CharlesThis agreement is between you and the developers of Charles ("we", "us"). It covers the Charles software (the trading bot, its dashboard, installer and commands), the website charles-bot.xyz, the leaderboard, and any paid setup service we offer. You must accept it before you install Charles, before we set it up for you, and again before you turn on live trading. If you don't agree, don't install or use Charles.
The short version. The full terms below are what count.
- You must be 18 or older (or the age of majority where you live) and allowed to trade where you live.
- Charles is free software. You run it on your own server, with your own accounts and keys.
- It trades paper (practice) money by default. Live trading happens only if you turn it on yourself.
- Charles is a tool, not advice. It promises no gains, and you can lose money, including everything you put in.
- You're responsible for your accounts, your trades and your taxes. The software comes as is, with no warranty.
1. Who may use Charles
You may use Charles only if: (a) you are at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if that is older; (b) you can legally enter into this agreement; (c) using an automated trading tool, and the brokerage, exchange and data services you connect to it, is legal for you where you live; and (d) every account you connect is in your own name, or you are authorized to trade it. You are responsible for following the laws, and your broker's and exchanges' rules, that apply to you.
2. Your license
We grant you a free, non-exclusive, worldwide license to install, run, copy and modify Charles, and to share copies of its source code, as long as each copy includes this agreement and anyone who uses it accepts it. You may not hide or remove this agreement, or present Charles or a version of it as advice, a managed account, or a service that promises returns. This license ends automatically if you break this agreement.
3. Not financial advice
Charles is software that follows rules you choose. Nothing in Charles, on the website or the leaderboard, or in its chat, alerts, reports, simulations or backtests is financial, investment, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Simulated and past results don't reliably predict future results. We are not your broker, investment adviser or fiduciary.
4. Paper trading and live trading
Charles starts in paper trading: it trades practice money in your broker's paper account. Live trading (real money) is available only for the stock bot, only through your own Alpaca account, and only after you confirm you meet section 1, accept this agreement, add your live keys on your own server, and turn it on yourself (charles-live on). While live trading is on:
- every order Charles places is your order, in your account, and you are responsible for it;
- you can lose money, including all the money in the account, and leveraged funds (such as 2× and 3× index funds) can fall much faster than the market;
- you are responsible for fees, taxes, your broker's rules (including pattern-day-trading and margin rules), and for checking what Charles does;
- you can stop it at any time: Pause on the dashboard stops new orders, and
charles-live offgoes back to paper.
The Kalshi and crypto bots trade practice money only.
5. Your server, accounts and keys
You choose and pay for your own server, brokerage account and any other service you connect (for example DigitalOcean, Alpaca, Anthropic, Kalshi or Coinbase), under their own terms. Your keys stay on your server. We don't hold your money, place orders for you, or have access to your accounts. Keep your server and keys secure: you are responsible for anything done with them.
6. The software has limits
Charles can have bugs, stop running, use late or wrong market data, misread the news, or act on an AI model's mistake. Markets can move faster than it reacts. Updates can change how it trades; a change to the trading rules is shown to you before you install it. Watch your account, and don't put in money you can't afford to lose.
7. The leaderboard and sharing
The leaderboard is optional. What you share there is public. Its results are simulated by our server, not taken from your account, and a good result is often luck. Don't share anything false or misleading, and don't use Charles, the leaderboard or shared settings to promote, pump or manipulate any security. We may remove entries or block access at any time.
8. Paid setup
If we set Charles up on your own server for a fee, we do only that setup, using the access you give us once, and we don't keep that access afterwards. The fee, what it includes and any refund are stated before you pay. The rest of this agreement applies to the bot we set up.
9. No warranty
Charles, the website, the leaderboard and any setup service are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement, to the fullest extent the law allows.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for trading losses, lost profits, lost data, or any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising from Charles or this agreement, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for any claim is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$50 if you paid nothing. Some places don't allow these limits, so they apply only as far as the law allows.
11. Your responsibility to us
You agree to cover any claims, losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees) that come from your use of Charles, your trades, or your breaking this agreement or the law.
12. Changes and ending
We may update this agreement. Its version and date are at the top, and a release that changes it says so. Installing a release with a new version means you accept that version, and live trading stays on hold until you accept it (charles-terms). You can stop using Charles at any time by stopping it and deleting it from your server. Sections 3 and 9 to 12 continue after this agreement ends.
13. Contact
Questions about this agreement: open an issue at https://github.com/nswansonprojects/charles.