The rules we hold ourselves to.

1 · Educational only, never advice

Nothing on this site is financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. We publish no recommendations, signals, picks, price targets, or forecasts. We do not tell anyone to buy, sell, hold, or enter any position, in any market, at any time.

Where we describe how traders behave, we are describing practice, not endorsing it.

2 · No profit or performance claims

We publish no win rates, no back-tested returns, no "this pattern works 73% of the time," and no income claims of any kind. The peer-reviewed evidence does not support fixed pattern reliability, and we will not manufacture numbers the research cannot bear.

Where the site discusses whether patterns "work", it describes context-dependent tendencies and states the limitations plainly.

3 · Every simulation is labelled

All interactive tools — the pattern builder, the trainer, the simulator, the Monte-Carlo charts, the order book, the ticker, and the background visuals — run on generated data. They are marked SIM. No live market data appears anywhere on this site, and no tool should be read as showing a real instrument or a real price.

4 · Sourcing, and what we do when we can't source

Substantive factual claims are traced to primary or authoritative sources, gathered on the Sources page. Our rules:

• Figures that vary by source, jurisdiction, or period are described as estimates — never as fixed facts.
• Where experts genuinely disagree, we present the disagreement rather than resolving it for you.
• If we cannot source a claim, we cut it. We do not invent statistics, attributions, or authorities.
• We do not reproduce copyrighted text. Where a book or paper is referenced, it is described in our own words and cited.

5 · Fairness to methods we criticise

The Contested Room evaluates popular methodologies critically. Its rules: state the claim as its proponents would, separate the observable mechanism from the explanation attached to it, give a verdict, and acknowledge where the framework's better teachers get it right.

We criticise ideas and claims. We do not name, target, or disparage individual educators, and we endorse no methodology, product, or teacher.

6 · Independence

No ads, no sponsorships, no affiliate links, no paid placements, no broker relationships, and nothing for sale. If any of that ever changes it will be disclosed on the How this was made page before it appears on the site.

7 · Review and dating

Pages carry a "last reviewed" date. Market-structure facts change — rules are amended, thresholds move, off-exchange shares drift — so a date is part of the claim. Where our review date is old relative to a fast-moving figure, treat the linked source as authoritative over us.

8 · Corrections policy

We would rather be corrected than be wrong, and on an anonymous site the corrections process is the accountability. If you find an error:

[email protected]

• Tell us the page, the claim, and ideally a source. You do not need to be polite about it.
• Factual errors are corrected on the page, and the review date is updated.
• Where a correction materially changes a claim, we note what changed rather than silently editing.
• Disagreements about interpretation — as opposed to fact — may be added as an acknowledged counter-view instead of a correction.

9 · Accessibility & privacy commitments

The site targets WCAG 2.2 AA contrast, full keyboard operability, and honours prefers-reduced-motion throughout. It requires no account, and stores your progress in your own browser rather than on a server — see the Privacy policy.

▸ If any of these standards is not being met somewhere on the site, that is a bug and we want to hear about it at the address above.