Our Methodology

Note: this white paper is intended for investment professionals and advanced investors.

MarketRiders' investment approach is based upon Modern portfolio theory (MPT), which seeks to optimize investment return while lowering risk. MPT is rooted in the concept of diversification whereby an investor selects a variety of asset classes that collectively lower risk below the risk profile of any individual asset class. Diversification lowers risk because asset classes are generally uncorrelated, or more specifically, change value in opposite directions. The most obvious example of this is when stocks fall bonds often increase, and vice versa. By adding up to six asset classes to a portfolios' architecture, the stabilizing benefit of diversification can be increasingly felt. A collection of asset classes will have an overall lower risk profile than any individual asset class. Ironically, even adding an asset class that might be perceived as "risky" can lower the overall risk in a portfolio, thus diversification has been described as "the only free lunch you will find in the investment game."

MPT is the philosophical opposite of traditional stock picking. MPT is based upon investing in entire markets or indexes, rather individual stocks recommended by business analysts who look for equities that will outperform the index. With MPT investments are described statistically in terms of their expected long-term return rate and their expected short-term volatility. Volatility is equated with "risk" and provides a measurement of how far below the average an investment's bad years are likely to be. The goal of this investment approach is to identify your acceptable level of risk tolerance, and then build a diversified portfolio with the maximum expected return for that defined level of risk.

More technically, MPT models an asset's return as a variable with a normal distribution and risk as the standard deviation of return. A portfolio is then modeled as a weighted combination of these assets so that the return of a portfolio is the weighted average of the assets' returns. By combining different assets whose returns are not correlated, MPT seeks to reduce the total variance of the portfolio. MPT also assumes that investors are rational and markets are efficient.

To implement MPT, one must first determine an investor's ideal asset allocation across multiple asset classes including US stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign, emerging market stocks, and in some instances, commodities. A large part of financial planning consists of finding an asset allocation that is appropriate for an investor. The variables which effect this determination are the investor's age, timeframe in which one needs to use funds, investment experience and one's ability to maintain a policy allocation in the face of market volatility and risk.

In a given year, different asset classes perform differently making it difficult to predict which asset will perform best in a given year. Thus, although it is psychologically appealing to try to predict the "best" asset classic for any given period of time, we consider this approach risky and scientifically unsustainable. Research demonstrates that investors who "jump" from the one asset to another generally end up with worse results than someone following the disciplined approach defined by MPT. Unfortunately, investors can't consistently predict the future.


Portfolio Recommendation Algorithm
Our portfolio recommendation algorithm is programmed to construct for each investor an optimal asset allocation by weighting the following factors: your age, investment experience, risk tolerance and years until you need the money. By answering these questions through moving the sliders within our software a specific "score" is calculated and mapped to a specific matching portfolio. For example, if an investor was to set the sliders to: 50 years old, do not need to withdraw funds from your portfolio for 10 years (an IRA for example), and limited investment experience and a medium amount of risk tolerance, our algorithm would produce a score of 3.5 which corresponds to a portfolio with 40% bond exposure and a specific asset allocation and with it, a group of recommended ETFs.

If, however, you changed your time horizon to indicate you need funds within 3 years, our algorithm will heavily weight this slider so that your portfolio is skewed towards a bond allocation.

Investors are "fitted" with one of 9 basic asset allocations in portfolios that range in the level of bond exposure - from 90% bond exposure to 10%. The algorithm then evaluates the amount you intend to invest and recommends a specific portfolio with a varying number of ETFs. For example, a portfolio over $100,000 will contain a greater number of ETFs than a portfolio of $25,000. More ETFs give you more flexibility in certain asset classes, but trading costs are higher when the portfolio is rebalanced, or when funds are added or withdrawn. For example, a portfolio of $100,000 will be assigned three ETFs to cover the single asset class of the US Stock market. These three ETFs provide more granularity and accuracy when it comes to rebalancing, but also slightly increased expenses. A smaller portfolio of $25,000, however, would be assigned one ETF for the US Stock Market that includes small, medium and large cap stocks. While you don't have the ability to rebalance between these 3 segments of the US Stock market, trading costs are reduced. With larger portfolios, trading expenses are less of an issue.


