Risk Disclosure
Please read this before you use Mastbound Trader, and again before you let it place orders on any real or prop-firm account.
1. Futures trading can lose a lot of money
The CFTC's own risk disclosure for futures customers begins (17 CFR 1.55(b), quoted exactly):
"The risk of loss in trading commodity futures contracts can be substantial. You should, therefore, carefully consider whether such trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances and financial resources."
And its first point says (also quoted exactly):
"You may sustain a total loss of the funds that you deposit with your broker to establish or maintain a position in the commodity futures market, and you may incur losses beyond these amounts."
In plain words:
- On your own brokerage account, you can lose more than your account balance. You may owe your broker money after a large loss.
- On a prop-firm account, what you usually stand to lose is the account itself, its fees, and any payout you were working toward. Check your firm's agreement for what else you could owe.
- Leverage cuts both ways. A small price move on a futures contract, including a micro contract, can mean a large gain or loss compared with the money in the account. The CFTC puts it this way: "Leverage (gearing) can lead to large losses as well as gains" (17 CFR 1.55(b)(11)).
- You may not be able to get out. The CFTC warns that "you may find it difficult or impossible to liquidate a position", for example at a daily price limit (17 CFR 1.55(b)(9)). Fast markets, news, thin overnight trading and holidays can make exits slow or expensive.
- Stops don't guarantee a price. A stop-market order becomes a market order when triggered, so in a fast market or a gap it can fill far from your stop price. A stop-limit order may not fill at all.
- Positions held overnight or over a weekend can open sharply against you.
This brief statement can't list every risk of futures trading.
2. Automated trading has extra risks
Mastbound Trader places orders by itself, based on the strategy and settings you choose. That means:
- It acts when you aren't watching. A mistake in your settings can repeat before you notice it.
- It depends on your computer. If your PC sleeps, restarts for an update, loses power, or crashes, Mastbound Trader stops and can't manage your orders. Some orders may be held only on your computer, not at your broker (for example NinjaTrader's "simulated" stop orders, and on some connections possibly the stop and target themselves), and they stop working when your computer or NinjaTrader does. Check with your broker or firm which of your orders are held on their side.
- It depends on your connections. If your internet drops, or NinjaTrader, Tradovate, your broker, your prop firm, the exchange or your data feed is slow, wrong or down, orders can be missed, late, duplicated, rejected or filled at a different price.
- A position can be left without a stop. For example, if a bracket order is rejected or the platform freezes.
- Software has bugs. That includes Mastbound Trader and its safety features (limits, flatten times, stop checks, alerts, watchdogs). They reduce risk; they don't remove it.
- In Approve on phone, a tap on Take places or moves an order after its final checks. Anyone who can open your Telegram or Discord during a question could tap it.
- Phone control and alerts use other companies' services (Discord, Telegram). Messages can be late or never arrive. An alert can't wake you if you're asleep.
- Time settings matter. Session times, flatten times, holidays, early closes and contract rolls must be right. Wrong time settings can make a strategy trade at the wrong time.
Keep your broker's or firm's app on your phone so you can close positions yourself if anything goes wrong.
3. Prop-firm risks
- An evaluation costs money whether you pass or not. Paying for an evaluation doesn't mean you'll pass it, get a funded account, or receive a payout.
- Rule breaches end accounts. A daily loss limit, trailing drawdown, contract limit, consistency rule, news rule, inactivity rule or time rule can end an account, even when the account is up overall. A software fault can cause a breach.
- Firms decide. Firms can change their rules, refuse payouts, and close accounts under their own agreements. Mastbound Trader's firm information can be out of date.
- Some firms ban automation. Some firms prohibit automated trading, bots bought from others, trade copiers, or holding opposite positions across accounts (including accounts at other firms). Some treat identical trades by different people as copy or group trading. Using Mastbound Trader's order features at such a firm can cost you the account and any payout. At some firms, even running Mastbound Trader in watch-only mode, or an automatic flatten, might count as automation. Ask your firm in writing first.
- "Simulated" funded accounts are still real risk to you. Many prop accounts trade simulated money, but your fees, your time and your payouts are real.
4. Strategy risk
- Templates are examples, not recommendations. Built-in templates are the same for every customer. We make no claim that any of them has made or will make money. Being built in is not a sign that a template makes money; we have not shown that any of them does.
- Your own rules are yours. Rules you write, or generate with a chatbot, may not do what you meant. Chatbots can be confidently wrong.
- Webhook alerts (for example from TradingView) can arrive late, twice, or not at all, and their use may be limited by the alert provider's terms.
- Backtests and replays flatter strategies. They are built with hindsight, can assume fills that wouldn't happen, and can be tuned until they look good on the past (overfitting). See section 5.
5. Simulated and hypothetical results
5.1 The required statement
CFTC Rule 4.41(b)(1) says no person may present the simulated or hypothetical performance of an account or trades of a commodity pool operator, commodity trading advisor, or any principal of one, unless it is accompanied by either (i) the statement below or (ii) a statement prescribed by a registered futures association. We use option (i), the CFTC's own text, quoted exactly from 17 CFR 4.41(b)(1)(i):
These results are based on simulated or hypothetical performance results that have certain inherent limitations. Unlike the results shown in an actual performance record, these results do not represent actual trading. Also, because these trades have not actually been executed, these results may have under-or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated or hypothetical 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 these being shown.
Source: 17 CFR 4.41(b)(1)(i), Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR, title 17, up to date as of 25 September 2026), ecfr.gov. The spacing "under-or over-compensated" is as printed in the rule.
5.2 What counts as simulated in Mastbound Trader
Replay results, backtests, strategy tests, and any result on a practice, simulation, playback or demo account (for example NinjaTrader's Sim101 or Playback101, or a Tradovate demo account).
5.3 Where we show the statement
Rule 4.41(b)(2) (quoted exactly): "If the presentation of such simulated or hypothetical performance is other than oral, the prescribed statement must be prominently disclosed and in immediate proximity to the simulated or hypothetical performance being presented."
So we show it next to, not a click away from, every simulated P&L, equity curve, win rate or result table: in the app, on this website, in videos, in social posts, and in any screenshot we share.
6. Past performance
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.
This is the legend CFTC rules require before past-performance presentations in commodity trading advisors' disclosure documents (17 CFR 4.35(a)(9)). We use it voluntarily, before any real (non-simulated) result the app shows you, such as your own live journal. We never use customers' results on our website or in marketing.
7. Testimonials
We don't publish testimonials about profits, passing evaluations or payouts. If we ever quote a customer about installing, setup or support, we'll say that it may not be representative of other customers' experience, that it is no guarantee of future performance or success, and whether anything more than a nominal sum was paid for it.
8. Nobody is advising you
We don't give trading advice or recommendations, and we don't know your finances or goals. Whether futures trading, prop-firm evaluations or automated trading are right for you is your decision. If you are unsure, talk to a qualified professional who knows your situation.
9. Acknowledgment
The app asks you to confirm that you have read this Risk Disclosure. By using Mastbound Trader, you acknowledge:
I have read the Risk Disclosure. I understand that futures trading and automated trading can lose money (on my own brokerage account, more than my balance; on a prop account, the account and its fees), that software and connections can fail, that simulated results are not real results, and that I am responsible for every order on my accounts.