Risk Disclosure

1. About this Risk Disclosure

This Risk Disclosure explains key risks associated with CFDs, forex and other leveraged trading products that may be discussed, compared or analysed on VeriLots.

It applies to all users of VeriLots, including users of our cost calculator, broker comparison tools, educational content, data displays, audit reports, broker profiles and related services.

This document does not replace the risk disclosures, legal documents, product specifications, key information documents, client agreements, execution policies, margin policies or fee schedules provided by any broker. You must read and understand the relevant broker’s own documents before opening an account or placing a trade.

2. VeriLots is not a broker

VeriLots AB is not a CFD provider, broker, investment firm, trading venue, liquidity provider, market maker, financial adviser or portfolio manager.

VeriLots does not:

• execute trades;
• hold client money;
• provide margin or leverage;
• determine whether a product is suitable or appropriate for you;
• provide individual trading advice;
• recommend that you trade CFDs or any other financial instrument;
• guarantee broker pricing, execution quality, liquidity, spreads, swaps, commissions or trading conditions;
• guarantee that any broker is suitable, safe, regulated in your jurisdiction, or appropriate for your personal circumstances.

Any decision to trade, open an account, deposit funds, use leverage, or choose a broker is your own responsibility.

3. CFDs and leveraged products are high risk

A Contract for Difference, or CFD, is a derivative product that allows you to speculate on the price movement of an underlying asset without owning that asset. The underlying asset may include currencies, shares, indices, commodities, metals, cryptocurrencies or other instruments.

CFDs are usually traded with leverage. Leverage allows you to control a larger market exposure with a smaller deposit or margin. This magnifies both gains and losses. A small market movement against your position can cause a large loss relative to your deposited funds.

You can lose money quickly. In some jurisdictions or account types, protections such as negative balance protection may apply to retail clients. In other jurisdictions, or if you are treated as a professional client, equivalent protections may not apply or may be reduced.

4. You may lose all of your deposited funds

You should assume that any money deposited with a CFD broker is at risk.

Losses may occur because of:

• adverse market movements;
• leverage;
• spreads;
• commissions;
• overnight financing or swap charges;
• currency conversion costs;
• slippage;
• execution delays;
• margin close-out;
• stop-loss failure or gap risk;
• broker fees;
• platform outages;
• liquidity shortages;
• market volatility;
• counterparty or broker failure.

Never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. Do not borrow money to trade CFDs or other leveraged products.

5. Leverage and margin risk

Leverage can make losses occur much faster than expected. If the market moves against your position, your margin level may fall quickly.

Your broker may issue a margin call, restrict trading, close one or more positions, or liquidate your account according to its margin and stop-out rules. Positions may be closed automatically and without prior notice.

Margin close-out does not guarantee that losses will be limited to a specific amount. In fast-moving or illiquid markets, execution may occur at a worse price than expected.

6. Market volatility and gap risk

Financial markets can move sharply and suddenly. Prices may change because of news, economic data, central-bank decisions, geopolitical events, liquidity shortages, market stress, trading-session changes or unexpected events.

Markets may gap from one price to another without trading at intermediate prices. If this happens, stop-loss orders may not execute at the requested level. Your actual loss may be larger than expected.

Volatility can also cause spreads to widen, liquidity to fall, execution to slow, swaps to change, and slippage to increase.

7. Trading-cost risk

Trading costs can materially affect your result. Even if your market direction is correct, costs may reduce or eliminate your profit.

Trading costs may include:

• spread;
• commission;
• overnight swap or financing charges;
• triple-swap or weekend rollover charges;
• currency conversion costs;
• slippage;
• mark-up or broker spread adjustments;
• platform fees;
• inactivity fees;
• deposit and withdrawal fees;
• account maintenance fees;
• taxes or other external charges.

VeriLots focuses heavily on trading costs because they are often underestimated by traders. However, lower displayed costs do not mean a trade is suitable, safe, profitable or appropriate for you.

A broker that appears cheaper in one scenario may be more expensive in another scenario because of instrument, account type, platform, position size, holding period, direction, liquidity, market conditions, account currency or timing.

8. Spread, swap and commission risk

Spreads are not fixed unless explicitly stated by the broker. Typical or advertised spreads may differ from the spreads available at the time you place or close a trade.

Spreads may widen during volatile periods, around market open or close, during news events, when liquidity is low, or during abnormal market conditions.

Swap and overnight financing charges may be positive or negative and can change over time. They may differ by instrument, broker, account type, platform, position direction and rollover day. Triple-swap rules may apply before weekends or holidays. Holding a position for longer than expected can materially increase the total cost of a trade.

Commissions may be charged per lot, per side, round turn, per notional amount, or according to another method. Always check how the broker calculates commission and whether it is included in displayed prices.

9. Execution and slippage risk

The price you see before placing a trade may not be the price at which your trade is executed.

Slippage can be positive or negative. Negative slippage means your trade is executed at a worse price than requested. Slippage risk may increase during volatile markets, low liquidity, news events, session changes, or when using large order sizes.

Order types such as stop-loss, take-profit, limit and stop-entry orders do not remove execution risk. Unless a broker provides a guaranteed stop-loss order under specific terms, your stop-loss may execute at a worse price than expected.

10. Liquidity risk

Some instruments may be difficult to trade at the expected price or size. Liquidity can change rapidly.

Low liquidity can lead to wider spreads, delayed execution, partial fills, rejections, requotes, larger slippage or inability to close a position at the desired price.

Liquidity conditions may differ between brokers, platforms, account types and market sessions.

11. Counterparty and broker risk

When trading CFDs, you usually trade over the counter with a broker or CFD provider. You do not normally own the underlying asset.