ETF Recommendations
At MarketRiders, we have culled through a universe of over 900 ETFs to carefully select the best 20 ETFs as building blocks for our portfolios. We used several criteria in selecting these ETFs as follows:

1. Exposure to Core Asset Classes. Since our methodology is based upon MPT, we wish to gain exposure to broad asset classes which have 3 basic characteristics: a) they give basic, valuable differentiable characteristics to an investment portfolio. For example, while real estate protects against the effects of inflation, bonds protect against a financial crisis, b) they rely fundamentally on market generated returns, not on active management of portfolios. In most asset classes, active managers do not outperform the market and because satisfying investment objectives is critical, a core asset class won't rely on luck or serendipity, and c) they are derived from broad, deep, investable markets. As a core building block of a portfolio, we are focused on well-established marketplaces instead of trendy concoctions promoted by Wall Street financial engineers (ala all of the new ETFs currently coming out). Thus, we do not recommend a sector fund like technology, or an index based upon some new quant method of reweighting stocks.

Rick Ferri, the author of "The ETF Book" has developed a helpful way to categorize ETFs according to how they are designed and how they are managed. We use his categorization table below to further distinguish between ETFs in our recommended portfolios. They are all market capitalization weighted and passively managed approach.



2. Volume. After identifying the list of broad based asset class ETFs, we further filter the list by looking at volume. We will only employ the largest ETFs with an average size of $6 billion in net assets where daily volume runs on average over a million shares per day. This affords sufficient volume and liquidity so that the bid/ask spreads are narrow.

3. Fees. Our ETFs are inexpensive with an average fee of .19%. Low fees are key to achieving higher returns.

4. Turnover. We evaluate the annual turnover of the securities within the ETF. More turnover means more taxable income. We require that the turnover be very low, about 10% in the equity ETFs. For bond ETFs, the turnover is naturally greater as bonds mature and need to be continually replaced.

5. Sponsors. We primarily use ETFs from Vanguard and iShares with several from State Street Bank. These 3 firms account for close to 90% of all ETF assets and are the most highly regarded ETF providers in the industry. Since Vanguard is a not for profit institution, with the lowest fees in the industry, they tend to keep the other ETF providers "honest." In addition, the skill sets and technology for managing and constructing ETFs are highest among these 3 firms.

6. Index Construction. We have evaluated each ETF for the way the provider has constructed an index around the asset class and seek to find the best ETF that most precisely replicates a given index's performance over a long period of time. There are various ways to index a market. For example, small cap US stocks, are generally indexed using the popular Russell 2000. But the alternative S&P 600 small cap index is superior due to its construction and how it avoids the drag of what is known as the annual Russell 2000 trade.


Toxic ETFs
The ETF industry has dramatically expanded since the SEC changed the definition of an "index" in 2003. Prior to that time, ETFs were purely limited to baskets of stocks that indexed broad markets and asset classes like the S&P 500 or MSCI EFA for Foreign Developed Country Markets. After 2003, the SEC began allowing an ETF provider to create any set of guiding rules and thereby create a new "index". This has changed the historic definition of an index.

With nearly 900 ETFs today, the original "purity" of ETFs as suitable building blocks for asset allocation has been polluted. One of the most extreme examples of this is an ETF released by a new player, FocusShares, which developed an index of mid- and large-sized companies consisting of casinos, producers of beer and malt liquors, distillers, vintners and producers of other alcoholic beverages, as well as cigarette manufacturers - and called it a "sin" index.


Rebalancing Algorithm
Rebalancing is an essential discipline to the MPT approach to investing. MTP requires specifically defined target allocation percentages based upon the investor's objectives. These percentages need to be rigorously maintained through the ups and downs of the market. The practice of rebalancing is essentially a buy low sell high discipline that is counter intuitive and somewhat contrarian. When an asset class goes up, you trim your gains and add to underperforming asset classes to bring your portfolio in line with target allocations. Although this may feel like the wrong thing to do, research and our back testing software demonstrates that this discipline can add significantly to your portfolio performance year-over-year.

