How to read a recommendation table

A recommendation table is the auditable record of what a research service said and when. If you can read one properly you can assess any research service in about four minutes, including this one.

The columns that must be there

• Date of recommendation. Not the date the page was updated. The date the view was first published. Without it nothing else can be checked.
• Price on that date. The reference point. A table that shows only the current price is showing you the outcome and hiding the entry.
• Rating, and what it means. "Buy" is meaningless unless the service says what it is buying against — a valuation, a horizon, or a stated thesis.
• Valuation basis. The reason the price was thought wrong. If this is blank, the recommendation is an opinion with no stated grounds.
• The review trigger. The written condition that would cause the view to be re-examined. See below.
• Status, including closed positions. Especially closed ones.

The two omissions that should end your interest

Closed positions are missing. A table containing only open ideas is a survivorship exhibit, not a record. The ideas that were exited are exactly the ones you need to see, because they show how the service behaves when it is wrong.

No review trigger. A recommendation with no stated condition for changing its mind cannot be falsified. It can be defended forever, in both directions. That is a tip wearing the costume of research.

What a table cannot tell you

It cannot tell you what you would have earned. Your return depends on how much you put in each idea, when you actually acted, and what you did in the drawdowns — none of which is in the table. This is also why performance figures are not published on this site: they would describe a hypothetical investor who behaved perfectly, and that investor is not you.

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Why this explainer exists. The recommendation table is the product, so knowing how to audit one is the single most useful thing a prospective subscriber can learn.