Terms of Use

Who we are

Nothing But Alpha is a project of Frank Kratzer, its founder, in California. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Nothing But Alpha, and "you" means anyone who uses what we offer. We're an AI-first company: AI agents build and run much of it, including the first draft of these terms, under human oversight.

Questions about these terms: legal@nothingbutalpha.app. Support: support@nothingbutalpha.app. Security reports: security@nothingbutalpha.app.

What these terms cover

• the website at nothingbutalpha.app, including our articles, findings, example reports, help articles and What's new;
• the AI help chat on the website;
• the free Backtest Auditor web check at /backtest-audit/check;
• the Backtest Auditor software package (backtest-auditor on PyPI) and its MCP server, as described below.

We don't offer accounts, payments or Proof of Call yet. Proof of Call is in development. Terms for accounts, paid plans and Proof of Call will be published before any of them launches.

Our Privacy notice explains what we collect. By using the website, the chat or the web check, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use them.

Information and tools, not investment advice

• Everything we publish is general information and software tools for educational purposes. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.
• We are not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer or financial planner, and we don't act as one for you.
• Our content and tools are the same for everyone. They aren't tailored to your finances, goals, holdings or risk tolerance, and we never ask about them.
• Don't rely on anything here to decide whether to buy, sell or hold a security, or whether to trade a strategy. For decisions about your own money, consider talking to a licensed financial professional. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal.

Backtests and examples are hypothetical

Backtest results, including the ones you check with our tools and the examples we publish, are hypothetical. They were simulated with hindsight and didn't come from real trading, and simulated results have well-known limits. Past results, simulated or live, don't guarantee future results. Our figures, findings and reports are produced by software and analysis that can contain errors.

The web check

• It reads the Python code you paste without running it. We don't store the code, log it, share it, use it to train models or send it to any AI model, and we don't keep the report. Our Privacy notice has the details.
• It takes Python code only, up to 200 KB per check and 10 checks per hour for each visitor. We may change these limits, or pause the check, to keep it working.
• It misses many leaks. Our published test results, including what it missed, are on Findings. A clean result is weak evidence, not a clean bill of health, and it doesn't mean a strategy will make money.
• Only paste code you have the right to share. Remove API keys, passwords, tokens and other secrets first, and don't paste personal information about other people.

The software package

The Backtest Auditor package and its MCP server are open-source software licensed under the Apache License 2.0. That license, not these terms, governs how you may copy, use, change and share the software, and it has its own disclaimer of warranties and limit of liability. When you run it on your own machine, it reads code without running it and sends nothing to us. If you use it through an AI assistant, what you share with that assistant goes to the assistant's provider under that provider's terms. Its reports are hypothetical reviews, not investment advice, as described above.

The AI help chat

The help chat is an AI assistant that answers from our published help articles. Its answers can be wrong or incomplete, so check anything important against the articles or email support@nothingbutalpha.app. It can't give investment advice and can't pass messages to a person. What you type is sent to Anthropic, our AI provider, to generate an answer, so please don't share personal, financial or account details in it.

Acceptable use

Please don't:

• overload, disrupt or attack the website, the web check or the chat, or try to get around their rate limits or size limits;
• scrape or crawl the website beyond what our robots.txt allows, or at a volume that burdens it;
• probe, scan or test our systems for vulnerabilities, except in good faith under responsible disclosure: report what you find to security@nothingbutalpha.app, don't access or change data that isn't yours, and don't publish details before we've had a reasonable chance to fix the problem;
• submit code you don't have the right to share, code that contains secrets or other people's personal information, or malware;
• present our pages, reports or the check's output as investment advice, as our endorsement of a strategy, or as proof that a strategy works;
• use anything we offer to break the law, or to harass, impersonate or mislead anyone.

We may block or limit access for anyone who breaks these rules.

Our content and third-party material

Apart from the open-source software and material that belongs to others, the website's text and design and the Nothing But Alpha and Backtest Auditor names belong to us. You're welcome to quote and link to our pages with credit.

We link to and cite third-party sources, such as the SEC, index providers, exchanges and company filings cited on our backtest hazard examples. That material belongs to its owners. We don't control third-party sites and aren't responsible for their content, accuracy or availability, and their own terms apply when you use them.

No warranty

Everything we offer is free and provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We don't promise that the website, the web check or the chat will be available, error-free or secure, or that a check will find every error.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, trading or investment losses, or lost data, arising from your use of anything these terms cover. Our total liability for all claims about it is limited to US $100. These limits don't apply where the law doesn't allow them, for example to fraud, willful injury or gross negligence.

Indemnity

If someone else brings a claim against us because of code or content you submitted, or because you broke these terms, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs from that claim, to the extent the law allows.

Governing law and disputes

California law governs these terms, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, along with applicable federal law. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. Either of us may use small-claims court for eligible claims. Before filing anything, please email legal@nothingbutalpha.app so we can try to sort it out.

Changes to these terms

We'll update these terms after legal review, and again before we launch accounts, paid plans or Proof of Call. When we change them, we'll post the new version on this page with a new effective date and note material changes on What's new. Changes apply from that date, and using what we offer after it means the new terms apply. We may change, pause or stop any part of what we offer at any time.

General

If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a term right away isn't a waiver. We may transfer these terms to a company formed to run Nothing But Alpha. These terms and our Privacy notice are the whole agreement about what they cover.