PaperTrade — Terms of Use and Licence Agreement
Version 1.4 — effective 12 August 2026
Licensor: Puneet Savla ("the Licensor", "we", "us")
Contact: puneetsavla13@gmail.com
Software: PaperTrade, the virtual NSE stock and options trading simulator, including its
installer, source code, database schema, user interface, documentation, screenshots and any
updates or builds supplied to you (together, "the Software").
By installing, copying, opening or using the Software, you ("the Licensee", "you") accept these
Terms in full. If you do not accept them, do not install the Software, and delete every copy you
hold.
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READ THIS FIRST — RISK WARNING
PaperTrade is a simulator. It trades virtual money, not yours.
A profit made in this Software is hypothetical and proves nothing about the real market. Real
trading can lose you part or all of your capital, and losses in derivatives can exceed what you
first put in.
Nothing here is financial, investment or trading advice. If you place a real trade because of
something you saw in this Software, that decision is yours alone, and so is the outcome.
Clause 6 sets this out in full. Read it before you trade real money.
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1. What you are being given
The Software is licensed to you, not sold to you. You do not acquire ownership of it, of any
copy of it, or of anything in it.
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, the Licensor grants you a **limited, personal,
non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable licence** to install and use one
copy of the Software:
- on devices that you personally own or control;
- for your own individual use only;
- for the period agreed with the Licensor, or until this licence is terminated.
No other right of any kind is granted. Anything not expressly permitted below is prohibited.
1A. Price, payment and refunds
The licence fee is whatever was agreed with the Licensor before your key was issued. Payment is due
before the licence key is sent to you.
Once your licence key has been issued, the fee is non-refundable. A key cannot be returned,
withdrawn or resold once it is in your hands — possession of it *is* the product. This applies in
particular if you change your mind, stop using the Software, or do not make money trading. Clause 6
explains at length why no trading outcome is or could be promised, and you are asked to read it
before you buy rather than afterwards.
If you paid but no key has yet been issued, a payment made in error is refunded in full.
None of this affects your statutory rights. If the Software is defective, or materially not as
described in these Terms, your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and any other
applicable law are unaffected, and nothing in this clause limits or excludes them.
If you cannot get it working, contact the Licensor before anything else. Most activation
problems are a licence that needs releasing onto a different machine (Clause 2A), which takes a
couple of minutes and costs nothing. A refund is not the remedy for a problem that can simply be
fixed.
2. What you must not do
You must not, whether for payment or free of charge, directly or indirectly:
1. Copy or distribute the Software. No giving, sending, sharing, uploading, lending, renting,
leasing, reselling, gifting or otherwise supplying the Software or any part of it to any other
person or organisation.
2. Publish it. No posting the installer, the source code, or any part of it to any website,
file-sharing service, cloud drive, messaging group, forum, code repository, torrent or app
store, whether public or private.
3. Share access to it. No sharing your account, password, admin passcode, trial key, licence
key or credentials with anyone, and no letting anyone else use the Software through your
installation.
4. Sublicense, assign or transfer this licence or any rights under it, including on sale of a
business or device.
5. Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or attempt to derive the source code, algorithms,
data model or design of the Software, except to the minimum extent that this restriction cannot
lawfully be excluded.
6. Modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works from the Software.
7. Build a competing product from the Software, or use it, its design, its interface or its
methods to develop, train or specify any product or service that competes with it.
8. Host it as a service, or make it available to third parties over a network, whether or not a
fee is charged.
9. Remove, obscure or alter any copyright notice, licence notice, product name, build
identifier or attribution in the Software.
10. Circumvent any technical restriction, including the admin passcode, feature flags, licence
checks, trial expiry or authentication.
2A. Licence activation, and what we record about it
The Software is licensed per person and per machine, and it checks that licence with the
Licensor's server. You are told plainly what that involves, because a check you were not told
about would be surveillance rather than licensing.
When you activate, and periodically afterwards while the Software is running, the Software
sends to the Licensor's server:
| What | Why |
| --- | --- |
| Your licence key | To confirm the licence is valid and has not been revoked |
| The name you enter as licensee | So a licence, and any breach of it, is attributable to a person |
| A machine identifier | A one-way hash. It binds one licence to one computer. It is not reversible and does not identify your hardware to us |
| Your computer's name | So that you and we can both tell your machines apart in a support conversation |
| The version of the Software, and the version and a hash of these Terms | So there is a record of which terms you accepted, and when |
| The date and time, and your IP address | Ordinary server logging, and evidence of when acceptance occurred |
We do not collect, and the Software does not send: your trades, positions, portfolio, cash
balance, watchlist, broker access token, market data, passwords, or anything you type into the
Software other than your licence key and licensee name.
