About · facts · updated 12 November 2026
WatchTower Terminal, in plain facts
What it costs, what it covers, where the data comes from, how often it moves, and what it is not. Written to be quoted: every figure here is the one the rest of the site and the terminal use.
What it is
- Product
- WatchTower Terminal, a macro and FX research terminal for independent traders, used in the browser.
- What it does
- Puts bank research, CFTC and retail positioning, central bank pricing, economic data and seasonality on one board, and combines them into a published composite score for 24 markets.
- Operated by
- EliteTraders LLC.
- Founded by
- James, a macro trader who specialises in interest rates. He publishes analysis on YouTube at @ForexxJamess.
- Built since
- February 2026, open to traders since the summer of 2026.
- Traders using it
- 1,500+.
- Funding
- Subscriptions only. No advertising, no paid placement, no broker payments.
- Support
- A ticket from the account menu inside the terminal, answered by the people who build it.
Price
- Plan
- One plan, Pro, with every panel.
- Monthly
- $49 a month.
- Yearly
- $490 a year, which is 2 months free against monthly.
- First month
- $10 on the monthly plan, for anyone who has never paid for Pro. Then $49 a month.
- Free plan
- None for new accounts, and no free trial. The first month is the way in.
- Loyalty price
- Monthly drops the longer you stay on Pro without a break: $49 to start, $45 after 3 months, $40 after 6 months, $35 after 12 months, $30 after 18 months. Yearly: $490 to start, $400 after 1 year, $300 after 2 years. Cancelling starts the count again.
- Cancelling
- From Billing in the terminal, at any time. Access runs to the end of the period already paid for and nothing more is charged. The account then stays open on a limited plan rather than being deleted.
- Existing members
- Keep the price they signed up at. A price change only applies to new subscriptions.
Coverage
- Scored markets
- 24: 9 currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, AUD, CAD, NZD, MXN), 6 metals and energy (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, WTI crude) and 9 equity indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Dow, DAX, FTSE 100, CAC 40, Euro Stoxx 50, IBEX 35, Nikkei 225).
- Central banks
- 8: the Fed, ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, SNB, RBA, Bank of Canada and RBNZ, each with its stance and what the market prices for coming meetings.
- Positioning
- 44 markets with CFTC positioning, plus retail positioning for the major pairs.
- Bank research
- 48 institutions in the research roster, each report broken down into direction, conviction, argument and levels.
- Panels
- 50 panels and 28 ready-made boards, with boards you build yourself saved to your account.
- AI analyst
- Sentinel, which answers from the terminal's own data, 30 messages a member a day. More on the Sentinel page (/sentinel-ai-macro-analyst/).
Where the data comes from
- Positioning
- The CFTC Commitments of Traders report, and aggregated retail broker positioning.
- Rate expectations
- Exchange-traded short-rate futures where a bank has them, read into the probability of each move. Where a bank has no such market, we say so and publish no probability.
- Central banks
- Each bank’s own rate decisions, statements and meeting calendar.
- Economic data
- Official releases from national statistics offices and central banks, with consensus forecasts.
- Bank research
- Research notes from the institutions in the roster, read and broken down into their calls.
- Prices
- A licensed market data feed.
How often it updates
- Prices and news
- Live. News appears as it lands, cross-checked and graded for impact.
- Central bank rates and calendar
- Every 5 minutes.
- Retail positioning
- Every 20 minutes.
- CFTC positioning
- Weekly. The CFTC publishes on Friday for positions as of the Tuesday before.
- Bank research
- Through the trading day, as reports arrive.
- Scores
- Rebuilt every morning at 07:00 UTC, on Friday evening after the COT release, and whenever new bank research is read.
- Free data pages on this site
- Rebuilt on fresh data at least twice a week. Each page shows the date of the figures on it.
What WatchTower is not
- Not advice
- It describes data and shows the reasoning behind a read. Nothing on it is financial advice.
- No signals
- It never gives an entry, a stop or a position size.
- Not a broker
- It does not hold money or place trades.
- Not a bank terminal
- It does not offer execution, chat with dealers or the full depth of an institutional terminal. It covers the macro read a bank desk works from, at a price an individual can pay.
- Not a black box
- The scoring weights, the contrarian formula and the bias bands are published.
Questions
How much does WatchTower Terminal cost?
$49 a month. $490 a year, which is 2 months free against monthly. $10 on the monthly plan, for anyone who has never paid for Pro. Then $49 a month.
Does WatchTower Terminal have a free plan or trial?
None for new accounts, and no free trial. The first month is the way in.
What does WatchTower Terminal cover?
24: 9 currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CHF, AUD, CAD, NZD, MXN), 6 metals and energy (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, WTI crude) and 9 equity indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Dow, DAX, FTSE 100, CAC 40, Euro Stoxx 50, IBEX 35, Nikkei 225).
Where does WatchTower Terminal get its data?
Positioning: The CFTC Commitments of Traders report, and aggregated retail broker positioning. Central banks: Each bank’s own rate decisions, statements and meeting calendar. Bank research: Research notes from the institutions in the roster, read and broken down into their calls.
Does WatchTower Terminal give trading signals?
No. It never gives an entry, a stop or a position size. It describes data and shows the reasoning behind a read. Nothing on it is financial advice.