CLF vs The Trading Cafe — the free trading school

Free is a real price.
A backtest is not a qualification.

The verdict in 20 seconds

The Trading Cafe deserves credit most providers never earn: the free tier is genuinely free, and they publish raw student data — 102,300 backtested trades in open Google Sheets — instead of lifestyle screenshots. Respect. The structural difference is what you hold at the end: their route ends in strategies and community; CLF’s £120 route ends in an Ofqual-regulated qualification — a 30-question externally moderated exam and a TQUK certificate an employer can look up.

How we compared: The Trading Cafe’s own published pages (thetrading.cafe), read and verified 14 July 2026. We credit what they do well, and we link every claim to a source you can check. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it.

One question exposes everything

Ask both schools: what do I hold at the end?

Completion · the exit check
ProviderThe Trading Cafe / Trading Academy
What you finish withStrategies, community, backtest log
Examined qualificationNone
RegulatorNone — not a qualification provider
ProviderCome Learn Forex
What you finish withAccredited Level 2 Award in Retail Trading
RegulatorTQUK — regulated by Ofqual · centre 38286404878
Checkable · before you pay

Their own disclaimer says it straight: backtests prove a mathematical edge, not live results — and neither is an examined qualification.

Scroll — run the check ↓
Who they are

The best free option we have reviewed — described honestly.

The Trading Cafe runs a two-tier model: a free school (95,100 members at the time of reading) teaching five complete strategies with 100+ hours of recorded sessions, funded by a paid tier, The Trading Academy, which adds a structured curriculum, up to 30 live sessions a week across Australia, UK and US timezones, and 1-to-1 education advisors. Students have submitted 102,300 backtested trades; the school publishes the raw sheets, reports a 71% average win rate across them, and — unusually and to their credit — states plainly that backtesting proves the edge in perfect conditions, not live trading results. Trustpilot: 4.8 from 1,362 reviews.

What the model does not produce is a qualification. There is no examined award, no external moderation, no regulator, no centre number to check. For many learners that will not matter. If it does matter to you — because you want assessed, certificated proof of knowledge rather than a strategy library — that is the entire difference between free and £120, and it is the difference this page exists to make plain.

Side by side

Free school vs £120 qualification.

What matters
The Trading CafeFree school · paid Academy above it
Typical influencer course$499–$4,997 · no external exam
Come Learn ForexLevel 2 · £120 all-in
Entry price
Free — genuinely
Usually $499–$4,997
£120 all-in
Ofqual-regulated qualification
No
No regulator, seller-issued certificate
Yes — TQUK, centre 38286404878
Externally moderated exam
No
No
30 questions, 70% pass, external moderation
Published raw results data
Yes — 102,300 backtests in open sheets
Lifestyle screenshots
977 member-reported live results at /results
Honest about what results prove
Yes — states backtests ≠ live results
Rarely
Yes — member-reported, risk warnings throughout
Live teaching
1–2 free events/week; 30/week paid
Pre-recorded
Live on a real London floor or online
Physical trading floors
No
No
London; NY, Dubai, KL
Independent reviews
Trustpilot 4.8 (1,362)
Often none
Trustpilot 4.5, checkable

Trading Cafe facts from thetrading.cafe, read 14 July 2026: member count, backtest volume, win-rate figure, session cadence and Trustpilot score as published by them, including their own disclaimer that backtested results demonstrate a mathematical edge rather than live performance. We think publishing raw data sheets is the right instinct and rare in this industry — we do it too, differently: 977 member-reported live results, transcribed from original posts, losses included whenever stated.

The honest bit

When The Trading Cafe is genuinely the right call.

You have £0 to spendTheir free school is genuinely free — no card required. If budget is the constraint, start there. Seriously.
You want strategy volume and community scaleFive strategies free, up to eleven paid, 95,100 members, sessions across three timezones. On sheer volume they are ahead of everyone on this page.
You value data-publishing cultureOpen Google Sheets of raw student submissions is the same transparency instinct our /results archive is built on. Credit where due.
You are not ready to commit to an examIf you want to explore before being assessed, a free school is the right pressure-free way to find out if trading is for you.
But ask the exit question: after the hours you put in, what do you hold that anyone else can verify? A backtest log is evidence of practice. An accredited qualification is evidence of assessed knowledge. If the second one matters to you, it costs £120 — and you can join their free school as well. They are not mutually exclusive.
The £120 test

Do not trust this page either. Test it.

1Check us firstVerify Approved Centre No. 38286404878 on the public register, read the Trustpilot reviews, search the founder by name.
2Sit Level 2 for £120Two days on a real London trading floor or live online. Exam and TQUK certificate included — an accredited qualification either survives an exam or it does not.
3Climb only if it earns itLevel 3 (from £4,400) holds your place with a £500 deposit that counts toward the price. The ladder is there when you want it.
Questions

The obvious questions.

By the standards of this industry, notably so: the free tier is genuinely free, they publish raw student backtest data in open sheets, they carry a 4.8 Trustpilot score from 1,362 reviews, and their own site states that backtested results prove a mathematical edge rather than live performance. Our difference with them is structural, not ethical: they do not offer an examined, regulated qualification.
The Trading Cafe school is free, with no card required. It is funded by the paid tier above it, The Trading Academy, which adds structured curriculum, roughly 30 live sessions a week and 1-to-1 advisors.
What you hold at the end. Their route ends in strategies, community and a backtest log. CLF's £120 route ends in an accredited Level 2 Award in Retail Trading: a 30-question externally moderated exam and a certificate issued through TQUK, an Ofqual-regulated awarding organisation, under approved centre 38286404878.
If your budget is zero, if you want maximum strategy volume and community, or if you want to explore trading before committing to assessment, start with their free school. You can hold a CLF qualification and be a member of their community at the same time; nothing about this comparison is either/or.
They prove it worked on historical data under the tester's assumptions — The Trading Cafe's own disclaimer says as much. Live trading adds spreads, slippage, execution and psychology. That is why CLF's published results are member-reported live trades, and why no honest provider promises profit: most retail traders lose money.

Join their free school if you like.
Sit our exam when you are ready.

Written by the Come Learn Forex team, led by founder Shoaib Ghauri. Published 14 July 2026. Facts drawn from each provider’s own published pages (thetrading.cafe) on that date; we correct errors on request. Trading involves substantial risk and most retail traders lose money; no course, ours included, can promise profit.

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