Risk Disclaimers
Stake is the trading name of Hellostake Limited (no. 11676409), authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 830771). This notice aims to provide you with important information about the risks associated with the services that we provide to you.
Stake provides clients with the ability to buy and sell various financial instruments on a non-advised (i.e. execution only) basis, and transmits those orders to a Third Party Broker (i.e. DriveWealth LLC (“DriveWealth”). Before investing in financial markets, you should consider whether you have understood the risks detailed in this notice. If you have any questions or are in any doubt about the content of this notice, you should seek independent professional advice.
When trading in financial instruments, your entire invested capital is at risk. The value of your investments can go down as well as up and you may receive back less than your original investment. As investments carry risk, before making any investment decision, please consider if it’s right for you and seek appropriate taxation and legal advice.
When opening an account with Stake you confirm that your details will be shared with DriveWealth and an application for a DriveWealth brokerage account (Limited Purpose Margin Account) will be made. You also agree to make all of your fully paid US listed securities available to be lent to DriveWealth in return for a payment, subject to our Terms and Conditions. This will include agreeing to DriveWealth causing cash or other collateral to be held in a third-party custodial account for your benefit to secure the loan of your securities. Please read the DriveWealth's Disclosures, Customer Agreement and Master Securities Lending Agreement documents before applying for a Stake account.
Stake’s US broker-dealer, DriveWealth, is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). Please be aware that SIPC may not protect you with respect to loaned securities once such securities are removed from your account. Explanatory brochure available upon request or at sipc.org. Check the background of DriveWealth on FINRA’s BrokerCheck here.
Information on Stake is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or any financial product, or to open a trading account in any jurisdiction where Stake is not registered to do so. Upon opening an account with Stake from a jurisdiction where Stake is not registered or able to market its services, you confirm that Stake did not make an offer, solicit an offer or provide any advice to buy or sell a financial product. If you are based in a jurisdiction where Stake is not registered (or regulated) you are responsible for ensuring that you comply with all local laws and regulations that you are subject to and for obtaining your own financial and legal advice if you are unsure.
No advice
At Stake, we’re focused on giving you a better investing experience but we don’t take into account your personal objectives, circumstances or financial situation and needs. We offer a non-advised (execution-only) order transmission service and therefore we do not offer any advice or provide you with any recommendations regarding the appropriateness of any particular financial instrument. Whilst we may from time to time provide you with factual information or market commentary about financial instruments, this information is not, and should not be interpreted as, advice or recommendation. Any advice is of a general nature only and any decision to submit orders is made solely by you. If you are uncertain as to whether any particular instrument is suitable and/or appropriate for your individual circumstances or needs, you should seek independent professional advice.
Provision of Information
We may provide financial and market data, news, analyst opinions, research reports, graphs or any other data or information (“Information”) to you from third party providers. Any Information we display is for informational purposes without taking into consideration your individual financial circumstances, objectives or particular needs. It is provided solely to enable you to make your own investment decisions and it is not intended to be and does not constitute a personalised investment advice or recommendation. Historical data displayed on past performance of an instrument is not a reliable indicator of future results. Future forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Pricing
The provision of services from Stake to you is subject to fees which are available at all times on our website. Before you start trading, you should familiarise yourself with all the applicable fees. Other fees may still apply including (but not limited to) foreign exchange, account, alternative dispute resolution, securities and exchange commission & FINRA (regulatory sell side) fees. Please refer to our pricing page for more detail. Pricing may be updated at any time and customers will ordinarily be provided with 20 days notice.
Tax
You should be aware that various tax regimes may apply to your trading depending on your personal tax status and the rules and regulations in force from time to time. You have the sole responsibility of determining the relevant tax impact to your trading and you should consult an appropriate professional advisor if you have any questions or doubts in this regard.
Market Fluctuations and Volatility
The market price of financial instruments is influenced by a broad range of factors and can change rapidly and unexpectedly, meaning the value of those instruments, and your related profits and losses on your positions, can also change rapidly and unexpectedly. For example, the value of securities can fluctuate due to a variety of factors such as economic conditions, industry trends, company performance, and geopolitical events. These fluctuations can result in gains or losses in the value of securities.
Amongst other things, prices of instruments can be subject to gapping (where the price of the instrument opens significantly above or below the previous day's closing price) and slippage (where the price an instrument is executed at is different to the price which was quoted at the time the order was submitted), especially in periods of market volatility. You have the sole responsibility of monitoring the value of the positions you hold.
