What our signal labels mean: HIGH CONVICTION through WEAK.
Six descriptive labels, no buy/sell language. Here's what each one represents in the underlying score, why we picked descriptive words, and what it means when a ticker moves between them.
Every Tapeline ticker carries one of six labels. They're not buy signals. They're descriptions of the score's tier — which exists for legal reasons (we are not a registered investment adviser) and for design reasons (you should make the call, we just summarise the data).
The mapping
- HIGH CONVICTION (85-100) — all six factors aligned positive. Trend up, RS strong, fundamentals fine, smart-money net buying, macro supportive, momentum healthy. Rare.
- STRONG SETUP (70-84) — most factors favourable, usually 4-5 of 6. The kind of name that shows up in our scorecard most often.
- CONSTRUCTIVE (55-69) — net positive but with meaningful trade-offs. Often a great fundamentals story with a weak trend, or a hot trend with stretched valuation.
- NEUTRAL (40-54) — factors cancel. The data isn't telling you to do anything.
- CAUTION (25-39) — more factors negative than positive. Trend down, RS lagging, smart money distributing.
- WEAK (0-24) — broadly negative. Almost always reflects a clear downtrend confirmed by deteriorating fundamentals.
Why descriptive, not prescriptive
The previous version of these labels said BUY NOW, STRONG ACCUMULATE, ACCUMULATE, HOLD, WATCH, AVOID. We changed them on day one. Two reasons:
- Legal. Prescriptive language pushes you toward being classified as an investment adviser in the US, AU, and UK. Descriptive language ("here's what the data says") protects the publisher's exemption.
- Honest. A score of 92 doesn't mean you should buy. It means six independent signals are aligned. Whether to act depends on your portfolio, risk tolerance, time horizon, and tax situation — none of which we know.
What a label change means
The most useful watchlist signal isn't an absolute level — it's a transition. CONSTRUCTIVE → STRONG SETUP is a meaningful shift; STRONG SETUP → STRONG SETUP with the score moving from 71 to 84 is also meaningful. We send watchlist alerts when the underlying score moves by your threshold (default 10 points), not just when the label flips, so you don't miss meaningful intra-tier moves.
If you're new and want to play with this, the public scorecard at /scorecard shows every top-10 we've published and how each name moved the next day. That's the most honest demo of what the labels actually predict.
See it live.
14-day Premium trial. No credit card. The scoring formula above runs on every US ticker every minute.