Retention. Activation records are kept for as long as your licence is active and for six
years afterwards, because that is the period in which a dispute about this agreement could
realistically be brought.
Lawful basis and your rights. This processing is necessary to perform this agreement with you
and to protect the Licensor's legal rights, under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
You may ask what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be erased once
your licence has ended, by writing to the contact address above. Erasure requests will be honoured
except where a record must be kept for an active or anticipated legal claim.
If the server cannot be reached, the Software keeps working for a grace period before asking
again, so an outage on the Licensor's side does not stop you using it. After that period it will
stop until it can check.
One machine. A licence key activates on one computer. If you replace or reinstall that
computer, ask the Licensor to release the key and it will be reset. Attempting to activate the
same key on a second machine will be refused, and repeated attempts may be treated as evidence of
sharing under Clause 2.3.
3. Confidentiality
The Software and everything about how it works is confidential information of the Licensor.
This includes, without limitation: the source code; the design and layout of the user interface;
the calculations, indicators, scanners, order-engine logic and data-source arrangements; the
database schema; any documentation, screenshots, screen recordings or demonstrations; any licence
key, trial key, admin passcode or connection string supplied to you; and any commercial terms
between you and the Licensor.
You must:
- keep all of it strictly confidential;
- not disclose any of it to any third party, in any form, including by screenshot, screen share,
video, description or demonstration, without the Licensor's prior written permission;
- protect it with at least the care you use for your own confidential information, and in no case
less than reasonable care;
- use it only for the purpose of using the Software under this licence.
These confidentiality obligations survive the end of this licence and continue indefinitely.
The obligations in this clause do not apply to information you can show was already public through
no act of yours, or which you are legally compelled to disclose — in which case you must notify the
Licensor in writing beforehand, so far as the law allows.
4. Ownership and intellectual property
All right, title and interest in the Software — including copyright, trade secrets, database
rights, trade marks and all other intellectual property, worldwide — belong to the Licensor and
remain with the Licensor. All rights not expressly granted in Clause 1 are reserved.
Copyright in software is protected automatically in India under the Copyright Act, 1957, and in
approximately 180 other countries under the Berne Convention, without any registration being
required in each country. Unauthorised copying or distribution is therefore actionable in India and
in the country where the infringement takes place.
5. Market data and your broker account
The Software displays market data fetched using your own broker credentials, which you supply
and which remain yours.
- You are responsible for complying with your broker's and the exchange's terms, including any
restriction on redistributing market data.
- You must not use the Software to redistribute, resell or publish exchange or broker data.
- The Licensor does not supply market data to you and is not responsible for its accuracy,
completeness, timeliness or availability.
- If you disconnect your broker, the Software generates simulated data, clearly labelled as such.
6. Paper Trading & Risk Disclaimer
*This is the most important clause in this document. It is set out at length because the gap
between a simulator and a live market is where people lose money.*
6.1 What the Software is for
The Software is a practice simulator using virtual money, provided **only for educational,
informational and simulation purposes**. It executes no real trades, places no orders with any
exchange or broker, and holds no real funds. Every position, fill, profit and loss it shows is
imaginary.
6.2 Paper-trading results are hypothetical
**A profit made in paper trading does not guarantee that the same trade or the same strategy will
make a profit in the real market.** It is not evidence that it will. Hypothetical results have
inherent limitations: they are produced with the benefit of a fill that always happened, at a price
that was always available, with no money at stake.
Paper-trading profits must not be treated as proof that a strategy works in live markets. A
strategy that performs well in this Software may lose money consistently when traded for real.
6.3 Why the real market is different
Real trading differs from simulation in ways this Software does not, and largely cannot, reproduce:
- Execution — a real order reaches a real exchange queue. It may fill late, fill partly, or not
fill at all. This Software fills your orders against a quoted price.
- Slippage — the price you get is often worse than the price you saw, particularly on fast
moves, at the open, and around news.
- Liquidity — real size has to find a counterparty. Illiquid strikes and small-cap stocks can
move against you simply because you tried to trade them.
- Brokerage, taxes and charges — brokerage, exchange fees, GST, STT/CTT, stamp duty and SEBI
turnover fees all reduce real returns. This Software models none of them, and shows charges
as zero. A strategy that is marginally profitable here can be reliably loss-making after costs.
- Market conditions — circuit limits, trading halts, gaps, expiry-day behaviour, auction
sessions and settlement mechanics all affect real outcomes.
- Margin and leverage — real derivatives positions require margin, are marked to market, and
can be squared off by your broker without your consent.
- Emotion and discipline — risking real money changes behaviour. Traders who follow a plan
perfectly in simulation routinely abandon it when their own capital is at stake.
