Editorial Policy
This editorial policy sets out how every page on Whitman Trading is researched, checked, reviewed, corrected and updated. Each page cites figures that can be recomputed from a named dataset, passes a set of scripted checks before it is published, and is fixed publicly, in the corrections log, when it is wrong.
Who is responsible
I’m Michael Whitman, and every page here carries my name because I’m accountable for it. My background, and the channel figures you can check for yourself, are on the about page.
How a page is researched
Figures come from data, not from other finance sites. Every page cites at least one figure that can be recomputed from a named dataset: the study of 24,971 trading videos, S&P 500 daily closes since 1950, the index’s bear markets and holding periods, and monthly bitcoin and gold closes. All of them are published, with downloads, on the research page. The rule is that a figure ships only if it can be recomputed from its file. “Sourced from” is not enough.
Rules and limits come from the body that sets them. Contribution limits, tax rules, margin rules and market hours are checked against the primary source (the IRS, FINRA, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, gov.uk), and where a page links one, the link was opened and the exact figure or rule on the page was found on it. Time-sensitive facts carry their date.
Worked examples show their arithmetic, so a reader can redo the sum. Where an example is hypothetical, it says so.
How a page is checked
Before any page is published, and again at every build of the site, a set of scripted checks runs over it. A page that fails any of them does not publish. The checks cover:
- Structure: the direct answer comes first, the required sections are present (including what the idea looks like when it fails), and the page links to at least three related pages that exist.
- Sourcing: the page names its dataset, the dataset exists, and the original-data section carries a real figure with a unit.
- Honesty: no win rates, profit figures or account returns; no guarantees or urgency language; no phrase from a banned list built from the FTC’s published notices about this industry; the educational disclaimer present exactly once.
- Charts and images: a chart built from real data must name its data file and its source; a diagram of a worked example is generated from the page’s own numbers and refused if a number does not recompute; a caption may not describe anything the picture does not show; illustrative price charts are labeled as not real market data and no statistic is quoted from them.
- The built site: every internal link resolves and no sentence is repeated across more than three pages. Before a release, each page’s structured data is also checked against what a reader can see.
Every new image is also looked at by eye, in light and dark mode and at desktop and phone width, before it ships, and a review row is written for it. The publishing script refuses to deploy a changed chart that has no review row.
What the checks cannot do is decide whether the teaching is right. That is why definitions are verified against the live platform or the primary source before writing, and why the corrections log exists.
How pages are reviewed
I set the rules above, and I read pages myself: when I review a page and something is missing or wrong, the fix goes into the rules so it applies to every page, not just the one I read. I don’t read every page after every change. The scripted checks run on every page on every build, and that is the point of having them.
How AI is used
This is the same disclosure as on the methodology page, word for word:
I use AI tools to help research and draft, the same way I use a spreadsheet or a charting platform. Every page is written to my own standard, carries my byline, and reflects what I actually think — including the parts where I disagree with the consensus in this niche.
I’m accountable for everything here. If a page is wrong, it’s my fault, and telling me in a comment is the fastest way to get it fixed.
How errors are corrected
When a page is found to be wrong, it is fixed and the fix is listed in the corrections log with the date, the page, what it said and what it says now. Rewording and spelling changes are not listed; anything that changed a number, a calculation or a factual claim is. Most corrections so far were caught by the site’s own recompute checks, and several led to new checks that stop the same kind of error coming back.
To report an error, leave a comment on any of my YouTube videos naming the page.
How pages are updated
Each page shows when it was published and, separately, when its text last changed. The “Updated” date moves only when the words on the page actually change: a fingerprint of each page’s text is stored and compared at every build, so a rebuild that changes nothing does not make a page look fresher than it is. Time-sensitive pages (contribution limits, rule changes, market hours) are checked against their source again when the rule changes, as the pages citing the 2026 IRS limits and FINRA’s Regulatory Notice 26-10 on intraday margin were in September 2026.
Independence
Nobody pays to appear on this site: there are no guest posts and no sponsored articles. Some pages link to brokers, exchanges and tools through affiliate links, which earn a commission if you sign up. Those pages say so above the first link, and a commission does not decide what a page says or in what order things appear. The full list of what I will not publish is on the methodology page.
Related
The datasets behind every figure are on the research page, and the largest of them is written up in What 24,971 trading videos reveal (2026). Every correction made so far is in the corrections log.
This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.