Prohibited Trading Practices — Smart Scalping Life

Smart Scalping Life (scalping.life) Last updated: 1 May 2026 Effective from: 1 May 2026

Preamble

This document sets out the trading practices, strategies and conduct that are prohibited when using the Smart Scalping Life platform (the "Platform"), including in connection with Prop Challenges, the Funded Stage, Custom Pools and copy trading.

This document forms an integral part of the Terms of Use and the Prop Challenge Agreement.

Use of any prohibited practice gives rise to one or more of the following sanctions:

DISQUALIFY (disqualification, with retention of the Entry Fee by the Operator) — applied automatically and without warning buffer for breaches of the rules effective from 1 June 2026 (drawdown breach, position-size breach, holding-time breach, profit-distribution breach, behavioural-pattern detection, etc.);
SUSPEND (temporary suspension pending review);
BAN (a permanent ban with block on re-registration) — applied where there is reasonable suspicion of manipulation, account sharing, or coordinated multi-account activity;
withholding of a Performance Reward (Payout) in whole or in part;
referral to law-enforcement authorities where there is reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence.

Legacy enrollments (participants who registered for a Challenge before 1 June 2026 and have not yet completed it) continue to operate under the prior sanctions framework (WARNING → DISQUALIFY escalation), which forms part of the contractual terms under which they enrolled.

The Operator determines whether an action, strategy or situation constitutes a prohibited practice on the basis of documented criteria and the application of reasonable professional judgment. Decisions imposing sanctions with material financial consequences are subject to internal human review and to appeal through the Complaints Procedure.

Category A — Exploitation of the Simulated Environment

1. Artificial alteration of balance

It is prohibited to alter the balance of the demo account on a compatible exchange or any other simulated environment by any means other than the placing of legitimate trading transactions.

This includes, without limitation:

any deposit, transfer or crediting of funds outside ordinary trading;
the use of demo funds obtained outside the standard mechanisms of the Platform;
exploitation of bugs of the exchange or of the Platform to alter the balance;
any other operations which are not the result of ordinary trading activity and which have not been authorised by the Operator.

Reaction: where material anomalies are detected, an immediate ban.

2. Exploitation of simulation errors

It is prohibited knowingly to exploit:

bugs and defects in the Simulated Environment;
divergences between demo and real prices (where these confer an advantage);
errors in the maintenance of positions (margin / P&L calculations);
technical failures resulting in temporary price anomalies;
the consequences of restarts or failures of the trading engine of an exchange.

If you discover an error, you are obliged to report it through the in-app bug-report tool or to support@scalping.life. Use of the error before its correction constitutes a breach.

3. Reverse-engineering of compliance systems

The following are prohibited:

attempts to determine the thresholds, algorithms or internal logic of the Platform's monitoring and compliance systems;
adapting trading conduct to inferred thresholds or detection patterns;
the use of stress-testing of the Simulated Environment, or of series of experimental accounts, to map the Platform's detection capabilities;
publishing or transmitting to third parties the results of any such reverse-engineering, including on forums, social networks and any other public or private channels.

4. Manipulation of performance metrics

It is prohibited artificially to inflate metrics through:

placing and immediately closing positions to inflate the trade or trading-day counter;
trading at minimum size in order to satisfy a minimum-trading-day requirement without genuinely taking any risk;
opening compensating positions to mask losses;
trading with disproportionately high leverage on one or two days in order to over-perform the target;
any other action aimed at formal compliance with the requirements without a genuine assessment of skill.

Category B — High-Frequency and latency-related practices

5. High-Frequency Trading (HFT)

The following automated trading systems are prohibited:

those producing a number of trades over short periods inconsistent with bona fide manual trading;
ultra-fast orders based on micro-inefficiencies;
strategies exploiting the technical features of the matching mechanisms of the demo environment.

6. Latency arbitrage

It is prohibited to use:

external faster market feeds in order to anticipate the prices of the simulated environment;
delays in the price update of the simulated environment;
comparison of prices between different exchanges in order to arbitrage through the demo account;
any tools that confer a temporary informational advantage over the standard feed of the Platform.

7. Tick scalping / sub-second strategies

The following strategies are prohibited:

catching tick movements of ultra-short duration;
exploiting delays in the update of the order-book of the demo environment;
the automated placement and cancellation of orders at excessive frequency.

8. One-sided betting

The following are prohibited as equivalent to one-sided betting:

opening a position without any risk-management logic, on the basis "if I'm right I earn; if I'm wrong I'll recover in the next Challenge";
trading without setting Stop-Losses, in expectation of a bounce (martingale-style);
exploiting the non-refundability of the Entry Fee as a "limited risk";
"all-or-nothing" strategies near the final day of a Challenge.