When it comes to rebalancing, our software is designed around a proprietary algorithm that guides investors to rebalance their portfolios back to target allocations when specific conditions are met. These algorithms can be manually adjusted within the software to take into consideration your interest in more active or less active rebalancing. The default setting is optimized so that when an asset class is greater than 15% out of balance, a rebalancing alert is generated. For example, if one's allocation to US Stocks is to be 10%, and based upon market changes, the allocation is now 11.6% (slightly greater than 15% variance), an alert will be triggered. We believe that for most investors, this setting is ideal. Our software, however, allows you to increase or decrease the sensitivity of this setting. If you have a large tax deferred IRA, you may want to increase the rebalancing sensitivity. Likewise, if you have a small portfolio of $25,000, you may want to avoid trading costs and decrease the rebalancing sensitivity. The rebalancing levels are set as follows:

MarketRiders rebalancing settings screen



Why wait? Invest like the world's smartest investors.

Start a free 30-day trial with MarketRiders.

Try It Free


x
Terms of Service

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

MarketRiders ("MarketRiders") welcomes you. MarketRiders provides its service to you subject to the following Terms of Service ("TOS"), which may be updated by us from time to time without notice to you. In addition, when using particular MarketRiders owned or operated services, you and MarketRiders shall be subject to any posted guidelines or rules applicable to such services, which may be posted from time to time. All such guidelines or rules are hereby incorporated by reference into the TOS.

2. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE

MarketRiders provides users with access to a rich collection of resources, including various communications tools, a portfolio engine tool, forums, search services, personalized content and branded programming through its site which may be accessed through any various medium or device now known or hereafter developed (the "Service"). You also understand and agree that the Service may include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for MarketRiders to provide the Service. You also understand and agree that the Service may include certain communications from MarketRiders, such as service announcements, administrative messages and the MarketRiders Newsletter, and that these communications are considered part of MarketRiders membership and you will not be able to opt out of receiving them. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance the current Service, including the release of new MarketRiders properties, shall be subject to the TOS. You understand and agree that the Service is provided "AS-IS" and that MarketRiders assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any user communications or personalization settings. You are responsible for obtaining access to the Service, and that access may involve third-party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). You are responsible for those fees, including those fees associated with the display or delivery of advertisements. In addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Service.

3. YOUR REGISTRATION OBLIGATIONS

In consideration of your use of the Service, you represent that you are of legal age to form a binding contract and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction. You also agree to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form (the "Registration Data") and (b) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or MarketRiders has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, MarketRiders has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).

4. MEMBER ACCOUNT, PASSWORD AND SECURITY

You will receive a password and account designation upon completing the Service's registration process. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. You agree to (a) immediately notify MarketRiders of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security, and (b) ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. MarketRiders cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this Section 4.

5. MEMBER CONDUCT

You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags, or other materials ("Content"), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not MarketRiders, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the Service. MarketRiders does not control the Content posted via the Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances will MarketRiders be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service. You agree to not use the Service to:


  1. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
  2. harm minors in any way;
  3. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a MarketRiders official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
  4. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service;
  5. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
  6. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;
  7. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas (such as shopping) that are designated for such purpose
  8. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  9. disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges;
  10. interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
  11. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York ETF Exchange, the American ETF Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;
  12. provide material support or resources (or to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources) to any organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
  13. "stalk" or otherwise harass another; and/or
  14. collect or store personal data about other users in connection with the prohibited conduct and activities set forth in paragraphs a through m above.

You acknowledge that MarketRiders may or may not pre-screen Content, but that MarketRiders and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, MarketRiders and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content.

You acknowledge, consent and agree that MarketRiders may access, preserve and disclose your account information and Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the TOS; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of MarketRiders, its users and the public.

You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including your Content, may involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.

You understand that the Service and software embodied within the Service may include security components that permit digital materials to be protected, and that use of these materials is subject to usage rules set by MarketRiders and/or content providers who provide content to the Service. You may not attempt to override or circumvent any of the usage rules embedded into the Service. Any unauthorized reproduction, publication, further distribution or public exhibition of the materials provided on the Service, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.

6. INTERSTATE NATURE OF COMMUNICATIONS ON MARKETRIDERS NETWORK

When you register with MarketRiders, you acknowledge that in using MarketRiders services to send electronic communications (including but not limited to email, search queries, sending messages to MarketRiders blogs, Q and A, Research Library or MarketRiders Groups, uploading photos and files to MarketRiders Photos or Briefcase, and other Internet activities), you will be causing communications to be sent through MarketRiders's computer networks, portions of which are located in the United States and portions of which are located abroad. As a result, and also as a result of MarketRiders's network architecture and business practices and the nature of electronic communications, even communications that seem to be intrastate in nature can result in the transmission of interstate communications regardless of where you are physically located at the time of transmission. Accordingly, by agreeing to this Terms of Service, you acknowledge that use of the service results in interstate data transmissions.