Liquidity Risk
Liquidity risk is the risk that you may not be able to sell an investment easily or quickly enough to avoid a loss. In other words, it's the risk that there may not be enough buyers or sellers in the market to complete a transaction at a fair price. Whilst certain financial instruments can be very liquid, you should be aware that others, such as the shares of smaller companies or of companies located in other geographies or territories, can be less liquid. Therefore, you may not be able to realise your investment or realise it at its actual market value.
Technical Risk
Whilst we will try to make the Stake app and website available to you without interruption, we cannot guarantee that they will always be available to you. In these circumstances, your orders may not be able to be submitted and you may not be able to monitor your positions via our app or website.
Fully Paid Securities Lending (Stock Lending)
Before participating in securities lending with Stake (Stock Lending), please consider whether securities lending is right for you and seek appropriate financial, legal and taxation advice. You should consider your financial situation and needs, tax status, investment objectives, investment time horizon, liquidity needs, risk tolerance and any other relevant information. Stake does not take these into account. Please review Stake’s Terms and Conditions and Stock Lending Explained page, as well as DriveWealth’s Risk Disclosures and Master Securities Lending Agreement before joining Stake.
You may opt-out of securities lending at any time by opening your US Wall St Account and clicking on Settings > Trade Settings > Stock Lending Settings > Uncheck the ‘Stock Lending Income Program’ button.
Only ‘fully paid securities’ are eligible to be loaned, that is, securities that are in your Stake account which have settled and have been fully paid for by you. There is no guarantee that your shares will be loaned. The securities actually borrowed, the duration of each loan and the revenue earned will vary based on market conditions and borrowing demand, amongst other things. If DriveWealth borrows your securities, it may then lend those securities to other market participants such as banks, investment funds, brokers etc. If your securities are loaned, you should be aware that they could be used to facilitate short selling, which could put downward pressure on the price of the loaned securities and affect the long term value of your securities.
When your shares are lent, ownership of the shares transfers from the lender (you) to the borrower. However, you retain a contractual right to the return of the loaned securities and may sell your shares or opt-out at any time (which will also terminate the loan). As you retain economic ownership of the shares, through your contractual right to the return of the loaned securities, you will still be exposed to fluctuations in the value of the shares while they are on loan.
If there is a dividend payment or other distribution made while your securities are on loan, you will receive an equivalent cash payment. However, generally loans will be terminated prior to dividends being paid and you will receive the dividends as usual. Be aware that such income may attract tax consequences and consider whether it’s appropriate to obtain professional tax advice.
While a loan is outstanding, and until loaned securities are credited back to your account upon termination of a loan, you will lose your right to vote in respect of the loaned securities. If you'd like to vote, you can opt-out of Stock Lending at least five business days before the record date for the vote. You can opt back in at any time to Stock Lending. You can opt-out and opt-in to Stock Lending in your Wall St Account by clicking on Settings > Trade Settings > Stock Lending Settings > Turn off Stock Lending.
When your securities are on loan there is also a risk that the borrower may be unable to return them. To protect lenders, assets valued at least the same value of the borrowed securities will be set aside in a separate collateral account. In the event that the borrower defaults on the loan or your securities, you (the lender) can be repaid from the collateral. When you sign up to Stake, DriveWealth will seek your consent and authority to establish and maintain such a collateral account in the name of a trustee for the benefit of all Stake’s customers whose US securities are lent.
Please be aware that SIPC may not protect you with respect to loaned securities once such securities are removed from your Stake account, and therefore, the collateral held may constitute the only source of satisfaction of DriveWealth’s obligations in the event DriveWealth fails to return the loaned securities.
Information on Stake is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to loan securities.
Legal and Regulatory Changes
Changes in applicable regulations or laws governing the instruments offered by Stake can affect their value or the ability to trade them. The impact of such legal and regulatory changes can be material and unexpected.
System Availability and Data
System availability and response times, data, liquidity, execution speed and price are subject to market conditions, order size, order types, any connection limitations and various other factors.
Please note that market data is provided courtesy of DriveWealth and Tiingo and FX data is provided by Airwallex. No representation or warranty is made as to the timeliness, reliability, accuracy or completeness of the material and Stake does not accept any responsibility arising in any way for errors in, or omissions from, that data.
Orders and Execution
Stake offers different order types, including market, limit and stop orders.
A market order is an order to buy or sell a security at the current market price as quickly as possible. Market orders generally prioritise successful order execution over order price. They are not guaranteed to execute at the last price at the time you submit an order. Due to volatility and other factors, market orders may execute at a significantly different price. Market orders are not guaranteed to execute, due to illiquidity for example.
A limit order is an order to buy or sell a security at a specified price or better. Limit orders only execute if the security’s market price reaches the limit price set by you or better. If the specified limit price is never reached, the limit order will not be executed.
