Research membership

A token-based research model built around process, not hot picks.

The core commercial system should preserve the diagnostic brand: public teasers and public thematic notes build trust, while premium research is unlocked through memberships, tokens, and a measured release cadence rather than live trade calls.

The secure rule is simple: only teaser content belongs in the public front-end bundle. Full premium content, token ledgers, reactions, and moderation flows must be enforced server-side.

See tiers Open publisher system

Commercial position

Monetize the research process, not real-time execution.

Daily candidate lists keep the front page alive and sharpen watchlists.
Deep dives and industry diagnosis become the premium center of gravity.
Thematic market stories keep public readers engaged and help social distribution.

Editorial design

How to be engaging and informative at the same time

Engagement should come from clarity, tension, and process visibility, not performative certainty.

Daily candidate lists

Engagement lever: ranked triage

Use a headline that names the mispricing mechanism, not the tickers.
List two to five candidates with one sentence on why each made the cut.
End each with the disconfirming fact that would kill the idea quickly.

Deep dives

Engagement lever: diagnosis

Lead with the contradiction between price and underlying reality.
Explain what is symptom versus disease before discussing valuation.
Publish the full logic chain: business, balance sheet, management, valuation, failure case.

Story of the market

Engagement lever: one clean frame

Start with the current market behavior that feels contradictory.
Reduce the tape to a single thematic lens readers can reuse.
Link that theme to specific candidate lists or deep dives.

Social system

The goal is to open a loop, teach one idea, and create a reason to click through.

X / short-form

Use tension, not conclusion

Template: “The market is treating X as if Y, but the real question is Z.” Keep it to one sharp claim and one reason.

Use the mini-essay

Template: frame the common mistake, explain the mechanism, show why it matters for valuation, then point to the full write-up.

Use the reveal

Lead with the mispricing source: delayed normalization, industry flattening, hidden recurrence, reserve noise, or selective market impatience.

Membership tiers

Three tiers, one token economy

Teasers are public. Members consume tokens to unlock reports. The best research remains impersonal and regularly published.

Free

Discovery tier

Public teasers and selected public thematic notes.
6 tokens per week.
Articles unlock on a 7-day delay.
No live newsletter delivery.

Paid

Research tier

24 tokens per week.
Live access to candidate lists and standard deep dives.
Moderated reactions and responses.
Priority access to archives and search.

Elite

Inner-circle tier

60 tokens per week.
Live access to all research.
Email research letter and premium report distribution.
Access to elite-only reactions, Q&A, and workshop invites.

Token mechanics

Suggested token rules

The token system should reward commitment and referrals without becoming gameable or spammy.

Reading costs

Daily candidate list: 2 tokens
Standard deep dive: 4 tokens
Major industry package: 5 to 6 tokens
Story of the market: usually public, occasionally 1 token if premium-expanded

Referral rewards

Referred free member: +1 token
Referred paid member: +6 tokens
Referred elite member: +14 tokens
Only grant after completed signup and anti-fraud validation.

Earned social rewards

Allow 1 to 3 rewardable posts per week.
Require verified social handles and specific campaign URLs.
Grant tokens only after the post remains live and passes moderation rules.

Security architecture

What “highly secure” actually requires

A static site alone cannot securely protect premium articles, token balances, or moderated discussions.

Public front end

Keep only teaser content in the public bundle

The static Pages site should expose article metadata, teasers, and CTA states only. Never ship full premium text in `posts.js` if the article is meant to be protected.

Auth and tokens

Use a server-side ledger

Token balances, unlock history, referral rewards, and membership tier checks should live in a signed server-side ledger with audit logs, not in browser storage.

Payments and fraud

Verify memberships through webhooks

Grant or revoke paid and elite access only after payment-provider webhook confirmation. Add rate limits, bot protection, and replay protection for referral and social-reward claims.

Premium delivery

Serve full articles through authenticated endpoints

Full member posts should be fetched only after the server validates session, tier, token balance, and delay rules. The response should be uncached or private-cached per user.

Reactions and responses

Moderation queue, not instant posting

Subscribers can submit reactions, but all posts should enter a moderation queue with profanity filtering, account-age checks, rate limits, and a manual approval step.

Operational safety

Use roles and logs

Separate author, moderator, and admin permissions. Log unlocks, token grants, tier changes, and moderation actions so disputes or abuse patterns can be traced later.