7. SPECIAL ADMONITIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL USE

Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable Content. Specifically, you agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside.

8. CONTENT SUBMITTED OR MADE AVAILABLE FOR INCLUSION ON THE SERVICE

MarketRiders does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant MarketRiders the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:


  • With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of MarketRiders, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific MarketRiders to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or MarketRiders removes such Content from the Service.
  • With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than MarketRiders, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or MarketRiders removes such Content from the Service.
  • With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than MarketRiders, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

"Publicly accessible" areas of the Service are those areas of the MarketRiders network of properties that are intended by MarketRiders to be available to the general public. By way of example, publicly accessible areas of the Service would include MarketRiders Message Boards and portions of MarketRiders that are open to both members and visitors.

9. INDEMNITY

You agree to indemnify and hold MarketRiders and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners and licensors harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Service, your use of the Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of the TOS, or your violation of any rights of another.

10. NO RESALE OF SERVICE

You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes, any portion of the Service (including your MarketRiders ID), use of the Service, or access to the Service.

11. GENERAL PRACTICES REGARDING USE AND STORAGE

You acknowledge that MarketRiders may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Service, including without limitation the maximum number of days that messages, message board postings or other uploaded Content will be retained by the Service, the maximum number of messages that may be sent from or received by an account on the Service, the maximum size of any message that may be sent from or received by an account on the Service, the maximum disk space that will be allotted on MarketRiders's servers on your behalf, and the maximum number of times (and the maximum duration for which) you may access the Service in a given period of time. You agree that MarketRiders has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages and other communications or other Content maintained or transmitted by the Service. You acknowledge that MarketRiders reserves the right to log off accounts that are inactive for an extended period of time. You further acknowledge that MarketRiders reserves the right to modify these general practices and limits from time to time.

12. MODIFICATIONS TO SERVICE

MarketRiders reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that MarketRiders shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.

13. TERMINATION

You agree that MarketRiders may, under certain circumstances and without prior notice, immediately terminate your MarketRiders account, any associated email address, and access to the Service. Cause for such termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of the TOS or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof), (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems, (f) extended periods of inactivity, (g) engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities, and/or (h) nonpayment of any fees owed by you in connection with the Services. Termination of your MarketRiders account includes (a) removal of access to all offerings within the Service, (b) deletion of your password and all related information, files and content associated with or inside your account (or any part thereof), and (c) barring of further use of the Service. Further, you agree that all terminations for cause shall be made in MarketRiders's sole discretion and that MarketRiders shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated email address, or access to the Service.

14. DEALINGS WITH ADVERTISERS

Your correspondence or business dealings with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the Service, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser. You agree that MarketRiders shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on the Service.

15. LINKS

The Service may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because MarketRiders has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that MarketRiders is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any Content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that MarketRiders shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.

16. MARKETRIDERS'S PROPRIETARY RIGHTS

You acknowledge and agree that the Service and any necessary software used in connection with the Service ("Software") contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. You further acknowledge and agree that Content contained in sponsor advertisements or information presented to you through the Service or by advertisers is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by MarketRiders or advertisers, you agree not to modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Service or the Software, in whole or in part.

MarketRiders grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and license to use the object code of its Software on your personal computer(s); provided that you do not (and do not allow any third party to) copy, modify, create a derivative work from, reverse engineer, reverse assemble or otherwise attempt to discover any source code, sell, assign, sublicense, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer any right in the Software. You agree not to modify the Software in any manner or form, nor to use modified versions of the Software, including (without limitation) for the purpose of obtaining unauthorized access to the Service. You agree not to access the Service by any means other than through the interface that is provided by MarketRiders for use in accessing the Service.

17. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:

  1. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. MARKETRIDERS AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
  2. MARKETRIDERS AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, OR EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED; (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE RELIABLE; AND (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS.
  3. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MARKETRIDERS OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TOS.

18. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT MARKETRIDERS AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, OR EMPLOYEES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF MARKETRIDERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iv) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (v) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.

19. EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. FURTHER, NO LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY WHERE PROHIBITED BY STATE OR FEDERAL LAW. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OF SECTIONS 17 AND 18 MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

20. SPECIAL ADMONITION FOR SERVICES RELATING TO FINANCIAL MATTERS

If you intend to create or join any service, receive or request any news, messages, alerts or other information from the Service concerning companies, ETF quotes, investments or securities, please read the above Sections 17 and 18 again. They go doubly for you. In addition, for this type of information particularly, the phrase "Let the investor beware" is apt.

21. NO THIRD-PARTY BENEFICIARIES

You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in this TOS, there shall be no third-party beneficiaries to this agreement.

22. NOTICE

MarketRiders may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the TOS, by email, regular mail or postings on the Service.

23. NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT

MarketRiders respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. MarketRiders may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may be repeat infringers. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please provide MarketRiders's with the following information:


  1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
  2. a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
  3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
  4. your address, telephone number, and email address;
  5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

MarketRiders's contact info for claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement is as follows:

1 McBride and Son Center Dr. Suite 288
Chesterfield, MO 63005
By email: .

24. GENERAL INFORMATION

Entire Agreement.
The TOS constitutes the entire agreement between you and MarketRiders and governs your use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between you and MarketRiders with respect to the Service. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use or purchase certain other MarketRiders services, affiliate services, third-party content or third-party software.

Choice of Law and Forum.
The TOS and the relationship between you and MarketRiders shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and MarketRiders agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of San Mateo, California.

Waiver and Severability of Terms.
The failure of MarketRiders to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the TOS shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the TOS is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the TOS remain in full force and effect.

No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability.
You agree that your MarketRiders account is non-transferable and any rights to your MarketRiders ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

The section titles in the TOS are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

25. VIOLATIONS

Please be advised that the answers provided by any member of the MarketRiders community represents his or own opinions, and that MarketRiders will not assess, verify or guarantee the suitability or profitability of any particular investment. You should not rely solely upon information provided on this page for purposes of transacting securities or other investments. You bear responsibility for your own investment research and decisions.

Please report any violations of the TOS to us via the contact form.

x
Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March, 2023

MarketRiders, Inc.(also doing business as, SogoTrade Asset Management (“SAM”)) shares your concern about the protection of your personal information online. This is our policy regarding the privacy of information we collect on our Web sites. This privacy policy applies to www.MarketRiders.com owned and operated by MarketRiders. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that MarketRiders does not own or control. This Privacy Policy includes examples of the types of personal information we collect and the kinds of companies with whom we share such information. These examples are illustrative and should not be considered a complete inventory of our information collection, use and sharing practices. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information. We will comply with applicable state laws that may restrict the types of information we may disclose about you or require us to provide you with additional notices.

If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at .


Information We Gather and How We Use It


We collect certain information from you in order to provide you with the most interesting and useful website possible.We use your IP address to identify you, to gather demographic information that helps us understand how you and our other customers use our website, and to administer our website.

Our registration form requires you to give us contact information (like your name, phone number and email address), demographic information (like your zip code and occupation) and profile information (like your investment experience). We use your contact information to contact you about the services on our site, in which you have expressed interest, and to send you newsletters from MarketRiders. You may opt-out of receiving these types of communications at any time, please see our "Choice/Opt-out" Section below. We also may collect your credit card number and expiration date. We use this information to bill you for subscription services you may have signed up for.

We may conduct or sponsor surveys and contests on our website. If you elect to participate, we may ask you for contact, demographic and other information as part of these offerings. We would use this information to analyze and report on the results of surveys, to provide you with the results of the surveys and contests. Participation in surveys and contests is completely voluntary.


Tell-A-Friend


If you choose to use our referral service to invite a friend to our site, we will ask you for your friend's name and email address. We will automatically send your friend an email inviting him or her to visit the site. MarketRiders stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this email and tracking the success of our referral program.

Your friend may contact us at to request that we remove this information from our database.


Import Contacts


You can import contacts from your Outlook or other email account address book to invite them to become members of our site. We collect the username and password for the email account you wish to import your contacts from and will only use it for that purpose.


Information We May Disclose


MarketRiders does not share, sell, rent or trade personal information about you with third parties other than as described within this privacy policy.

We would share demographic, profile and other general information about you and our other customers with our advertisers on an aggregate basis. This means that we may tell our advertisers general information about the characteristics of our customer base such as how many visitors and registered users we have within a certain postal code, but we do not specifically identify a particular customer or provide his or her contact information to our advertisers.


