Course adverts promise 7 to 9 winning trades out of 10. We wanted to know what these methods do when nobody can pick the good examples afterwards. So each method was written down as exact rules before any data was run, then tested once on up to 900 coins (including coins that were later delisted), from 2020 to 2026.
R = the amount you chose to risk on a trade. +2R means you won twice that amount; −1R means you lost it. Example: risk 10 USDT, then +2R = +20 USDT.
The 70 % win ladder
LosesBuy in three steps (now, −2 %, −4 %), take a small profit at +1.5 % from the average price, stop at −6 %.
It really wins most trades. But an average win is +0.17R and an average loss −0.98R: one loss wipes out about six wins. It lost money in 6 of 7 years.
The ladder with patience (no stop)
LosesThe same ladder, but wait as long as it takes for the small profit.
Almost every trade comes back. The 2 % that do not (delisted or collapsed coins) lose about 72 % on average; one of them costs about 76 wins. Some trades waited more than three years.
ICT
LosesA London or New York session sweep of the Asian range, a fair value gap, then a limit entry in the 62–79 % “OTE” zone, target 2R.
Lost money in every year from 2020 to 2025.
Smart Money Concepts (SMC)
No edgeLiquidity sweep, break of structure, then an entry on the fair value gap (4-hour chart).
About break-even after fees on 20 coins it had never seen.
Order flow
LosesPrice makes a lower low while buyers' volume (CVD from Binance taker volume) makes a higher low, then a reversal candle.
No edge on either the long or the short side.
Elliott Wave
Small edgeAfter a first swing and a 50–79 % pullback, enter when price passes the end of the first swing (“wave 3”); target 1.618 × the first swing.
+0.11R per trade on 189 listed coins, but only +0.06R on 706 other coins incl. delisted ones, and about flat in 2026. Positive, yet below our bar for Daily Picks. Its short side alone runs as an experimental beta on Telegram (shorts only, at most 2 a day), unproven, with its own live record.
A method that takes small profits and holds on to losing trades wins most of the time. The screenshots are real. But the few big losses decide the result, and they rarely appear in a channel. Always ask for the average result per trade and the biggest loss, not the win rate.
Every test, passed and failed, is on the Strategy page.
Research on past data, with fees and slippage; funding was not included for these tests. Past results do not promise future ones. This page is general information, not advice, and it is not about any particular channel or course.