Risk Disclosure

Last updated November 1, 2026

Only trade or invest money you can afford to lose. Futures and stocks can lose value quickly and by large amounts, automated trading adds technical risks, and the results we show are backtests, not a record of real trading. This page is part of the Terms of Membership.

Futures trading

Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Futures are leveraged: a small price move can cause a loss larger than the money in the account, and you are responsible for any deficit at your broker. Markets can gap past stop orders, so a stop does not guarantee a limit on losses. Prop-firm accounts carry their own rules (daily loss limits, trailing drawdowns, consistency and payout rules); an account can be failed or closed by the firm, and CPTL does not control or guarantee any firm's decisions or payouts.

Long-term equity portfolios

Stocks and exchange-traded funds can lose value, including substantially. CPTL Blue Chip and CPTL Growth can fall by half or more in a severe market, as they did in our simulated tests of past crashes, and can take years to recover. Their more aggressive versions carry larger drops. Rebalances are placed as market orders at prices that can differ from those in the backtests, and the timing of your approvals affects your results.

Automated trading and your computer

The CPTL Terminal runs on your computer and trades through your broker. Its results depend on things neither CPTL nor the software can control:

Your computer: it can shut down, sleep, restart for updates, crash, lose power or internet, or run out of battery. While it's off or offline, the algorithms can't open, manage or close trades as designed. Protective stop and target orders are placed at your broker where the broker supports it, but other exits (for example, flat by the close) come from your computer.
Market data: price bars ("candles") can be missing, late, wrong or incomplete from your broker or data provider. The algorithms decide on the bars they receive, so data problems can cause missed, late or unexpected trades.
Brokers and exchanges: outages, maintenance, API changes and limits, rejected, delayed, duplicated or partially filled orders, slippage, and disconnections mid-trade.
Setup: wrong broker settings, wrong account or contract size, running two copies, or credentials that expire (some brokers require signing in again every few days).
Software: despite testing, software can have bugs. Updates can change behaviour.

Check your positions and orders at your broker regularly, keep the computer on, awake and online while algorithms run, and start in paper mode. Losses or missed profits from any of the above are your responsibility and are not grounds for a refund.

Algorithms can stop working

Strategies that worked in the past can stop working when markets change. Our algorithms choose between versions using recent results, which can lag a change in the market. Results across members will differ with timing, size, broker, fills and settings.

Hypothetical performance (CFTC Rule 4.41)

Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not 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.

Our backtests include assumed costs and fills (described on our site), but real costs, fills and slippage can be worse. Equity portfolio results are shown before taxes and fees, and simulated survivability tests use rebuilt prices for years before some holdings existed. Past performance, actual or hypothetical, is not indicative of future results.

No advice, no guarantees

CPTL Technologies LLC provides software and general information, not personal investment advice, and is not registered with the SEC, CFTC, NFA or any state as an adviser or broker. CPTL is not affiliated with Topstep or any other prop firm, broker or data provider. Nothing on our sites or in the Terminal is an offer or a guarantee of any result.

Questions about these risks: support@cptlterminal.com.