Terms of Service

1. About MindForge Capital & nature of the relationship

MindForge Capital is a quantitative research platform operated by Sagar Shekhawath, a SEBI-registered Research Analyst (the "Research Analyst"). For the purposes of these Terms, "we", "us", "our", and "MindForge" refer collectively to MindForge Capital and the Research Analyst. "You", "your", and "Subscriber" refer to any person who registers for, subscribes to, accesses, or uses any of our services, content, model portfolios, or websites.

Our relationship with you is strictly that of a research publisher and consumer of research. We do not establish, and these Terms do not create, any fiduciary, advisory, agency, brokerage, custodian, portfolio-management, or investment-management relationship between us and you. We do not custody, hold, or have any authority over your funds or securities. We do not place trades on your behalf. We do not solicit you to buy or sell any specific security.

2. Services we provide

• Model portfolio signals: Monthly factor-model output naming a list of equities or ETFs and suggested weights. These are research signals, not buy or sell orders, and are not personalised to you.
• Backtest research: Historical simulations of our strategies, presented for informational purposes only.

Research is published under the Research Analyst's SEBI registration in accordance with SEBI (Research Analysts) Regulations, 2014. We may amend, suspend, change, or discontinue any service at any time without notice.

3. Performance disclosures — backtests are hypothetical

All return figures, charts, CAGRs, Sharpe ratios, drawdowns and other performance statistics shown anywhere on our website, marketing materials, dashboards or other communications are simulated backtest results based on historical data. They are not, and must not be interpreted as, actual trading returns of any client, any account, or any live fund.

Backtest results have inherent limitations, including but not limited to:

• They are calculated with the benefit of hindsight and may not reflect the impact that material economic and market factors might have had on our decision-making during a real trading period.
• They do not involve actual market participation and therefore do not capture real-world execution slippage, partial fills, market impact, liquidity shocks, taxes (including STT, LTCG/STCG, GST), brokerage other than the modelled cost, or operational risk.
• They may reflect survivorship bias, look-ahead bias, data errors in third-party sources (Yahoo Finance, NSE), and model assumptions that may not hold in the future.
• They use a fixed-CAGR benchmark reference that does not represent a tradable index series.

Past performance — including backtested performance — is not indicative of, and does not guarantee, future results. Future results may be materially worse, including the total loss of capital.

4. Risks — including risk of total loss

Investing in securities markets carries substantial risk. By acting on any research we publish, you acknowledge and accept the following non-exhaustive list of risks:

• Market risk. Equity and ETF prices fluctuate and can fall sharply, including to zero.
• Concentration risk. Our strategies hold a relatively small number of names (e.g. 8 ETFs or 25 equities) and are sector-capped — they may still be concentrated by factor exposure, country, currency, or theme.
• Small and microcap-specific risk. The MindForge SmallMicro 500 universe consists of small and microcap stocks. These names can experience: extreme drawdowns; multi-day lower-circuit lock-ins with no liquidity; fraud, accounting irregularities, or governance failures; suspension or delisting; and total permanent loss of capital. Real-world drawdowns may be materially worse than the simulated −24.7% backtest maximum drawdown.
• Liquidity risk. Microcap and some smallcap stocks may be impossible to exit at a fair price during stress.
• Model risk. Our factor models may underperform their benchmarks for long, multi-year periods. Models calibrated on historical data may fail when market regimes change.
• Operational and data risk. Signals depend on third-party data feeds (Yahoo Finance, NSE) that may be delayed, incorrect, or unavailable. Email and WhatsApp delivery of signals may fail or be delayed.
• Tax and regulatory risk. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may change. SEBI rules may change in ways that affect availability of the service.
• Currency risk. The NASDAQ ETF and other foreign-exposed instruments add INR–USD currency risk.

You must not invest any capital you cannot afford to lose. You should treat any allocation to our SmallMicro 500 strategy as capital you are prepared to lose entirely.

5. Not investment advice; no fiduciary duty; you decide

Nothing on our website, in our model portfolios, or in any communication from us constitutes:

• A personalised recommendation to buy, sell, hold, or trade any security;
• Investment advice tailored to your specific financial situation, risk tolerance, tax position, time horizon, or goals;
• A solicitation or offer to enter into any transaction;
• Legal, accounting, tax, or actuarial advice.

You are solely responsible for determining whether any strategy, signal, or security is suitable for you, and for the consequences of any action you take based on our research. We strongly recommend you consult a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, chartered accountant, or qualified independent professional before acting on our research, particularly before investing in our SmallMicro 500 strategy.

6. No guarantee; warranty disclaimer

All services, signals, research, dashboards, and content are provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" without any warranty whatsoever. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to:

• Merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, reliability, non-infringement;
• That signals, model outputs, or backtests will achieve any particular result;
• That the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of viruses or harmful components;
• That any defects will be corrected.

We make no guarantee, representation, or warranty of any future return, alpha, Sharpe ratio, maximum drawdown, or any other performance characteristic.

7. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law:

• In no event will MindForge Capital, the Research Analyst, our co-founders, employees, contractors, vendors, affiliates, or licensors be liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or aggravated damages — including but not limited to lost profits, lost trading opportunities, lost data, lost goodwill, or cost of substitute services — arising out of or related to our services, your subscription, our research, your investment decisions, any signal acted upon or not acted upon, model errors, third-party data errors, technical failures, or any other matter, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or otherwise, and whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
• Our aggregate cumulative liability to you for any and all claims of any kind, however arising, shall not exceed the lesser of (a) the total subscription fees actually paid by you to MindForge Capital in the three (3) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) INR 10,000.
• The limitations in this section apply even if any remedy fails of its essential purpose.
• You agree that the limitations of liability in these Terms are a fair and reasonable allocation of risk in consideration of the subscription fees charged, which would be materially higher in the absence of such limitations.

8. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless MindForge Capital, the Research Analyst, and our respective co-founders, employees, contractors, vendors, affiliates, and licensors from and against any and all claims, demands, liabilities, losses, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of, or inability to use, our services; (b) any investment decision you make, or fail to make, with or without reference to our research; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation of any applicable law or regulation; (e) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property right or privacy right; (f) any taxes, fees, charges or penalties incurred by you in connection with your investments; or (g) any claim brought against us by a member of your family, advisor, broker, custodian, or any other third party in connection with your reliance on our research.

9. Subscription, billing, cancellation, refunds

Billing

Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually in advance at the rates published on our website. Prices may change with 30 days' notice to existing subscribers. Payments are non-refundable except as required by mandatory consumer-protection law.

Cancellation

You may cancel at any time effective at the end of the current billing period. We do not pro-rate refunds for partial periods. We may terminate or suspend your subscription, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, attempt to abuse the service, or pose a risk to other users.

Access

Subscription access is personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable. Account credentials, signals, dashboards, and content must not be shared, sold, sublicensed, or redistributed.

10. Intellectual property & confidentiality

All content on this website and in our communications — including but not limited to factor models, factor weights, scoring algorithms, portfolio construction methodology, lookback windows, sector caps, transaction cost models, research reports, charts, written analysis, code, software, designs, and dashboards — is the exclusive intellectual property of MindForge Capital and the Research Analyst. Unauthorised reproduction, distribution, public display, modification, reverse-engineering, or commercial use is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action including injunctive relief, damages, and recovery of legal costs.

Specific factor weights, scoring algorithms, and model construction internals are proprietary trade secrets. Subscribers receive portfolio signals and research; they do not acquire any rights in the underlying model.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use our content to create, market, or operate a competing research, advisory, or asset-management service;
• Redistribute, republish, scrape, mirror, or commercially exploit our model portfolios or research without prior written permission;
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source factor models, weights, or scoring methodology;
• Use the website in any manner that could damage, disable, overload, or impair its operation, or interfere with other users;
• Misrepresent our research as your own, as personalised advice, or as guaranteed investment advice;
• Use our services in violation of any applicable law, including SEBI regulations, FEMA, or anti-money-laundering laws.

12. Suitability — your representations

By subscribing, you represent and warrant that:

• You are at least 18 years of age, of sound mind, and legally competent to enter into a binding contract under the Indian Contract Act, 1872;
• You are a tax-resident of India unless we have agreed otherwise in writing;
• You have read, understood, and accepted these Terms in their entirety;
• You have read, understood, and accepted the risk disclosures in Sections 3 and 4 above;
• You have your own independent investment objective, risk tolerance, and time horizon, and you have determined — on your own or with your own adviser — that our research is suitable for you;
• You are not investing capital you cannot afford to lose; and where you subscribe to the SmallMicro 500 strategy, you can afford to lose the entire amount invested through that strategy;
• You are not relying on any oral or written statement, representation, or marketing material not contained in these Terms.

13. Privacy & data

Our handling of your personal data — including name, email, phone number, WhatsApp identifier, and payment information — is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms by reference. You consent to receiving service-related communications (signals, dashboards, notices) by email and WhatsApp.

14. Governing law, jurisdiction & dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to mandatory SEBI investor-grievance mechanisms, you and we agree that any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms, our services, or your subscription shall be:

• First, raised in good faith with us via email at sagar.shekhawath@mindforgecapital.com and resolved through good-faith discussion for a period of at least 30 days;
• If unresolved, referred to binding arbitration by a sole arbitrator under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, with seat and venue in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India; proceedings in English; arbitrator's award final and binding;
• Subject to the supervisory jurisdiction of the courts at Bengaluru, Karnataka to the exclusion of any other forum.

Nothing in this section limits SEBI's regulatory or grievance jurisdiction or your statutory rights as a consumer that cannot be waived under applicable law.

15. Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, exchange or broker outages, internet/ISP outages, third-party API outages (including but not limited to Yahoo Finance, Google, NSE), cyber-attacks, power outages, or labour disputes.

16. Severability, waiver & entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect; the invalid provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable and to preserve the parties' original intent. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that or any other provision. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any subscription order, constitute the entire agreement between you and us and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications, representations, or agreements on the same subject.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated by email with at least 14 days' notice. Continued use of our services after the effective date of changes constitutes binding acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to changes, your sole remedy is to cancel your subscription before the effective date.

18. Contact & grievance redressal

For any questions about these Terms, complaints, or SEBI-mandated grievances:

MindForge Capital
Attn: Sagar Shekhawath (SEBI-registered Research Analyst)
Email: sagar.shekhawath@mindforgecapital.com

SEBI investor grievance portal: scores.sebi.gov.in