then decide. Not on the win rate. On whether the record was checkable, whether it matched, and whether the rule you would use came out ahead.

Two weeks is short. It is enough to find a provider who deletes losses, and it is enough to see whether the format and hours fit your life. It is not enough to judge the edge; for that you need the long record, which is why a provider without one is a provider you cannot judge at all.

What "free" should never cost

Your broker choice, if you did not want to change it. A payment "to activate" the signals, sent to the channel or its owner. A password to your trading account. A percentage of profits paid by hand. Any of those and the free channel was never the product; you were. A deposit into your own account at a broker you chose to open, as the sponsored route involves, is your money in your account; a payment to a channel to unlock signals is a different thing, and it is the one to walk away from.