Honest answers to
honest questions.

What is Jalen Trades?

A practitioner-led futures trading academy with a Discord-based AI co-pilot trained on 8 years of my real trading journal. Member tier gives access to the full 5-layer framework curriculum, an AI Mentor that answers in my voice with citations, a bot that grades setups before you click, and a private community. Cohort tiers add a 6-week intensive twice a year. Mastermind tier adds quarterly 1:1 with me and Opus-tier AI. Direction-agnostic. No signals. Built first for me, then opened to a small group.

What ships at launch vs later?

Day 1: Discord bot grading via /grade, AI Mentor (Haiku for Member, Sonnet for Pro, Opus for Mastermind), full 8-module curriculum, private community channels, automatic role grant on Stripe checkout, Cohort 1 enrollment access.

Within 30 days post-launch: Mastermind tier opens (application-based, $4,997/yr, 30 seats), Pro tier upgrade flows, Pine Script library distribution, weekly Friday newsletter cadence starts.

Not in the box, ever: stocks or crypto, auto-execution, buy/sell signals, hand-holding, outcome promises.

Is this a trading signals service?

No. The framework grades setups; you make the decision. The bot returns A through F with rationale, but it never tells you to take or skip a trade. Direction-agnostic by design — the same framework grades long and short the same way. If you want signals, this is the wrong tool.

Will the framework work for my trading style?

Best fit: futures intraday and swing structural trading on ES, NQ, CL.

Decent fit: any liquid futures contract with clean tape (gold, bonds, indexes).

Wrong fit: stocks-only, crypto-only, options-heavy strategies, pure mean-reversion, scalping under 1-minute. The 5-layer framework is calibrated for compression → paint → trigger price action — if your edge is elsewhere, the bot will grade everything F and the AI Mentor's journal context won't help.

Do I need futures experience to start?

No to enroll. Yes to extract value.

The free Module 1 is the literacy test — if it makes sense and you want more, you're ready. If it reads as foreign language, paper trade ES on a sim account for 30 days first, then come back. The page at /learn/how-long-to-become-profitable-futures-trader has honest expectations on the 2-5 year survival window.

Should I take the cohort or self-pace?

Self-pace if: you've been trading 2+ years, have a documented process, and the framework just refines your existing system.

Cohort if: you're 0-2 years in, want structured weekly accountability, want live group Q&A, or want a 90-day forward plan written for your specific account.

Cohorts run twice a year with a 25-seat cap. Founding-100 members get priority enrollment in Cohort 1.

What if I can't attend a live cohort session?

Every live session records to a private member-only YouTube channel. Async deep-review weeks let you submit a journal-based question by Wednesday and get my recorded answer back by Friday. The cohort is designed for people who trade daily — sessions are scheduled outside RTH (regular trading hours). If you miss two consecutive live sessions, I reach out to make sure you're still on track.

What is founding-100 and is the cap real?

First 100 members lock $19/mo for life. Standard pricing launches at $29/mo immediately when seat 100 fills.

The cap is real and atomic — when seat 100 lands, founding-100 closes permanently. Members who cancel later do not release their seat back into the pool (the cap protects early-community quality, not gameable resub volume). Lifetime price means lifetime: whatever standard becomes in year 3, 5, 10, founding-100 stays at $19/mo.

What if I sign up at seat 101?

Standard tier at $29/mo. Same product, same access, same Discord, same AI Mentor, same cohorts. The only difference is the price ladder — founding-100 saves $10/mo in perpetuity. If you sign up at seat 101 the day after launch, you pay $29/mo. If you sign up two years later, you still pay whatever standard is at that moment (which may be higher).

Why is annual prepay the default?

Annual prepay is the default because it locks in 12 months and keeps support predictable. For founding-100, annual is $228 for the year at the lifetime $19/mo rate and saves $120 in year one versus standard monthly pricing.

Standard Member annual remains the discounted yearly option. Monthly is the lower-commitment path if you want less upfront commitment.

Can I get a refund?

Subscription tiers (Member, Pro): refund-on-request within 7 days of payment, no questions asked. After 7 days, no refunds — but you can /pause-subscription in Discord (Member tier; resumes after 30 days, retains role during pause).

Cohort tiers: no refunds mid-cohort because the seat is taken from someone on the waitlist.

Mastermind: pro-rated annual refund within 14 days of acceptance.

Operator-discretion overrides exist for genuine fit-mismatches.

What is the AI Mentor and what is it trained on?

The AI Mentor is a Claude-powered chatbot trained on my 26,600-message trading journal across 8 years of futures trading. Ask "what did I do on FOMC days?" and you get an answer in my voice with citations to specific journal entries.

Member: Haiku model, 20 questions/day. Pro: Sonnet model, 100 questions/day, monthly office hours. Mastermind: Opus model with deep-research enabled, 50 deep-research queries/day.

Citations are clickable. You read the underlying journal entry, not just the AI's interpretation.

Privacy: who can see my journal entries?

Your journal data is yours. Member tier journal stays in your private Discord channel and is not used to train any shared AI model.

Pro and Mastermind tier journals optionally feed back into your personal AI Mentor (you can opt out any time via /privacy). Cohort group reviews are voluntary — you choose what to bring to live group sessions.

I see what you submit to me directly; nothing else. No third-party data sales, ever.

Five questions before you enroll

If your answer to any of these is no, this is the wrong tool right now — and the standard tier will still be there when you're ready.

1. Have I read the free Module 1 framework primer at /learn/the-5-layer-framework?
2. Have I read the case studies?
3. Do I trade futures actively (real or demo) on ES, NQ, or CL?
4. Am I willing to journal every trade for at least 60 days?
5. Am I OK with the 2-5 year survival window described at /learn/how-long-to-become-profitable-futures-trader?

If all five are yes, the cost-benefit math heavily favors enrolling.

My question is not here.

Email contact@jalenbuilds.com or DM @JalenTrades on X. Every question gets a written reply within 48 hours. If the question is high-value enough to belong on this page, it lands here within a week.

The fastest way to get an answer to a niche question is to ask it. I'd rather answer 10 specific questions tonight than have 10 wrong-fit traders sign up tomorrow and want to refund in 60 days.