A collective of burned investors conducted a market study. Here's who actually shared their broker data and who wanted to 'get on a phone call' instead.
Algorithmic trading vendors all promise verified, institutional-grade returns. Most will not let you check before you pay. This study grades each one on the same public-information checklist, so the gaps are visible before any money moves.
Every vendor is held to the same standard: can performance be independently verified, ideally through read-only data, instead of screenshots or a sales call.
Every fund is graded across four pillars and sixteen checks: can you verify it, does the strategy hold up, is the company real, and how does it treat people. One color per check.
Green means we verified it. Orange is partial. Red fails. Grey means the vendor never disclosed it, and we leave it grey rather than guess. We invent no numbers.
Green is earned. Grey is a choice the vendor made.
21 vendors analyzed from public information.
Scored 70 or above: discloses enough, in a checkable way, to clear our bar across the four pillars.
View the leaderboard →Scored 45 to 69: some real transparency, but meaningful gaps. Verify the specifics before trusting capital to them.
View the leaderboard →Scored below 45, or disclosed too little to grade at all (1 weak, 4 with insufficient public data).
View the leaderboard →All 21 vendors, grouped by their overall trust grade.
Every fund scored on what it actually lets you verify. Tap a card for the full breakdown. Last updated: .
Algorithmic trading has become a crowded space filled with confident promises, impressive-looking dashboards, and performance claims that are often difficult to verify.
This project started after a small group of private investors compared their experiences with automated trading vendors and noticed the same pattern: unclear risk disclosures, selective performance reporting, limited transparency, and very little independent verification.
The goal was never to attack the industry. The goal was to create a simple public reference point for retail investors who want to understand what is actually disclosed before trusting capital to an algorithmic system.
Every vendor is reviewed using the same framework: transparency, verifiability, track record quality, company longevity, business robustness, and reputation integrity. We do not score based on marketing claims. We only use public information, official disclosures, archived pages, regulatory references, and sources that can be checked. When something cannot be verified, it is not assumed. It stays grey.
Green means the information is publicly disclosed and verifiable. Orange means the information is partial, unclear, or self-reported. Red means there is a visible concern. Grey means the information was not found publicly. Scores may evolve as vendors publish more information or improve their disclosures.
We accept community contributions to pay server architecture and public domain data audit costs.
When asked for verifiable performance, vendors tend to deflect in four common ways. Watch for these before you buy.
Trying to sweep clear API requests under the rug by aggressively pushing a "quick validation Zoom call" instead.
Claiming that showing execution paths violates private code intellectual property (Read-only API access exposes zero system logic).
Immediate communication blackout. Chat rooms and support channels go completely silent the second API protocols are listed.
Stating that tracking real portfolio accounts constitutes unfair industry harassment or bad-faith intent.
Copy and paste this directly into support tickets to filter out unverified market risks before buying.
Subject: Read-Only API Performance Request Hello, Prior to finalizing my software deployment allocation, I require access to a read-only tracking link (Tradovate compliance link, NinjaTrader account sync, or Rithmic data node) linked to a live capitalized production execution server. Please note that our compliance checks do not parse historical spreadsheet logs, custom screenshot uploads, or video platform presentations. Let me know if your configuration is ready to authorize a tracking node. Thank you.
Keep this breakdown open next time you explore an upcoming portfolio vendor.
Get notified when the scorecards are updated or a new vendor is added to the study.
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