Risk Disclosure

1. General Trading Risk

Financial markets are inherently unpredictable. The price of any financial instrument — including forex pairs, equity indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and shares — can rise or fall rapidly and unpredictably due to economic data, geopolitical events, market sentiment, and other factors beyond anyone's control or prediction.

All trading involves the risk of loss. There is no strategy, AI model, or algorithm that can guarantee profitable outcomes. Any claim by any party that automated trading can eliminate risk or guarantee profits is false.

2. CFD & Leveraged Product Risk

Cortex Trade currently integrates with Capital.com, a platform that primarily offers Contracts for Difference (CFDs). CFDs are leveraged derivative products. This means:

• You can lose more than your initial deposit on leveraged positions, depending on the instrument and margin settings.
• Leverage amplifies both gains and losses. A small adverse move in the underlying asset can wipe out your entire margin and result in further losses.
• CFDs are complex instruments and a high percentage of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
• CFDs may not be available in all jurisdictions. It is your responsibility to ensure that CFD trading is legal in your country of residence.

3. AI & Algorithmic Trading Risk

Cortex Trade's trading decisions are generated by an AI pipeline that analyses market data and produces BUY, SELL, or HOLD signals. This introduces risks that do not exist in fully manual trading:

3.1 AI Model Limitations

AI language models are trained on historical data and may not generalise well to novel market conditions, black-swan events, liquidity crises, or scenarios outside their training distribution. AI models can be confidently wrong. They do not "understand" markets in the way an experienced human trader might.

3.2 Past Performance

Past performance of the AI pipeline — whether in demo, backtesting, or prior live trading — is not indicative of future results. Market conditions change continuously. A strategy that performed well in one market regime may perform poorly in another.

3.3 Demo vs. Live Trading

Demo account results differ materially from live account results. Demo accounts execute at theoretical prices with perfect liquidity and zero slippage. Live accounts are subject to slippage, requotes, spread widening, partial fills, and market impact — all of which can significantly affect performance. Do not assume that demo results will be replicated in live trading.

3.4 Automation Risk

Once enabled, the AI pipeline runs automatically without your active oversight on each trade. You must monitor your account regularly. Automated systems can accumulate losses quickly if market conditions change adversely or if the system encounters an error state.

3.5 Prompt & Model Risk

The AI analysts and decision-makers within Cortex Trade are powered by third-party large language models (currently Anthropic's Claude). Changes to underlying model behaviour, model updates, or API availability can affect trading outputs. Cortex Trade does not control the behaviour of these models and cannot guarantee consistency across model versions.

4. Technology & Operational Risk

• Internet connectivity: Cortex Trade requires a stable internet connection to communicate with broker APIs. Connectivity loss may prevent order execution, position monitoring, or stop-loss updates.
• Platform availability: Despite our best efforts to maintain uptime, the Cortex Trade platform may be unavailable due to maintenance, infrastructure failure, or unforeseen events. We do not guarantee uninterrupted service.
• Broker API risk: Capital.com's API may be unavailable, may change without notice, or may reject orders due to market conditions, margin requirements, or system issues. Cortex Trade cannot force execution of an order that the broker rejects.
• Deal confirmation latency: Capital.com processes deals asynchronously. There may be a delay between an order being submitted and confirmed. During this window, market prices may move.
• Software bugs: All software contains defects. A bug in Cortex Trade's risk engine, position monitor, or order execution code could result in unintended trades, missed stop-losses, or incorrect position sizing. You should monitor your account regularly and be prepared to intervene manually.

5. Regulatory & Legal Risk

Cortex Trade is a software tool, not a regulated financial adviser, broker, or investment manager. We are not licensed by any financial regulatory authority to provide investment advice or to manage money on your behalf. All trades are placed in your own name, using your own broker account, under your own regulatory obligations.

It is your responsibility to ensure that:

• Automated trading is permitted in your jurisdiction;
• You comply with all applicable tax obligations on trading profits and losses;
• Your use of Cortex Trade does not violate the terms of service of your broker or any applicable regulation;
• You are aware of any restrictions on CFD or leveraged-product trading that apply to you.

Regulatory requirements around automated trading and AI-driven investment tools are evolving. Future regulatory changes may restrict or prohibit the use of services like Cortex Trade in certain jurisdictions.

6. Specific Market Risks

• Volatility: Highly volatile markets can trigger stop-losses at unfavourable prices ("stop hunting") or cause slippage that significantly deviates from expected execution prices.
• Liquidity: In illiquid markets or during off-hours, bid-ask spreads may widen substantially, increasing the cost of entering and exiting positions.
• Gapping: Markets can "gap" — open at a price significantly different from the prior close — due to news events occurring while markets are closed. Gaps can cause stop-losses to execute at far worse prices than configured.
• Correlation risk: Holding multiple positions across correlated instruments can concentrate risk in ways that are not obvious from looking at individual positions.
• Currency risk: If your account currency differs from the instrument currency, exchange rate movements will affect your profit and loss.

7. Risk Controls Are Your Responsibility

Cortex Trade provides risk management tools — daily loss limits, position size caps, circuit breakers, and ATR trailing stops — but these are only effective if correctly configured by you. Default settings are illustrative starting points, not recommendations for your specific situation.

You are solely responsible for:

• Setting risk parameters appropriate to your financial situation, risk tolerance, and trading goals;
• Monitoring your account to ensure the system is behaving as expected;
• Disabling automated trading and closing positions manually if you observe unexpected behaviour;
• Keeping your broker account sufficiently funded to cover margin requirements and potential losses.

8. Seek Independent Advice

Before trading with real money using an automated system, we strongly recommend that you:

• Consult an independent, licensed financial adviser who understands your personal financial situation;
• Thoroughly test the system using a demo account before going live;
• Start with capital you can afford to lose entirely;
• Read and understand the risk disclosures and terms of service of Capital.com and any other broker you connect.

9. Acknowledgement

By activating live trading on Cortex Trade, you confirm that:

• You have read and understood this Risk Disclosure in full;
• You understand that trading involves significant risk of financial loss;
• You are trading with capital you can afford to lose;
• You accept sole responsibility for all trading decisions and outcomes arising from your use of Cortex Trade;
• You have satisfied yourself that automated trading is lawful in your jurisdiction.