- Data differences — prices here may be delayed, incomplete, wrong, or simulated. Check the
LIVE / SIMULATED badge (see Clause 5).
6.4 Not advice, and not personalised
Nothing in the Software is personalised financial, investment, trading, tax or legal advice, and
nothing in it is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell anything. No output of this
Software — no signal, scanner result, probability, projection, indicator or backtest — takes account
of your financial position, objectives, risk tolerance or needs.
The Licensor is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India as an Investment
Adviser under the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013, nor as a Research Analyst under the
SEBI (Research Analysts) Regulations, 2014, and does not hold himself out as either.
If you want advice, consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
6.5 Real trades are your decision and your responsibility
**If you place a real trade in a real market on the basis of any strategy, signal, scanner result,
observation, backtest or profit obtained from this Software, that decision is entirely your own.**
You accept that:
- you are solely responsible for evaluating any idea before risking money on it;
- the Licensor does not guarantee profits, or the success of any real trade, strategy or
approach, and makes no representation that anything shown here will be profitable;
- to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Licensor is not responsible for any
loss you suffer as a result of your own independent real-world trading decisions.
Nothing in this clause excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited,
including liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Your rights under any applicable
consumer-protection law are unaffected.
6.6 Risk warning
**Trading in securities, derivatives and other financial instruments carries a high degree of risk
and can result in the partial or complete loss of your capital.** In leveraged products such as
futures and options, losses can exceed the amount you originally deposited.
SEBI's own studies of individual traders in the equity derivatives segment have repeatedly found
that the large majority lose money.
Do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose. Past performance — real or simulated — is not an
indicator of future results.
7. No warranty
The Software is provided "as is" and "as available", with all faults and without warranty of
any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including any implied warranty of merchantability,
fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.
The Licensor does not warrant that the Software will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that
its data, prices, calculations, signals, scanners or projections are accurate or reliable.
8. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Licensor is not liable for any indirect, incidental,
special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, nor for any loss of profit, trading loss,
investment loss, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of goodwill or business interruption, however
caused and on any theory of liability, even if advised of the possibility.
The Licensor's total aggregate liability under or in connection with these Terms will not exceed
the total amount you actually paid to the Licensor for the Software in the twelve months before the
event giving rise to the claim, or ₹1,000, whichever is greater.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
9. Term and termination
This licence starts when you first install or use the Software and continues until terminated.
It terminates immediately and automatically, without notice, if you breach any part of Clause 2
or Clause 3. The Licensor may also terminate it at any time on written notice, including by email
or by disabling your account or key.
On termination you must immediately stop using the Software, uninstall it, and permanently delete
every copy in your possession or control, including backups. On request you must confirm in writing
that you have done so. Clauses 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 survive termination.
10. Remedies and enforcement
You acknowledge that a breach of Clause 2 or Clause 3 would cause the Licensor harm that money
alone cannot adequately compensate, because once the Software or its confidential information has
been distributed it cannot be recalled.
Accordingly, in addition to any other remedy:
1. The Licensor is entitled to seek injunctive relief and specific performance to stop or
prevent a breach, **without needing to prove actual damage and without needing to provide
security, in any court of competent jurisdiction in any country** where a breach occurs,
is threatened, or has effect.
2. You must indemnify the Licensor against all losses, damages, costs and reasonable legal fees
arising from your breach of these Terms.
3. You must, on request, provide reasonable assistance in identifying how, when and to whom an
unauthorised copy was disclosed.
4. Unauthorised copying or distribution of software may additionally attract criminal liability in
India under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 and **Section 66 of the Information
Technology Act, 2000**. The Licensor reserves the right to pursue criminal as well as civil
remedies.
Copies of the Software may carry identifiers linking a build to the person it was issued to. You
must not remove or alter them (see Clause 2.9).
11. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India.
The courts at Bengaluru, Karnataka, India have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out
of or in connection with these Terms, and you submit to that jurisdiction — except that the
Licensor may bring proceedings for injunctive relief, or for infringement of its intellectual
property, in any jurisdiction where a breach occurs or has effect, as set out in Clause 10.1.
12. General
- Entire agreement. These Terms are the entire agreement between you and the Licensor about the
Software, and replace any earlier discussion, proposal or understanding.
- Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest continues in force, and the
unenforceable provision is to be read down to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid.
- No waiver. A delay or failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.
- Changes. The Licensor may issue updated Terms with a new version supplied with a new build.
Continuing to use the Software after that means you accept the updated Terms.
- Notices. Written notice to you may be given by email to the address associated with your
licence or account. Notice to the Licensor must be sent to the contact address above.
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*This document was drafted with software assistance and has not been reviewed by a qualified legal
practitioner. Have it reviewed before relying on it in a dispute.*
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