Three-Test Filter for Financial Influencers
Vet creators on incentives, credentials, and cross-checks.
The Three-Test Filter applies three checks to any financial creator: incentives, credentials, and cross-verification. Coffin draws partly from CFA Institute research showing that a large share of Gen Z investors get information from social media, making this filter a survival skill rather than a luxury.
The framework also reframes how to use creators at all: lean on them for concepts (how investing works) rather than picks (which stock to buy). 'Do your own research' is treated literally — recommendations from anyone, traditional or social, should not be the primary input to a position.
Its strength is in producing fast 'follow / unfollow / verify before acting' calls without requiring deep finance expertise.
- Show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcomes.
- Verifiable experience matters more than self-described titles.
- Cross-checking against independent sources catches most fake claims.
- Use creators to learn concepts, not to source individual stock picks.
- Sensationalism in finance is a structural feature of the platforms, not a bug.
- Map their incentivesIdentify how the creator gets paid: course sales, sponsorships, affiliate links, paid stock promotions. Note where their interests might diverge from yours.Pro tipFlag creators whose biggest income line depends on you taking immediate action.
- Verify credentials and experienceCheck whether claimed roles (ex-hedge-fund-manager, financial planner) can actually be confirmed externally. Plausibility and timeline matter.WarningA 20-year-old claiming a decade of hedge-fund experience deserves scrutiny.
- Cross-check the substanceTake any specific claim, especially numbers or causal stories, and verify it against independent sources — filings, academic research, or other credible creators.
- Use them for concepts, not picksTreat creators as teachers of frameworks (how to read filings, what an ETF is) rather than as a stock-tip feed. Pull tickers from your own research.WarningTreat 'this stock could 10x' content as a red flag, not a tip.
- Audit the feed quarterlyReview who you follow against the three tests. Drop creators who fail and seek replacements who teach concepts and disclose conflicts.
Coffin highlights videos sponsored directly by publicly traded oil, gas, and mining exploration companies, with SEC-style disclosures attached. The pattern is structurally close to a pump-and-dump and concentrates in highly speculative names.
He cites a CFA finding that roughly half of Gen Z investors in North America rely on social media to inform investing decisions, with about a third starting because of social media exposure.
Coffin admits his crisis videos perform best because viewers are drawn to short-term risk content. He guards against tilting toward sensationalism by aligning what he says on YouTube with what he tells clients professionally.
Coffin spends part of his channel reviewing TikTok-style finance content and engages with media-literacy questions repeatedly. He borrows the third test from a CFA study he cites, combining it with his own incentives-and-credentials checks built from years inside both regulated finance and YouTube.