Disclosures Permitted by Law


We provide the information (such as your name, email address, mailing address and credit card information) on a confidential basis to nonaffiliated companies we engage as contractors or agents to perform services for us, such as maintaining software, sending direct mail, credit card processing, and Paypal. Information will be shared with such contractors only to the extent reasonably necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, and pursuant to confidentiality obligations.

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on MarketRiders. If we are acquired by or merged with another company, MarketRiders will notify you before any transfer of information about you if there is a different privacy policy.


Disclosures for Joint Marketing and Servicing


MarketRiders may disclose all the information we collect as described above to other companies such as direct marketers to perform marketing services on our behalf, or to financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and securities broker-dealers, with whom we have joint marketing or service agreements.


Tracking Technologies


Technologies such as: cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by MarketRiders and our affiliates, analytics tools, and customer support tools. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.We use cookies to remember users' settings, for authentication, and to customize the site for each user's experience. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited.


Behavioral Targeting / Re-Targeting


We may partner with a third party to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Such third-party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.


Log Files


As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data.We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you and tailor site functionality.


Local Storage Objects (Flash/HTML5)


Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use LSOs such as HTML 5 or Flash to collect and store information.Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 LSOs. To manage Flash LSOs please click a href="http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html" target="_blank">here.


Choice/Opt-out


We provide you the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having your personally identifiable information used for certain purposes, when we ask for this information. For example, if you purchase a product/service but do not wish to receive any additional marketing material from us, you can indicate your preference on the registration form.

If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication, by logging into your my account section of the site under email and newsletter preferences, sending a letter to us at 1 McBride and Son Center Dr. Suite 288 Chesterfield, MO 63005, or by emailing us at . We offer an opportunity to opt-out of certain communications within the My Account section of the site or you may contact us at 1-866-990-3837 to opt-out.

You will be notified when your personally identifiable information is collected by any third party who is not our agent/service provider, so you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to share your information with that party.


Security


The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number, national ID, personal health information) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). To learn more about SSL, follow this link. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personally identifiable information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Links to Other Web Sites


If you click on a link to a third party site, you will leave the www.marketriders.com site you are visiting and go to the site you selected. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot guarantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as www.marketriders.com. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of any other service provider from whom you request services. If you visit a third party website that is linked to a www.marketriders.com site, you should read that site's privacy statement before providing any personally identifiable information.


Social Media Widgets


Our website includes Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.


Correcting and Updating Information


If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, delete inaccuracies, or update it by emailing our Customer Support at or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed on our website.

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.


Using Your Personal Information


MarketRiders and its affiliates may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • To open, maintain, and service your MarketRiders and/or SAM account(s).
  • To manage our relationship with you, including revisions to this and other policies and agreements, asking you to review our performance, and responding to your questions and communications.
  • To administer, protect, and improve our business operations, including the MarketRiders website, applications, and other technology.
  • To market our products and services, including those of our affiliates, subject to opt-out provisions.
  • To use data analytics to improve our products, services, marketing, customer relationship, and other business interests.
  • To comply with applicable laws and regulations, including requests from regulators and other governmental and non-governmental authorities.
  • To enter and carry out contracts and other agreements.
  • For any other purpose you provided your Personal Information to us.

Sharing Your Personal Information


Subject to the above uses, MarketRiders may share your Personal Information with third parties in the following circumstances:

Reason to share your Personal Information Does MarketRiders share? Can you opt out?
For our everyday business purposes
Such as processing transactions, maintaining your account(s), responding to court orders and legal investigations, and other business purposes
Yes No
For our marketing purposes
Offering our products and services to you
Yes No
Joint marketing with other financial companies
No We don't share
For our affiliate’s everyday business purposes
Yes No
For our affiliate’s marketing purposes
Yes Yes
For non-affiliate’s marketing purposes
No We don't share

If applicable, you can opt out of sharing your Personal Information by emailing us at . or calling us at 1-866-990-3837 to opt-out.


Changes in this Privacy Statement


If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page prior to the change becoming effective.


Contact Us


MarketRiders, Inc.
1 McBride and Son Center Dr.
Suite 288
Chesterfield, MO 63005
Toll free: 1-866-990-3837
Email us