Terms of Use & Legal Disclaimers

The Quant Portfolio Learning Sandbox (the “Platform”) is an academic teaching tool developed exclusively for educational use within university-level quantitative finance courses. All content, data visualizations, portfolio simulations, factor models, backtests, and analytical outputs are provided strictly for instructional and learning purposes.

Nothing on this Platform constitutes, or should be construed as, investment advice, financial advice, trading recommendations, or a solicitation to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. The Platform does not provide personalized investment recommendations and is not a substitute for professional financial advice from a licensed financial advisor, broker, or investment professional.

Use of this Platform does not create any fiduciary, advisory, or professional relationship between the user and the course instructor, the university, or any affiliated institution. The instructor’s role is limited to academic teaching and does not extend to providing individualized financial guidance.

The Platform is not registered with, nor regulated by, any financial regulatory authority including but not limited to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA). It operates solely as an educational resource within an academic curriculum.

The Platform retrieves market data from third-party sources including Yahoo Finance and the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) service maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. While reasonable efforts are made to ensure data accuracy, no guarantee is made regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any data displayed.

Market data may be delayed, incomplete, or contain errors. Historical performance data and backtesting results are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual trading, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Simulated portfolio returns do not account for transaction costs, taxes, slippage, market impact, or other real-world factors that would affect actual investment performance.

This Platform uses data from the following third-party providers, subject to their respective terms of use:

• FRED® (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — Provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Data is used under FRED’s terms for non-commercial, educational purposes. Users must cite FRED as the data source when referencing macroeconomic data from this Platform. See: FRED Legal Notices.
• Yahoo Finance — Market price data is retrieved via the Yahoo Finance API for educational demonstration purposes. This data is subject to Yahoo’s Terms of Service and may not be redistributed commercially. See: Yahoo API Terms.

The Platform does not claim ownership of any third-party data. All third-party trademarks, service marks, and data remain the property of their respective owners.

The course curriculum, instructional content, pedagogical design, exercise frameworks, and original analytical methodologies presented through this Platform are the intellectual property of the course instructor and/or the affiliated university, as governed by the applicable institutional intellectual property policies.

Users may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display, create derivative works from, or commercially exploit any portion of the Platform’s original content without prior written consent from the intellectual property holder. This restriction applies to, but is not limited to: module content, guided exercises, quiz questions, methodology descriptions, and the overall pedagogical structure.

The underlying academic research and financial theories referenced in this Platform (e.g., Fama-French factor models, Black-Litterman optimization, Modern Portfolio Theory) are part of the public academic domain and are attributed to their original authors where applicable.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE COURSE INSTRUCTOR, THE UNIVERSITY, AND THE PLATFORM DEVELOPERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE USE OF THIS PLATFORM, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

• Financial losses from investment decisions influenced by Platform content
• Errors, inaccuracies, or omissions in data or calculations
• Interruptions in service availability or data feeds
• Unauthorized access to user accounts or data
• Any reliance placed on the information provided through the Platform

The Platform is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

By using this Platform, you agree to:

• Use the Platform solely for educational and personal learning purposes
• Not attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or extract data programmatically from the Platform
• Not redistribute, resell, or commercially exploit any Platform content or data
• Not impersonate other users or misrepresent your identity
• Not attempt to gain unauthorized access to Platform systems or other users’ accounts
• Comply with all applicable laws and university academic integrity policies

Violation of these terms may result in suspension or termination of access to the Platform at the discretion of the course instructor or university administration.

The Platform collects minimal data necessary for its educational function:

• Account data: Name and email address (via OAuth authentication) for user identification
• Learning progress: Module completion status, exercise results, and session time for pedagogical tracking
• Local storage: Browser localStorage is used for guest progress tracking and UI preferences

No financial account information, trading data, or sensitive personal information is collected. User data is used exclusively for educational purposes and course administration. Data is not sold, shared with third parties for marketing purposes, or used for any purpose beyond the educational scope of the course.

Users who register via OAuth consent to the collection and processing of the above data for the duration of the course. Guest users (not signed in) have their progress stored only in their browser’s local storage and no server-side data is collected.

The Platform is provided as a supplementary educational resource and is not guaranteed to be available at all times. Service may be interrupted for maintenance, updates, or due to factors beyond our control, including third-party data provider outages. The course instructor and university make no commitment regarding uptime, availability, or continued operation of the Platform beyond the academic term for which it is deployed.

These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the affiliated university operates, without regard to conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising from the use of this Platform shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that jurisdiction.

These terms may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in the Platform’s functionality or applicable legal requirements. Continued use of the Platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. Users are encouraged to review these terms periodically.