4.6.1. PROHIBITED HEDGING ACROSS ACCOUNTS AND CHALLENGES
(a) Purpose and scope. This Clause 4.6.1 forms an integral part of Clause 4.6 and supplements the prohibited trading practices provisions set out therein. This Clause applies to all Challenges, Accounts and evaluation Stages (including Stage 1, Stage 2 and the Verification stage) and, to the extent set out in paragraph (g) below, to the Live Account stage. Nothing in this Clause shall be interpreted as permitting the creation or maintenance of multiple Accounts where prohibited elsewhere in these Terms. This Clause restricts the use of multiple Challenges or Accounts for Prohibited Hedging as defined below.
(b) Definitions. "Opposing Positions" means a long (BUY) position and a short (SELL) position taken in the same Instrument, or in two or more Correlated Instruments, where the positions wholly or substantially offset one another's directional market exposure.
"Correlated Instruments" means two or more Instruments (for example, BTC and ETH) which, in the reasonable assessment of the Company, exhibit a price correlation sufficiently strong that Opposing Positions in them produce a hedging or exposure-offsetting effect. Instruments exhibiting, in the reasonable assessment of the Company, a sufficiently strong positive or negative price correlation may be treated as Correlated Instruments. A rolling thirty (30) day price correlation of 0.6 or higher may be used by the Company as an indicative threshold, but shall not be determinative.
"Prohibited Hedging" means opening, holding or maintaining Opposing Positions across two (2) or more Challenges or Accounts (whether held by the same User, directly or indirectly controlled by the same person or group of persons, or held by different Users acting in coordination, and whether registered under the same or different names, email addresses, payment details, devices, IP addresses or identities) where one or more of the conditions in paragraph (d) is met.
(c) Hedging within a single Account. Holding both a long and a short position in the same Instrument within one and the same Account is permitted, provided the offsetting positions are wholly contained within that single Account and are not used in combination with any other Challenge or Account in a manner described in paragraphs (d) or (e).
(d) Cross-Account and Cross-Challenge Hedging. Opposing Positions held across two (2) or more Challenges or Accounts constitute Prohibited Hedging where one or more of the following applies:
- the positions are opened within a short period of time, including, without limitation, within sixty (60) minutes of one another;
- the positions are opened at the same or similar price levels or notional sizes, such that they function as an economic offset of one another;
- irrespective of the timing or entry price of the positions, the resulting net exposure across the relevant Challenges or Accounts is consistent with a deliberate hedging or exposure-neutralising strategy; or
- the overall pattern of trading across the relevant Challenges or Accounts is, in the reasonable opinion of the Company, consistent with a coordinated attempt to pass one Challenge or evaluation Stage while deliberately failing another, or otherwise to engineer a guaranteed or near-guaranteed evaluation outcome.
(e) Cross-User Hedging. Prohibited Hedging also includes Opposing Positions opened by two (2) or more Users acting in concert or coordination (including by sharing trading signals, strategies, timing parameters, capital, devices or trading infrastructure), regardless of whether those Users share any common identity, device, network, payment method or financial interest, where the intent or effect of the activity is to engineer a guaranteed or near-guaranteed evaluation outcome across their Challenges or Accounts.
(f) Determination, presumptions and review. Borderline questions under this Clause (in particular, whether Instruments are Correlated Instruments and whether a pattern of trading amounts to Prohibited Hedging) shall be determined by the Company reasonably and in good faith, having regard to relevant market data and the pattern of trading. Where a numerical threshold in this Clause is met, Prohibited Hedging may be presumed by the Company. Where a threshold is not met, the conduct shall not automatically be deemed permissible; it constitutes Prohibited Hedging only if it independently meets a condition in paragraph (d). Any determination under this Clause shall be made on the basis of the Company's assessment of the relevant trading activity and may be appealed by the User in accordance with Clause 7.11.
(g) Live Account stage. At the Live Account stage, genuine exposure-management, pairs-trading and position-balancing strategies are not restricted. However, opening Opposing Positions across Accounts solely to neutralise exposure or to generate artificial results, without a genuine and independent trading rationale, remains prohibited and may be taken into account by the Company or the proprietary trading firm for assessment and risk-management purposes.
(h) Consequences. Prohibited Hedging constitutes a material breach of these Terms and a Prohibited Trading Practice for the purposes of Clause 4.6. Where the Company identifies Prohibited Hedging, it may apply any of the measures set out in Clause 4.6 and, in particular, may cancel the results of, suspend or terminate all Challenges and Accounts associated with the Prohibited Hedging (including any Challenge or Account that has passed, or would otherwise have passed, an evaluation Stage), revoke eligibility for or access to a Live Account, and cancel or forfeit any rewards, profit splits or payouts attributable to the Prohibited Hedging.
Where the Company determines, acting reasonably, that a breach was isolated, inadvertent and non-recurring, it may instead issue the User a formal written warning. Any repeated, deliberate or coordinated breach will result in the full measures described in this paragraph.