TRADING RISK & HYPOTHETICAL-PERFORMANCE DISCLAIMER — TrueEdge

DRAFT — not legal advice; have a licensed attorney review before public launch.

THIS IS THE MOST LEGALLY CRITICAL DOCUMENT IN THE PACK. TrueEdge is a backtesting/simulation tool, so every performance figure it can produce — or that you show in marketing — is hypothetical/simulated. US regulators (CFTC/NFA for futures, FTC for deceptive claims, SEC for securities) actively enforce this area. Treat every result as hypothetical, disclaim it prominently, and never imply guaranteed or typical profit.

Placeholders — fill these in before publishing

[LAWYER: (1) Confirm the "not a CTA or CPO" position stated in §A and §C before launch — whether trading software qualifies as a Commodity Trading Advisor under 7 U.S.C. §1a(12) is a gray area that depends on the specific functionality and marketing; do not assume the position is correct without counsel review. (2) Review §G before publishing any testimonial. (3) Confirm this document is displayed at equal prominence to any performance figure in all marketing surfaces (equal type size, immediately adjacent). Delete these notes before publishing.]

PLACEMENT REQUIREMENT (mandatory): This disclaimer must appear at: (1) the first-run modal in the app, which the user must scroll and accept before use; (2) a persistent, non-collapsible footer or statusbar line in the app wherever results, equity curves, or performance statistics are displayed; (3) the website footer on every page and at [WEBSITE_URL]/disclaimer; and (4) immediately adjacent to any performance figure, chart, or claim in all marketing (website, Gumroad product page, ads, social media, email, video descriptions). The hypothetical-performance block in §C must be displayed at least as prominently as the results themselves — equal type size, not gray fine print.

Effective [EFFECTIVE_DATE]

A. Not financial advice; not a broker or adviser

[DBA_NAME] and the TrueEdge software are for educational and informational research purposes only. [DBA_NAME] is not a broker-dealer, exchange, investment adviser, financial planner, commodity trading advisor (CTA), commodity pool operator (CPO), or futures commission merchant, and is not registered with the SEC, CFTC, NFA, FINRA, or any regulator. Nothing produced by the Software or published by [DBA_NAME] is investment, trading, tax, legal, or financial advice, nor a recommendation, solicitation, or offer to buy or sell any security, commodity, future, option, cryptocurrency, or other financial instrument. You are solely responsible for your own trading and investment decisions. Consult a licensed financial professional before trading.

B. Trading involves substantial risk of loss

Trading and investing in stocks, ETFs, futures, options, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrencies involve substantial risk of loss and are not suitable for every investor. You can lose some or all of your capital, and in leveraged products you can lose more than your initial deposit. Only trade with risk capital you can afford to lose. Past performance — real or simulated — is not indicative of future results.

C. Hypothetical / simulated performance — required disclosure

TrueEdge is a backtesting and simulation tool. Any performance figures, statistics, patterns, "edges," equity curves, win rates, Sharpe/Deflated-Sharpe values, or other results it produces, and any such figures shown in [DBA_NAME]'s marketing, are HYPOTHETICAL or SIMULATED — they are computed from historical data and do not represent the results of actual trading.

HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN INHERENT LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, BECAUSE THE TRADES HAVE NOT ACTUALLY BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER- OR OVER-COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.

The block above mirrors the cautionary statement that CFTC Rule 4.41(b) requires of registered and unregistered commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and commodity pool operators (CPOs). TrueEdge is a general-purpose analytics tool sold to the public; it does not provide personalized trading advice for compensation and therefore takes the position that it is not a CTA or CPO and is not directly subject to Rule 4.41. [DBA_NAME] nonetheless adopts this language voluntarily as the strongest available safe-harbor template for hypothetical-performance disclosure, consistent with FTC Section 5 anti-deception standards. This block must be reproduced verbatim and displayed at least as prominently as any performance figure it accompanies. [LAWYER: confirm the "not a CTA" position before launch. Delete this note before publishing.]

D. Additional simulation limitations specific to TrueEdge

Even with TrueEdge's honesty features (sealed out-of-sample vault, Deflated Sharpe Ratio, walk-forward testing), simulated results still may not reflect real trading because they can omit or approximate: slippage, commissions, fees, spreads, financing and borrow costs, order rejection, partial fills, latency, gaps, market impact, and your own psychology and execution. Backtests are also subject to overfitting / data-mining bias: testing many patterns can surface an "edge" that is random noise. TrueEdge's validation features are designed to reduce — not eliminate — this risk. A result that passes validation is not a promise of future profit.

E. Your data and your results

TrueEdge analyzes data you supply. The accuracy of any result depends on the accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness of your data and settings. [DBA_NAME] does not verify your data and is not responsible for conclusions you draw.

F. No guarantee

[DBA_NAME] does not guarantee any profit, income, "edge," or specific outcome. Any performance figures or patterns shown are HYPOTHETICAL / SIMULATED results from a research tool; they reflect a specific historical dataset and methodology chosen for illustration and are not a prediction, representation, or warranty of any future outcome. Trading can result in losses.

G. Testimonials (if any)

Any user testimonial or review reflects that individual's experience and is not typical or a guarantee of your results. Testimonials are unpaid unless a material connection is disclosed clearly and in proximity to the testimonial. [LAWYER: review any testimonial, endorsement, or review before publishing it, including FTC Endorsement Guide requirements under 16 CFR Part 255 and the FTC's fake-reviews rule effective 2024-10-21. Delete this note before publishing.]

Disclaimer contact: [CONTACT_EMAIL]

Short-form disclaimers — copy/paste for constrained placements

One-line footer (website + app statusbar — required on every page and near every result screen):

Educational tool only. Not financial advice. Hypothetical/simulated results have inherent limitations and are not indicative of future results. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Full disclaimer

Near any performance chart or number (marketing + app — display at equal prominence to the figure):

HYPOTHETICAL/SIMULATED RESULTS — not actual trading; computed from historical data and designed with hindsight; no representation that any account will or is likely to achieve similar profits or losses; not a prediction of future results. Trading risks loss of capital.

Ad / social caption (character-limited):

Backtesting research tool. Not advice. Simulated results are not future results. Trading is risky — you can lose money.

Gumroad product-page top line:

TrueEdge is a research/backtesting tool for finding and honestly validating trading patterns in YOUR data. It is NOT financial advice and does NOT guarantee profits. All performance shown is hypothetical/simulated. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. See full disclaimer.