Category C — Co-ordination and collusion

9. Mirror trading / co-ordinated positions

The following are prohibited:

simultaneous opposing positions on the same instrument across different accounts under the control of the same person or group;
the mass placement of identical positions across multiple accounts to ensure that at least one passes;
the use of scripts that duplicate trades between connected accounts;
any other forms of co-ordinated conduct designed to circumvent the assessment rules.

The Operator uses a combination of behavioural, temporal and other indicators to detect such co-ordination. The specific methods and thresholds of detection are internal information of the Operator.

10. Group hedging across accounts

Hedging across multiple accounts is prohibited:

opening LONG in one Account and simultaneously SHORT on the same instrument in another;
co-ordination between multiple participants involving the exchange of signals;
the use of relatives, friends or hired persons to spread positions.

Within a single Account, partial hedging is permitted only where it functions in fact as an independent position (and not as a mechanism for simultaneously capturing gains and offsetting losses) — the Operator assesses this on a case-by-case basis.

11. Multi-account abuse

It is prohibited to create multiple Accounts as a single person for the purposes of:

circumventing restrictions (one Account = one Challenge of a given type);
increasing the chances of passing through duplicate participation;
obtaining multiple discounts or promotional codes;
masking breaches (a banned Account → continuation through another).

The Operator uses a combination of identification and behavioural indicators to detect connected accounts. The specific set of indicators and the matching methodology are internal information of the Operator.

12. Account sharing

The following are prohibited:

sharing credentials with any third party;
providing API keys to any third party;
trading on behalf of, or in the interests of, any third party;
providing access to a demo account used in a Challenge to any third party;
managed services in which the trader trades "for someone else".

13. Account rolling

It is prohibited to take part in a series of consecutive Challenges with the aim of progressing to a large Funded account by way of guess-work:

registering a new Challenge immediately after failing one, using an identical aggressive strategy;
exploiting re-registration discounts without any change in trading approach;
the participation of multiple connected persons in parallel Challenges to spread risk.

Category D — Prohibited types of strategy

14. News-only trading

It is prohibited to base a strategy exclusively on news events:

trading only in the windows of high volatility around macro events (including, without limitation, major US and EU economic releases, key central-bank meetings, significant crypto events);
opening positions immediately before a release in anticipation of its outcome;
strategies in which the predominant share of overall results is generated by one or two news events.

For some Programmes an additional rule may apply: a prohibition on opening or closing positions within a prescribed window around high-impact events. Specific window parameters are set out in the Programme parameters.

15. Cross-exchange arbitrage

The following arbitrage operations are prohibited:

between the demo price of the Simulated Environment and the spot price of other exchanges;
between different pairs on the same exchange (stable-coin arbitrage);
between derivative and spot pricing in cases of technical divergence.

16. Cross-symbol co-ordination

Co-ordinated use of multiple symbols as a single position is prohibited:

buying ETH and selling BTC as a "synthetic spread" in order to circumvent the leverage cap on a single symbol;
splitting a large risk across multiple correlated pairs in order to circumvent the limits;
using index correlations to mask a single position behind multiple positions.

17. Strategy switching between Challenge and Funded

It is prohibited to pass a Challenge with one strategy (often a more aggressive one) for the purpose of "passing the test" and then to switch fundamentally to a different trading profile on the Funded Stage.

Objective indicators of material switching (applied cumulatively, not in isolation):

a material change in the average position size relative to the simulated balance (a multiple-fold deviation compared with conduct during the Challenge);
a material change in the average leverage used per position;
a material change in the average holding period (intra-day → multi-day, or vice versa);
a material change in the instruments traded and their correlation groups;
a material change in activity (number of trades per day, trading hours) in the absence of objective market reasons.

Where such switching is detected on a cumulative basis, the Operator may initiate a review with human involvement and, where confirmed, apply measures in accordance with Prop Challenge Agreement §7. Minor evolutions of style within a single trading philosophy (for example, a partial adjustment of leverage following risk-reassessment) shall not be regarded as prohibited switching.

18. EAs / bots / scripts / signal providers / copy services

For Programmes evaluated under the rules effective from 1 June 2026 (and any later version), the use of any of the following on a Challenge account or on a Funded account is strictly prohibited and triggers immediate disqualification without payout:

trading robots, EAs, Pine Script alerts with auto-execution;
custom scripts that open or close positions without human input;
external signal services that execute trades automatically;
third-party copy-trading services or providers;
mirror-trading systems across multiple accounts;
distribution or sharing of strategies that are then run by other participants;
multi-strategies that switch between models in response to market state without manual confirmation.

Evaluation and Funded trading must be discretionary and manually executed by the registered participant in person. The Operator does not issue per-participant exceptions to this rule for the evaluation stage of v2 Programmes.

For Programmes operated under the legacy rules in force prior to 1 June 2026, the prior framework continues to apply — under which use of automation was prohibited save where expressly permitted by Programme parameters — for the lifetime of the relevant Challenge.

