What our signal labels mean: HIGH CONVICTION through WEAK.

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).

What each label means

• HIGH CONVICTION — the highest scores. Rare.
• STRONG SETUP — high scores, just below the top.
• CONSTRUCTIVE — above the middle, but with real trade-offs. Often good company numbers with a weak trend, or a hot trend with a high price for what the company earns.
• NEUTRAL — around the middle. The data isn't telling you to do anything.
• CAUTION — below the middle. More of the signs look weak than strong.
• WEAK — the lowest scores. The data looks bad on most counts.

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 the data looks strong right now. 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; a STRONG SETUP whose score climbs 13 points without changing label 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, open any scored stock's page and compare its label with its six factor scores.