How we measure Telegram signal channels
Published · Updated
Every number on Explore comes from trades TTMT executed for its own users on their MetaTrader accounts. Nothing on these pages is a backtest, a provider screenshot, or a self-reported result. This page says what is counted, what is excluded, what the numbers cannot tell you, and what we gain when you copy a channel.
What counts as a trade
A trade is one execution on one MetaTrader account, opened by TTMT from a channel message and closed at the broker. Only closed trades count, including the ones our timeout cleanup closed; anything still open is left out until it closes, so the figures never carry floating profit.
One signal can become several trades. If eight TTMT users follow a channel, a single message that executes on all eight accounts adds eight closed trades to that channel's sample. The counts are therefore executions, not posts, which is also why a channel with more followers accumulates trades faster than a quieter one posting at the same rate.
Demo accounts count alongside live ones, and each channel page prints the trader split three ways so the two are never hidden inside one figure: combined, live only, and demo only. Deleted records are excluded, and accounts trading through a source other than Telegram never enter these figures.
The metrics, one at a time
Closed trades
The count of closed executions described above, over the channel's whole history on TTMT.
Win rate
Trades that closed in profit, divided by all closed trades, as a percentage. A trade that closed exactly flat counts in the denominator, not the numerator.
Profit factor
Gross profit divided by gross loss across the same sample. Above 1.00 the winners paid for the losers; below 1.00 they did not. A channel with no losing trade on record has no ratio, and the page says so rather than printing a number.
Traders in profit (90 days)
Distinct TTMT users whose net profit and loss on that channel over the last 90 days is above zero, against the number who closed at least one trade from it in the same window. Each person counts once, whatever their position size or trade count, and a user with both a live and a demo account is still one person. Below three traders the split is hidden: at that size it would identify individuals.
Max drawdown
The deepest equity fall a trader on that channel sat through, measured per trader against their own account balance, then taken as the median across traders.
We publish no profit and loss amount for a channel. Accounts run different currencies, balances, and risk settings, so a pooled dollar figure would say more about who happened to follow the channel than about the channel.
How often the numbers change
The channel aggregates are recomputed on a schedule through the day, and each channel page prints the date its figures were last pulled. Nothing is edited by hand between refreshes.
The ranking pages carry a month stamp taken from the data, and they rebuild daily. A channel that crosses the minimum sample this week appears in the table without anyone touching the page, and the month in the title moves with the calendar rather than with an editor.
Which channels get ranked, and in what order
A ranking page only lists channels with at least 100 closed trades and at least 5 distinct traders. Under that, one person's run of luck moves the whole number, and publishing it as a ranking would give it a weight it has not earned. Channels below the line stay on Explore with their figures shown; they are named on the ranking page as not yet qualifying.
The trader threshold uses the 90-day cohort, which is the stricter reading of the two windows available: five traders in the last 90 days means at least five traders across the channel's whole history. The trade threshold uses that whole history.
A channel's market is decided by its leading instrument, the one it trades most. The gold ranking lists channels whose lead symbol is spot gold. A forex ranking takes channels whose lead symbol is a currency pair, which excludes metals, indices, and crypto even when a channel also posts them. A channel with no instruments on record appears in no ranking.
A market gets a ranking page once at least three of its channels clear that sample. Two channels are a pair, not a ranking. Gold is the only market that clears it today, so gold is the only ranking page that exists; the others appear on their own when the data reaches the bar.
Order is profit factor, highest first. Ties break on the share of traders in profit over 90 days, then on trade count, then alphabetically. Every one of those columns is printed in the table, so the order can be checked rather than trusted. A channel with no profit factor sorts last.
What these numbers cannot tell you
The results are shaped by the people trading them as much as by the channel. Risk per trade, how many entry layers a trader runs, how they handle take-profits, their broker's spread and their own stop adjustments all move the outcome, and TTMT pools accounts running very different settings. Two traders on the same signal can finish a month on opposite sides of zero.
Demo accounts sit in the same pool as live ones. Demo fills are kinder than live fills, which is why each channel page shows the live and demo trader splits beside the combined one rather than leaving you with a blended figure.
Only channels TTMT users have actually connected are measured here, so the directory is a sample of what our users follow rather than a survey of Telegram. A channel with few followers has a thin sample, and a big trade count concentrated in two or three accounts is still a thin sample.
History does not expire. A channel that changed its strategy, its analyst, or its owner keeps the trades it produced before the change, which is why the trade count and the window matter as much as the ratio.
What we get out of this
TTMT sells the execution, not the signals. People copying channels is how the company makes money, so we have an interest in this directory looking useful. That is the conflict, stated plainly.
We take no share of a provider's subscription revenue and we are not paid for a listing or a position in a table. Providers can join our affiliate program and earn commission on traders they refer to TTMT; that money flows to the provider, and it touches none of the figures on their page, which are computed from executed trades by code that never reads it.
Editorial picks are labelled where they exist. A Recommended or Featured badge is a human choice by our team. Ranking positions are not: they come out of the columns in the table.
Ask for a correction
If you run a channel listed here and something is wrong, tell us. Descriptive fields are ours to fix quickly: the channel name, the description, the instruments, the access type, and the two links pointing at your funnel. Message @ttmtapp on Telegram or email [email protected]. TTMT users can also open a channel in the dashboard and use Suggest an edit, which routes the same proposal to us for review.
The computed figures work differently. We do not adjust a win rate or a profit factor on request, because they are derived from trade records rather than entered. What we will do is re-derive the disputed number from the raw trades and tell you what we find, and if the calculation is wrong we fix the calculation for every channel, not just yours.
Not financial advice
Nothing on Explore is financial advice, a recommendation to follow any channel, or a prediction. Past results do not predict future results. Trading leveraged products can lose you money quickly, and with some brokers more than you deposited. A channel that has been profitable for TTMT users to date may not be tomorrow.
Back to the channel directory, or the gold channel ranking.