# Read a verdict

Open a run from [Runs](https://oathra.app/forge). Its page leads with the verdict: one word and one sentence.

## The words

| Verdict                      | What it says                                                                  |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Validated                    | At least one candidate cleared every stage                                    |
| Killed at the gates          | Every candidate failed the cheap checks, so nothing reached the hold-out      |
| Killed at the hold-out       | Some cleared the cheap checks, and none did well enough on the data held back |
| Killed at K-fold             | The hold-out was passed, and none survived the rolling windows                |
| Killed at the expensive tier | The last tests found none of them reliable                                    |
| Interrupted                  | The run stopped before a verdict, and its partial result is not one to act on |

## What to do next

- **Killed at the gates** usually means costs, too few trades or too many settings. Start with the Costs section of the Tester.
- **Killed at the hold-out** means the result did not hold on data the search never saw. Simplify the strategy before adding anything.
- **Killed at K-fold** means the result came from one stretch of history.
- **Killed at the expensive tier** means the best settings look like a product of the search.

> **Trap.** Changing a strategy after reading its verdict and testing again on the same data uses up the data. Each round makes the next pass less meaningful.

See [what the verdict tests](https://oathra.dev/docs/concepts/what-the-verdict-tests) for the stages in full.