> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.hydravision.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.hydravision.ai/products/asset-profiler/the-verdict.md).

# The Verdict

The paragraph at the top of your report, and the matching badge beside the symbol.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The common misreading.** That **Tradeable** means profitable. It doesn't. It means the way this asset moves and the cost of trading it are compatible — there exists a step size that makes mechanical sense. Whether you make money from there is down to your strategy and the market.
{% endhint %}

### The four outcomes

#### Tradeable

The asset's natural range of step sizes is intact, costs take none of it away, and they stay inside your tolerance across all of it.

This is the normal, unremarkable result. It doesn't mean the asset is a good choice, just that nothing about its mechanics rules it out.

#### Marginal

Costs have taken part of the asset's natural range. Movement alone would allow a tighter step, but spread and commission push the floor of the range up, so the tight end is gone. What is left is still workable, and the paragraph tells you how much was lost and where the range now starts. See [Band Compression](/products/asset-profiler/band-compression.md).

Less often, Marginal has a second cause: the Profiler's estimate of how much swap builds up while you wait for the retrace did not settle on a stable figure. The range is still reported, but it is less certain than usual.

Marginal is a legitimate place to trade. It describes what the costs have taken from the range; whether that price is worth paying is your call.

#### Not viable at these costs

The badge reads **COST CONSTRAINED**. Spread and commission demand a step wider than the asset's movement can retrace. There is no number that satisfies both.

This is the one verdict that no Hydra Vision setting can fix. The cost structure itself has to change: a different account type, a different broker, or a different symbol.

#### Not viable

Any one of three things produces it:

1. **The retrace never arrived.** The retrace the asset needs never happened, not once, in the sampled history.
2. **The wait outlasts the carry budget.** The slower waits (four out of five retraces arrive within this time, the p80 wait) are longer than the number of days of swap your cost tolerance can pay for. See [Carry](/products/asset-profiler/carry.md).
3. **Costs are too high even at the wide end.** Even at the widest step in the range, costs take more of the profit target than your tolerance allows.

Worth a second look at your window before writing the asset off. A profile run over an unusually quiet stretch can produce this on an asset that's normally fine.

### What the verdict is measuring

The Profiler works through these checks in order and stops at the first one that fails:

1. **Does the retrace arrive?** At the floor of the range, does price historically come back far enough to close a pair of positions? If not: **Not viable**.
2. **Is there any step that both movement and costs allow?** If costs demand a step wider than the asset retraces: **Not viable at these costs**.
3. **Does the wait fit the carry budget?** If the p80 wait is longer than the carry runway: **Not viable**.
4. **Do costs fit at the wide end?** If costs exceed your tolerance even at the widest step: **Not viable**.
5. **Did costs take part of the range?** If more than 1% of the natural range is gone: **Marginal**.
6. **Did the swap estimate settle?** If not: **Marginal**.

Anything that passes all six is **Tradeable**.

Under the step range on screen you'll see **floor set by**, which says what sets the bottom of your range. **volatility** means the asset's own movement sets it, which is the healthy case; costs are not what limits you. **cost** means spread and commission set it, and the range has been squeezed from below. The exported file also records a finer breakdown of what limits you (spread, commission, swap or movement), but the report only shows the two-way version.

{% hint style="info" %}
**The tolerance and target are settings, not facts.** The default is a 35% tolerance against a profit target worth 35% of the step. Those two numbers appear in the badge at the top right of your report. They're deliberate, conservative choices. If they were looser, more assets would read as Tradeable, and the verdict would mean less.
{% endhint %}

### Reading the verdict honestly

A verdict is about mechanics, not merit. Some things it deliberately doesn't weigh:

* whether the asset trends or ranges in a way that suits you;
* whether you can stomach the position count a tight step produces;
* whether the session you're able to trade in is the expensive one;
* anything at all about volume or risk.

### What to do with this

* Use the verdict to decide whether to keep reading, not whether to trade.
* Marginal is a prompt to read [Band Compression](/products/asset-profiler/band-compression.md), not a rejection.
* If you get **Not viable at these costs**, look at your account type before you look at the symbol.