Eligible universe
TradeScout evaluates U.S.-listed securities and excludes OTC securities, penny stocks, unresolved delisting concerns, halted securities, obvious promotional candidates, poor liquidity, unusually wide spreads, stale inputs, and setups supported only by social speculation. Stocks below $5 require explicit administrative approval.
Two-stage process
Stage one is eligibility: liquidity, price, listing quality, fresh evidence, and a defined risk plan. Stage two is a weighted 0–100 score. Each factor, weight, explanation, and evidence record is stored individually.
Confidence
Confidence measures the strength and agreement of TradeScout's current research signals. It is not a guaranteed probability of profit. Scores below 60 cannot be published. Confidence does not increase simply because price already rose; entry attractiveness still matters.
Entries and exits
Every active recommendation has an entry plan, post-publication trigger, stop, target, time horizon, invalidation rule, confidence score, and research explanation. Intraday records close by the regular-session end. Swing trades include time stops. Long calls are intended to be sold before expiration.
Analyst ratings
Analyst consensus supports a swing thesis but never creates one by itself. Buy, hold, and sell counts; average, high, and low targets; implied movement; rating changes; source; publication date; and last verification are required. If that record cannot be verified, the candidate is omitted.
Options selection
A new call must cost no more than $1.50 per share or $150 per standard contract, have more than 14 calendar days remaining, a nonzero bid, acceptable open interest and volume, a reasonable spread, and a strong underlying setup. Far out-of-the-money lottery tickets are excluded.
Freshness and verification
Every market-sensitive record stores its source, retrieval timestamp, market timestamp, expected delay, and verification status. Old information is never relabeled as current. Prices can be delayed and must be checked with a brokerage before trading.
Market Pulse
The eight required components are index trend 20%, breadth 20%, volatility and risk appetite 15%, volume 10%, sector participation 10%, macro conditions 10%, earnings environment 5%, and news and event sentiment 10%. Missing, stale, contradictory, or unverified inputs withhold the gauge.
News classification
Material items are classified bullish, bearish, or neutral, summarized in original language, linked to their sources, and tied to a score effect. Major claims use two independent sources where practical. Social posts alone never confirm a claim.
Lifecycle and corrections
Candidate, review, publication, entry, active, confidence changes, targets, stops, invalidation, closure, and removal are immutable events. Corrections append a visible record; historical recommendations are never overwritten without a trace.
Backtesting
Owner-provided or lawfully obtained files can be evaluated with walk-forward testing, fees, realistic slippage, decision-time evidence, regime segments, and appropriate benchmarks. Future analyst actions, earnings, or headlines are prohibited from leaking backward. Backtests remain separate from actual published results.
Known limitations
Browser-collected public data can be delayed, change format, or become unavailable. Automated access is limited to reviewed sources whose terms permit it. TradeScout never bypasses a login, CAPTCHA, rate limit, paywall, or bot protection. When the evidence is not adequate, the system withholds the conclusion.
Methodology changelog
Version 1.0 — July 18, 2026: Initial publication of eligibility, scoring, freshness, options, lifecycle, performance, and source-governance rules.