A signal passes through four stages before it becomes a position in your account: identification, publication, delivery and execution. Cost and slippage accumulate at every stage after the first, and only the first belongs to the provider.
Stage one: identification
A trader or a system identifies a setup. This is the part that provider marketing describes, and the part you cannot inspect unless the provider documents its process.
Stage two: publication
The signal is written and posted. Providers publishing to a public channel are broadcasting to everyone at once, including other subscribers who will be trying to enter at similar prices.
Stage three: delivery
The message reaches you through a messaging app, email, a dashboard or a push notification. Notification latency, muted channels and time-zone mismatch all sit here.
Stage four: execution
You size the position, place the order and pay the spread and any commission. Your realised outcome can differ substantially from the provider's published outcome even when you follow the instruction exactly.
Why this matters when comparing services
Two services with identical published results can produce very different follower outcomes depending on entry precision, signal frequency and delivery method. Frequency in particular multiplies transaction cost.
Use our position-size calculator to convert a signal's stop distance into a size consistent with your own risk limit.
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