Your broker may be your counterparty or may route, hedge or internalise risk according to its own execution model. Broker models differ, and terms such as “ECN,” “STP,” “DMA,” “Raw,” “Zero,” or “Institutional” do not by themselves guarantee better pricing, better execution, lower total cost or absence of conflicts.

You should consider the broker’s regulatory status, legal entity, jurisdiction, financial stability, client-money protections, complaints history, execution policy, pricing model and terms before opening an account.

Trading with an unregulated, offshore or weakly regulated broker can significantly increase your risk of loss, fraud, withdrawal problems, unfair trading conditions or lack of effective legal recourse.

12. Regulatory and jurisdiction risk

Investor protections vary by country, broker entity, client classification and product type.

A broker may operate several legal entities in different jurisdictions. The protections available to you may depend on which entity you open your account with.

Retail clients in some jurisdictions may receive protections such as leverage limits, margin close-out rules, negative balance protection and mandatory risk warnings. Professional clients or clients outside those jurisdictions may receive fewer protections.

Do not assume that a broker’s regulation in one country protects you if your account is opened under another entity or jurisdiction.

13. Professional-client risk

Some brokers may offer or encourage users to apply for professional-client status.

Professional-client status may allow higher leverage, but it can also reduce important protections, including leverage restrictions, negative balance protection, compensation protections, appropriateness requirements or other safeguards.

Do not apply for professional-client status unless you fully understand the consequences and meet the legal criteria.

14. Data, calculator and comparison limitations

VeriLots uses available broker data, stored historical data, market data, benchmark data, user inputs and calculation methods to estimate and compare trading costs.

Although we aim to provide accurate and useful information, VeriLots calculations are estimates and may differ from actual costs charged by a broker.

Differences may occur because of:

• market movement;
• timing differences;
• data latency;
• account type differences;
• broker entity differences;
• platform differences;
• broker pricing changes;
• unavailable or stale data;
• data-source limitations;
• currency conversion assumptions;
• rounding;
• changes in swap rules;
• execution quality;
• liquidity conditions;
• user input errors;
• broker terms not captured by the model.

Historical examples are not current live pricing. Live or recent data may not represent the price, spread, swap, commission or execution available to you when you trade.

VeriLots may display scenarios such as “lowest shown,” “cost comparison,” “historical example,” “spread snapshot,” or “net P&L impact.” These are analytical outputs based on specific assumptions. They are not recommendations and should not be treated as a statement that a broker is best, cheapest, safest or suitable for you.

15. Broker rankings and cost comparisons are not recommendations

A broker that appears lower-cost in a VeriLots scenario may not be suitable for you.

Cost is only one factor. Other important factors may include:

• regulation;
• broker entity;
• client-money protection;
• execution quality;
• platform stability;
• customer support;
• product range;
• withdrawal reliability;
• account terms;
• order types;
• trading restrictions;
• tax treatment;
• your experience, strategy and financial situation.

Do not choose a broker based only on a single displayed cost result, ranking, example or comparison.

16. Past data does not predict future results

Historical spreads, swaps, commissions, volatility, liquidity and broker costs do not guarantee future conditions.

A broker’s costs and execution quality can change. Market conditions can change. Regulatory rules can change. Your own trading behaviour can change.

Past performance, past spreads, past swap rates or historical cost comparisons should not be relied on as a prediction of future trading results.

17. No investment advice

Nothing on VeriLots is investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, tax advice or legal advice.

VeriLots does not assess your personal circumstances, financial position, investment objectives, trading experience, risk tolerance, tax position or legal status.

You should seek independent professional advice if you are unsure whether CFD trading or any other financial product is appropriate for you.

18. No guarantee of broker accuracy or availability

Broker information may change without notice.

VeriLots may display broker names, account types, platforms, spreads, swaps, fees, regulatory information, source labels, historical data or broker links. This information may be incomplete, delayed, incorrect, unavailable or different from the broker’s own terms.

You must verify all material information directly with the broker before opening an account, depositing funds or placing trades.

19. Technology and platform risk

Online trading depends on technology. You may experience losses or inability to trade because of:

• internet outages;
• platform outages;
• broker server issues;
• delayed pricing;
• order-routing errors;
• API failures;
• mobile app failures;
• charting errors;
• incorrect settings;
• login problems;
• two-factor authentication issues;
• data-feed interruptions;
• software bugs.

VeriLots also depends on technology and data sources. Our tools may be unavailable, delayed, inaccurate or interrupted.

20. Tax risk

Trading CFDs, forex or other derivatives may have tax consequences. Tax treatment depends on your country, residence, trading activity, account type and personal circumstances.

VeriLots does not provide tax advice. You should consult a qualified tax adviser before trading.

21. You are responsible for your own decisions

Before trading, you should ask yourself:

• Do I understand how CFDs and leverage work?
• Can I afford to lose the money I deposit?
• Do I understand the broker’s legal entity and regulation?
• Do I understand the broker’s spreads, commissions, swaps and fees?
• Do I understand margin close-out and stop-out rules?
• Do I understand that stop-loss orders may not protect me fully?
• Do I understand that historical or estimated costs may differ from actual costs?
• Have I read the broker’s own risk disclosure, terms, fee schedule and product documents?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you should not trade CFDs.

22. Updates to this Risk Disclosure

We may update this Risk Disclosure from time to time to reflect changes in our service, market practices, data methods, regulation or risk information.

The version published on this page is the current version.

23. Contact

Questions about this Risk Disclosure can be sent to:

• legal@verilots.com
• VeriLots AB
• Sweden