Before you subscribe to any options tool

Trial & refund (EU law)

• Does it offer a 14-day cooling-off period? Required under EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU for distance contracts. Can be waived for "digital content" only with EXPLICIT acknowledgement at checkout.
• Does it allow cancellation any time without penalty?
• Is the refund policy clearly stated with concrete examples (e.g. "if you cancel on day 10 of month, you get X back")?
• Is the cancellation flow self-service (button in account settings), not "email us"?

If any of these are NO, file a complaint at signal.conso.gouv.fr (DGCCRF, France) or your country's consumer protection authority.

Auto-renewal (loi Chatel for French consumers)

• Does the provider notify you before each renewal (1-3 months in advance for B2C)? Required under French Code de la consommation L215-1 to L215-3.
• If they auto-renew silently, French law lets you cancel and request refund of all post-notification-window payments + admin fines apply to operator.

Identity & legal status

• Can you find the operator's full legal name? Required by EU e-commerce directive 2000/31/EC.
• Is there a physical address? "Independent individual in [city]" is NOT compliant.
• For B2B-able offerings, is there a VAT number? If they collect "VAT inclusive" pricing without a registered VAT ID, that's tax fraud.
• Is support reachable via company-domain email (e.g. support@company.com), not a personal Gmail?

Payment method

• Are multiple payment methods offered? PayPal-only is a yellow flag (single point of failure: if their merchant account is frozen, the business stops).
• Can you pay annually for a discount? Monthly-only with no annual option signals the operator isn't confident in retention.

Data source & freshness

• Does the provider name their data source explicitly (e.g. "Intrinio", "Polygon", "Yahoo")?
• Does every chart show a freshness timestamp?
• Are delays disclosed? "Realtime" should mean <1s. "Near-realtime" usually means 15-min delayed.
• Is there a public status page showing source health?

GDPR & data handling

• Is there a privacy policy linked from the homepage (not just buried in the terms)?
• Does it name the data controller, retention periods, third-party processors?
• If the operator is OUTSIDE the EU, can they prove GDPR compliance for EU users (Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent)?

Pricing transparency

• Is pricing visible before signup (not "log in to see")?
• Are all fees listed (subscription + any per-feature add-ons + payment processing)?
• If "launch pricing" is advertised, is the future price stated?

Methodology & honesty

• Are the analytic formulas public (e.g. how GEX is computed)?
• Are limitations acknowledged (e.g. "this is a heuristic, not confirmed flow")?
• Is there an education/glossary section explaining what each metric means?

Our own scorecard