Terms of use

Terms of 2026-10-03. See also the privacy policy.

1. What Cupel is

Cupel publishes research on investment strategies: each strategy's rule, a backtest of that rule on past prices, and a report card of ratings worked out from the backtest. It also shows example portfolios built from those strategies for made-up accounts.

By using this site, its API or the Cupel app you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use them.

2. Backtests, not advice

Every figure on Cupel is hypothetical. A backtest applies a rule to past prices; it is not a record of money anyone invested, and past results do not say what a strategy will do next. The results include commissions and leave out the spread, market impact and taxes.

Nothing on Cupel is investment, tax or legal advice, and nothing is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything, for you or for anyone. Cupel does not know your circumstances and is not your adviser. A rating describes a rule's record; it does not tell you what to do. Decisions about your money are yours, and you should take advice from a registered adviser where you need it.

The example portfolios use made-up accounts. They are illustrations, not a recommendation for anyone.

3. Who may use it

Cupel is offered in Canada and the United States only. To sign up for a Cupel account or to submit a strategy you must be 18 or over and live in one of those two countries.

The public site, the app and what you get from them are for your own and your household's money. Using them for clients or for a business, and republishing or reselling Cupel's data, need a commercial licence from Cupel. The app is open source and has its own licence; a Cupel account gives access to Cupel's data API and is subject to these terms.

If you use Cupel on an advisory firm's address, you use it as that firm's user or client. The firm is the adviser and Cupel is its tool; the firm's own terms with you apply as well as these.

4. Signing in

On the public site you sign in with Google to submit a strategy or to post feedback. You are responsible for what is done under your sign-in. Cupel may close a registration that is used against these terms.

5. Strategies you submit

These are the publication terms you accept when you submit.

• It is published. A strategy you submit, its rule and its results are published to everyone, like every other strategy's, without your name or address. Cupel may show it in the catalogue, the API and its data releases, compare it with other strategies, and use it in the portfolios Cupel builds.
• You may share it. You submit only what you have the right to share, and you give Cupel the right to publish and use it as above, for as long as Cupel runs.
• How it is read. What you describe in words is translated into a rule by an outside service (Google's Gemini), which may also search the web for what the strategy is. Only your description is sent, never your name or address. The page reads the rule back to you before you submit; what is tested is that rule, and it is yours to check.
• How it is judged. A submitted strategy's evidence starts on the day it is submitted, set by Cupel. It is graded C until three years have passed, whatever its backtest shows. Every attempt is counted, including one that turns out to be the same as a strategy Cupel already has.
• What Cupel may decline. Cupel tests only rules its engine can run, limits how many strategies may be submitted in a day and how many may wait, and may refuse or stop taking submissions at any time.
• Taking it down. You may ask for a submitted strategy to be withdrawn, with a reason, from the submit page. A withdrawn strategy is no longer shown to the public or included in new data releases. Its runs and the record of the attempt are kept, because the ratings of every other strategy count them.

6. Feedback you post

On the feedback pages you may report a mistake in a rule, the data or a rating, ask how something works, or ask for something to be tested or built, and vote for and follow what others have posted.

• It is public. A topic or a reply you post on the public site is shown to everyone, under a name you choose there or as “a Cupel user”, never by your name or address. Your votes are counted; who voted is not shown.
• What it is for. Topics are about Cupel's work. Cupel does not answer questions about anyone's own investments, and nothing posted there, by Cupel or by anyone, is advice. Do not post personal information, your own or anyone else's.
• It may be read first, and hidden. A member's first posts, and any post that reads like a question about someone's own money, are read before they show. Cupel may hide a post, and tells its author why; readers may flag one. Cupel limits how many posts a member may make in a day and may stop taking them at any time.
• You may share it. You post only what you have the right to share, and you give Cupel the right to show it and to act on it, for as long as Cupel runs.
• Removing it. You may ask, beside your own post, for it to be removed, with a reason. A removed post is no longer shown to anyone else; the record of it is kept.
• Mail about it. If you follow or vote on a topic, Cupel e-mails you when its status changes, and at most once a day about new replies to topics you follow. Every such message has a link that stops that topic's mail and one that stops all of it.

On an advisory firm's address, topics are that firm's own: seen only within the firm. A firm may pass one up to Cupel without the client's or the firm's name.

7. The API and fair use

The catalogue API is the same for every caller. A Cupel account's API token is limited to 600 requests an hour. Do not try to get around a limit, to reach anything that is not yours, to disturb the service, or to collect the site in bulk by any means other than the API and its releases.

8. No warranty

Cupel is provided as it is. Data errors happen, in prices, in a rule as implemented, and in ratings; Cupel corrects what it finds and recomputes, so figures change. The site, the editor and the testing of submissions may be unavailable at any time. To the extent the law allows, Cupel gives no warranty of any kind, including of accuracy, completeness or fitness for a purpose.

9. Limit of liability

To the extent the law allows, Cupel is not liable for any loss that comes from using or relying on the site, the API, the app or anything they show, including investment losses, lost profits and indirect or consequential loss.

10. Changes

These terms may change. The date at the top says which terms these are; what you submit is under the terms of the date you accepted, which is kept with the submission.

11. Law

These terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.

12. Contact

To have a submitted strategy taken down, ask beside it, with the reason, on the submit page.