A stop order is an order to buy or sell a stock once a specified trigger price is reached. If the trigger price is reached, this triggers a market order to be placed for the desired trade to execute at the best price immediately obtainable. Stop sell orders are often used to limit the amount of losses if a stock price falls, however they are not guaranteed to execute, and may execute at a significantly worse price than the trigger price. Stop orders may reduce your trading risk, but they do not completely eliminate it. For example, in a highly volatile market the market price may drop so quickly that there is no opportunity to liquidate your position at the stop price designated. You should monitor the status of your stop orders, especially once the trigger price has been met.
It is important to note that the limit price or stop price specified by you may not be reached and your order may expire or be canceled beforehand. The exchange, Stake, or the broker, may need to cancel your order due to causes including (but not limited to) corporate actions, market statuses, or your specified price becoming too far from the market price. Even if the limit price or stop price specified by you is reached, your order may still not execute for a range of reasons, for example due to a lack of liquidity or technical error.
You may also place specific order types with different ‘time-in-force’ instructions or expiry periods that indicate how long an order will remain active before it is executed, canceled or expired.
It is your responsibility to monitor and manage your orders and instructions. You may not always be able to amend or cancel your instructions related to certain order types before the order is executed in full or part.
With all orders, factors such as market conditions, price volatility and liquidity may mean that an order is only partially executed, or not executed at all. Orders are not guaranteed to be submitted by us or guaranteed to execute in full or part, at a certain time or at a particular price. Orders may expire or be canceled or purged by Stake, our Service Providers or the market operators or participants.
Stake will not execute your orders, but rather will transmit them to our Third Party Broker Dealer, DriveWealth, who will be responsible for execution. We cannot control the execution of your orders once these are transmitted to DriveWealth and there is no guarantee that either we or DriveWealth will accept your orders.
Whilst we or Drivewealth will do our best to execute your orders as quickly as we can, the prices of Instruments can move quickly. This means that the price at which you submitted your order may not be the price at which your order is executed. In some circumstances, your order may be executed at a "better" price and in other circumstances it may be executed at a "worse" price than the price quoted to you. If your order is executed at a "worse" price than the price of the instrument at the time you submitted the Order, we have no liability to you to provide you with the difference in those prices. Please refer to the best execution terms of Stake’s US broker here.
Analyst Ratings
Stake sources information such as financial data, market data and depth, course of sales, analyst ratings and stock ratings (Information) from third party vendors. Data is not delivered on a real-time dynamic streaming basis. System availability and response times, data, liquidity, execution speed and price are subject to market conditions, order size, order types, any connection limitations and other factors. No representation or warranty is made as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the Information and Stake does not accept any responsibility arising from errors in, or omissions from, the Information.You agree that such Information is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute a recommendation or general or personal financial advice and that as a result of having access to or using the Information, no agency or advisory relationship is created between you and Stake. Neither Stake nor any third party provider is responsible for any investment decisions or for any damages or other losses resulting from the use of the Information.
Over the Counter Securities
Before investing in an Over the Counter (OTC) security, an investor should be aware that OTC securities are securities that are not listed on a major exchange. An investor should consider whether investing in OTC securities is appropriate for them, taking into account their investment objectives, the risks of OTC securities and associated charges.
OTC securities may be more illiquid than securities listed on a major exchange, which may impact the execution price and an investor’s ability to buy or sell such securities within a reasonable period of time. OTC securities may be subject to higher volatility in price and spread. Further, OTC securities in certain companies may trade at a lower volume and any trade may impact the stock price more heavily.
Certain OTC securities may not be subject to the same minimum listing standards and regulatory requirements as listed securities on major exchanges. Companies may not be required to report and disclose certain information. Publicly available information about the company may also be difficult to obtain. There may also be business risks associated with OTC securities, including that the company may be new, have no assets, operations or revenues, or have products or services that are still in development. Investors should thoroughly research the relevant company before investing in an OTC security. For more information about the risks, please see here.
Waitlist and Early access to features
Getting “early access” to a promotion with Stake is defined as signing up with a valid email address on a waitlist for an upcoming feature or promotion. Early access to the promotion or feature with Stake is not an offer or solicitation of any financial services or any confirmation that a trading account with Stake or any account with any of its partners has or will be opened. Priority on any waitlist or promotion may be given to existing customers of Stake. Stake may from time to time run promotions or programs offering incentives. If you elect to enter such an offer, you agree to the terms and conditions that apply to such promotion or program.
Third Party Links
Links on our website, the Stake app or any Stake related website may take you to a third party site. These sites are not affiliated with Stake and may have a different privacy policy, level of security and terms & conditions.