This page explains the main risks of trading and of every service offered under the brand The Source Finance.
It does not list every possible risk. Read it together with the Terms & conditions, the terms of each service, and the documents of your broker.
1. Read this first
- Trading forex, gold, crypto and other leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. It is not suitable for everyone.
- You can lose all the money you put in. Depending on your broker and your country, you may lose more.
- No strategy, trader, signal or software can promise a profit or prevent a loss. Nothing we offer is guaranteed.
- Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
- You decide what to use, on your own account, and you carry the outcome.
2. Leverage and CFDs
Most of the markets we cover are traded through CFDs and other leveraged products. You put down a margin, and you are exposed to a much larger position.
Leverage works both ways. With leverage of 1:30, a 1% move against you costs 30% of the margin you used.
If your margin falls too low, your broker can close your positions at a loss, without asking you.
Some countries cap leverage for retail clients and protect them from a negative balance. Others do not. Check which rules apply to your account.
Regulators have found that most retail clients who trade CFDs lose money. Where its regulator requires it, your broker publishes the share of its retail accounts that lose money. Read it.
Trading also has costs: spreads, commissions and overnight financing. They reduce your results, even on trades that win.
3. Markets
3.1Forex
Currency prices move with interest rates, central bank decisions, economic data and politics. They can move sharply, in seconds.
Prices can gap when the market reopens after the weekend, or around major news. Spreads can widen when liquidity is thin.
3.2Gold
Gold (XAUUSD) is volatile. It reacts to interest rates, the US dollar, inflation and geopolitical events.
Moves of several percent in a day happen. With leverage, they can wipe out an account quickly.
3.3Crypto
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) is far more volatile than forex or gold. Its price can fall by a large share in a short time.
Bitcoin trades around the clock, but your broker may not. Prices can gap between sessions. Laws on crypto change often and differ between countries.
3.4Indices
Indices are not offered yet. When they are, they will carry their own risks, such as gaps at the market open and moves driven by company results and economic news.
4. Expert advisors and automated trading
Expert advisors and other trading software follow fixed rules. They do not understand the market, and they can lose money for long periods.
- A strategy that worked in the past can stop working when market conditions change.
- Backtests are simulations on past data. They can be tuned to fit the past, and they leave out real costs, slippage and execution delays.
- Results differ between backtest, demo and live accounts, and between brokers, because prices, spreads and execution differ.
- Software can contain errors. An update can change how it behaves.
- Software depends on your terminal, your server, your internet connection and your broker's servers. If any of them fails, trades may not open, close or update as planned.
- Your settings, such as size, risk and limits, change the results. Running several programs on one account adds risk.
- A stop loss does not guarantee that a loss stops at that level. In fast or gapping markets, it can be filled at a worse price.
Watch your account. Software does not replace your own supervision.
5. Copy trading
These risks apply to Copy, our automated strategies, and to Traders, our manual traders.
- Your results will differ from those of the strategy or trader you copy. Timing, prices, minimum trade sizes, rounding, account currency, costs and fees all create differences.
- A multiplier above 1 increases losses as much as gains.
- A strategy or trader can lose, change style, take more risk, or stop trading. A good record does not protect you from that.
- Our review of a strategy or trader is not a guarantee of skill, conduct or future results.
- A strategy may be paused or retired, for example when it reaches its drawdown limit. This can happen while it is in a loss.
- When you stop copying, open positions may stay on your account until they close or you close them.
- Performance fees reward profits. They can encourage a trader to take more risk.
- Technical failures of the copy connection, the platform or your broker can cause missed, late or partial trades.
6. Signals
- Signals are general information, sent in the same form to every member of a room. They do not take your situation into account.
- A signal can be wrong. Many signals lose.
- Signals arrive with a delay, and the price may have moved by the time you act. Some signals may not be possible to execute at the stated level.
- Any size shown is a generic example. You decide the size, the stop and whether to trade at all.
- Delivery depends on Telegram and on your device. A signal can arrive late, or not at all.
7. Prop firms
Prop firms are independent. We do not control their rules, their decisions or their payouts.
- Challenges have strict rules, such as daily loss limits, maximum drawdown and rules on news trading. One breach can end the account.
- Many prop firms limit or ban expert advisors, copy trading, or the same trades across several accounts. Using our tools against those rules can void your account and any payout. Read the rules before you start.
- Challenge fees are often not refundable, even if you fail on the first day.
- Funded accounts may be simulated. Payouts depend on the firm's rules, its decisions and its ability to pay.
- Prop firms can change their rules at any time. Many are not regulated.
- Passing a challenge with a strategy in the past does not mean it will pass again.
8. Past performance and records
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
- Each record relates to a specific account, broker and period. Your account will not match it.
- Each record states whether it is before or after costs and fees. Read that before you compare.
- Backtests and simulated results are not real trading.
- Charts and screens on our site are illustrative unless they are marked as a live record.
9. Conflicts of interest
You should know how we and the people we work with may be paid:
- We may receive commissions from partner brokers, linked to the volume you trade. This gives an incentive for more trading.
- We may receive referral fees from prop firms.
- We and our traders may earn performance fees.
- Partners that offer our services under their brand earn a share of revenue.
- We, our traders and our providers may trade the same instruments as a signal or strategy, before, at the same time as, or after it.
10. Your responsibility
- Trade only with money you can afford to lose.
- Make sure you understand the product, the leverage and the costs before you trade.
- You choose your broker, your account, your size, your limits and when to stop.
- Watch your account. We may not be able to help in real time during fast markets.
- Check that you may lawfully use our services where you live.
- You are responsible for any tax on your results.
- If you are unsure, get independent advice from an adviser authorised in your country.
11. Regulatory note
The Source Finance is not a bank or a broker, and it does not hold client money. It does not provide investment advice or portfolio management.
Where a service needs an authorised firm in your country, it is provided only through such a firm, under its authorisation and its terms. We tell you the firm's name and its regulator before you start. Where no such firm is available, the service is not offered in your country.
Our services are not covered by any investor compensation scheme. Any protection of your money depends on your broker and its regulator.
Rules differ between countries and change over time. We may refuse or limit a service where offering it would break local law.
12. Contact
For questions about these risks, contact: