StandardPoorly · Forensic Signals · Members

Forensic Signals

The accounting tells, scored from SEC XBRL and backtested out-of-sample. Short the books that look cooked; long the books that are clean. The live screen is members-only.

The validated edge

Measured on ~3,000 US filers, event = the 10-K filing date (no look-ahead), returns abnormal vs SPY, and put through the same gauntlet as everything we publish: held-out validation, bootstrap confidence intervals, sign-stability, and Benjamini-Hochberg FDR. These survived.

SHORT · 21 days

Beneish manipulation flag

-8.09%
69.6% negative · n=79

When the earnings-manipulation model trips, the stock drops ~8% in three weeks, two times out of three.

LONG · 6 months

Cleanest-accruals decile

+13.11%
n=636 · CI [6.71, 19.88]

Companies whose earnings are fully backed by cash flow beat the market by double digits over the following two quarters — compounding to ~+25% at a year.

SHORT · 21 days

Any forensic flag

-2.18%
56.8% neg · n=957

The broad short basket — any of the four flags — underperforms on a one-month horizon.

The live screen

🔒 Members only

3 names on the short watch · 25 on the clean-long screen, right now.

Members see every ticker, its forensic score, the exact flag, and the backtested edge per signal — live, the day the filing posts. Free readers see the methodology and the 90-day-delayed reveal below.

What members saw — revealed

Forensic flags go public 90 days after members see them live. Across 128 past short flags, 77 (60%) fell relative to the market since the signal. Here’s the spread — the big wins and the ones that didn’t work, because honest beats cherry-picked.

TickerFlagFlaggedSince vs SPY
PSIXHigh accruals2026-03-02-64.3% ✓ (short won)
LCIDInventory outrunning sales2026-02-24-57.2% ✓ (short won)
ADMABeneish manipulation model2026-02-25-55% ✓ (short won)
KTOSHigh accruals2026-02-23-50.5% ✓ (short won)
WINGHigh accruals2026-02-18-50.5% ✓ (short won)
RUNHigh accruals2026-02-26-48.7% ✓ (short won)
INSPBeneish manipulation model2026-02-13-42.2% ✓ (short won)
UUUUInventory outrunning sales2026-02-26-41.3% ✓ (short won)
DFHHigh accruals2026-02-24-32.5% ✓ (short won)
NVRHigh accruals2026-02-11-31.1% ✓ (short won)
NKTRHigh accruals2026-03-13-30.8% ✓ (short won)
OLEDInventory outrunning sales2026-02-19-30.8% ✓ (short won)

A short “wins” when the stock fell vs SPY (green). 90-day embargo. Not investment advice.

— More depth available —

Across the whole cohort, here's what Analyst + Trader unlock —

Analyst$19/mo founder
  • Every trade, every ticker — entry date, entry price, sizing, exit, realized P&L. The audit trail behind the headline number.
  • Win rate, average P&L, biggest winner, ugliest loser, capital deployed per ticker. Stop wondering whether the +60% headline is one moonshot or a real pattern.
  • Transcript receipts on every row — the exact quote, episode title, timestamp. Verify we didn't take the call out of context.
  • Off-the-books table — commentary-only mentions that didn't meet our INITIATE rubric. The "honorable mentions" we deliberately don't count.
  • Hot/cold streak analysis — was the edge real, or did wins just cluster? Drawdown stress test — what's the worst stretch you'd have had to hold through?
  • BYOB — swap conservative / balanced / let-it-ride methodologies and watch the same host's numbers change under each lens.
Trader$79/mo founder
  • Everything in Analyst, plus:
  • Market-state overlay — does this host outperform when markets are calm, when they panic, or both? Per-host breakdown across calm / normal / high-fear tape (so you can see whether the edge holds when it counts, or just in easy markets).
  • Alerts when a host opens, trims, or closes a position — email, SMS, WhatsApp, webhook. Stop refreshing the page.
  • Compound alert rules — "Chamath initiates a new position AND markets are high-fear AND it's an AI name" → fire. Build the exact setups you want to act on.
  • CSV / API export of every ledger — bring it into your own spreadsheet or model.
  • MCP server for Claude Desktop / Cursor / Claude Code (coming soon) — pull this data straight into your AI workflow and ask it questions.
  • Real-time intraday quotes on open positions — see the host's current book move tick-by-tick during market hours.
See full pricing →Join waitlistLaunch founder pricing capped at the first 100 Analyst + 25 Trader subscribers. Rates locked for 24 months from signup.

Base-rate signals across thousands of companies, not predictions about any one name — ~60% of forensic shorts fall, which means ~40% don’t. Small/mid-cap screen; borrow cost and liquidity apply to the short leg. Educational only. Not investment advice.