Risk

Risk Disclosure

Last updated October 11, 2026

Read this before relying on anything the service produces. It is short on purpose.

Options involve substantial risk

Options are not suitable for every investor. You can lose the entire amount you pay for an option, and with certain strategies, including short options and defined-risk spreads that are assigned early, you can lose more than your initial outlay. SPX options settle in cash and are European style, but they still carry gap, liquidity, and volatility risk. Read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options published by the Options Clearing Corporation before trading.

Backtested results are hypothetical

Every number the service produces is a hypothetical performance result. Hypothetical results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results later achieved by any particular trading program.

One limitation of hypothetical results is that they are prepared with the benefit of hindsight. Backtests do not involve financial risk, and no hypothetical record can completely account for the impact of financial risk in actual trading: the ability to withstand losses, or to stick to a strategy in spite of losses, are material points that can also adversely affect actual results. There are numerous other factors related to the markets in general or to the implementation of any specific strategy which cannot be fully accounted for in hypothetical results, all of which can adversely affect actual trading.

Assumptions that change the answer

• Fills. Backtests assume a fill at a modelled price (for example the mid-point, or the bid or ask). Live fills can be worse, especially in fast markets and in the final minutes before expiration.
• Slippage and commissions. Unless you set them, the model may assume none. Real trading has both, and on high-frequency strategies they decide profitability.
• Data quality. Historical options data contains gaps, bad prints, and revisions. We clean what we can, but no dataset is perfect.
• Overfitting. Sweeping parameters until a grid shows a good number is curve-fitting. The more combinations you test, the more likely the best one is luck.
• Regime change. A strategy that worked in one volatility regime may fail in the next. The past is a sample, not a forecast.

Not advice

OpenBacktest and Velotech LLC do not provide investment, tax, or legal advice, and are not registered as a broker-dealer, investment adviser, or commodity trading adviser. The service is a calculation tool. What you do with its output is your decision and your responsibility. Consider consulting a licensed professional before trading.

Sample figures on the marketing site

The charts, statistics, and grids shown on the public pages of this site are illustrative samples generated to show what the product's output looks like. They are not real backtests and should not be read as a claim about any strategy's performance.

Contact

Questions about this document: [email protected].