Copy trading of the Operator's own algorithmic engine signals to your own real exchange account, through the Platform's dedicated copy-trading feature, is a separate product governed by the Terms of Use §8 and is not affected by this section.

Category E — Exploitation of payments and infrastructure

19. Chargeback in circumvention of the Refund Policy

Chargeback requests submitted through the payment-service provider or the issuing bank in circumvention of the Refund Policy are prohibited. Consequences are set out in §7 of the Refund Policy.

20. Use of stolen funds

Payments made using stolen funds are prohibited, including:

stolen credit cards or crypto-wallets;
funds derived from unlawful activity;
funds in violation of sanctions regimes;
funds in circumvention of AML rules.

21. Fraudulent KYC

The following are prohibited:

providing forged or third-party documents;
using documents belonging to a third party;
concealing citizenship or residence in a sanctioned jurisdiction;
using nominees for KYC.

22. Manipulation of the referral programme

The following are prohibited:

self-referral (inviting yourself through a second Account);
co-ordinated invitations in exchange for shared bonuses;
the purchase of referral links;
farm accounts to inflate referrals.

Category F — Infrastructure and conduct

23. Attacks on the infrastructure

The following are prohibited:

DDoS, brute-force, port scanning, SQL injection, XSS and other attacks;
attempts to gain unauthorised access to the Platform's systems;
exploitation of vulnerabilities in lieu of responsible disclosure;
automated data collection (scraping, crawling) without authorisation;
reverse-engineering of the Platform's client or server code.

24. Social engineering

The following are prohibited:

impersonating Operator's staff;
attempts to obtain confidential information by deception;
phishing attacks against other participants;
the placement of phishing links in the chat of live broadcasts.

25. Threats and abuse

The following are prohibited:

threats against the Operator, administrators or other participants;
insults, discrimination, harassment in public Platform channels;
extortion and attempts at coercion;
the organisation of mass harassment or brigading.

26. Deliberately false defamatory statements

Right to reviews and criticism is preserved. Participants in the Platform retain the full right to post truthful reviews, to express reasoned criticism and to share their personal experience on public channels. This right is protected by applicable law and may not be limited by this document or the Terms of Use.

Prohibited: the public dissemination of deliberately false statements that:

(a) are directly contradicted by objective facts and documents; (b) are made with intent to harm the reputation of the Platform or the Operator; (c) may be qualified as defamation under the applicable law on defamation.

Burden of proof. The burden of establishing the deliberately false and defamatory nature of a statement rests on the Operator. A participant may not be sanctioned under this document for expressing opinions, generalised criticism or reporting facts that he or she in good faith considers to be true.

Internal escalation — recommendation, not obligation. The Operator recommends that participants first escalate complaints through the Complaints Procedure, as this generally results in faster and more substantive resolution. However, such recourse is not a prerequisite for the participant to exercise his or her right to publish reviews.

Reaction to breaches

General principles

Proportionality. The reaction is proportionate to the severity and intent of the breach.
Human review. All sanctions of the disqualify and ban level are subject to administrator review before application (consistent with GDPR Art. 22).
Documentation. Each decision is documented in the audit log with a statement of the grounds and evidence.
Right of appeal. A participant may appeal against the decision through the Complaints Procedure.

General principles for the application of sanctions

The reaction to a breach is determined on a case-by-case basis, having regard to:

the nature and category of the breach;
the severity of the consequences for the Platform's integrity and for other participants;
the existence of intent;
recidivism;
the participant's willingness to remedy the breach and to cooperate with compliance.

By way of general indication:

technical breaches of trading rules (drawdown, leverage, Stop-Loss requirements) ordinarily attract disqualification; serious or repeat breaches attract a ban;
high-frequency strategies and latency arbitrage ordinarily attract a warning, possibly with the reversal of trades; repeated cases attract disqualification;
indicia of co-ordination between connected accounts result in suspension for review; where confirmed, in disqualification or ban of all related accounts;
artificial alteration of balance, KYC fraud, attacks on infrastructure, and chargeback in circumvention of the Refund Policy attract an immediate ban, with possible referral to law-enforcement authorities.

The actual decision in each case is taken by the Operator following an analysis of all the circumstances.

The Operator's right to expand the list

The list set out above is not exhaustive. The Operator may:

(a) supplement the list with new categories as new patterns of bad-faith conduct emerge; (b) apply general principles of good faith to situations that are not expressly described in the document; (c) provide further explanations and examples in the FAQ or in internal documentation of the Platform.

Responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities

If you discover a security vulnerability in the Platform, please report it to legal@scalping.life with the subject "Security Disclosure". We will:

acknowledge receipt within 48 hours;
carry out an assessment and remediation;
where the disclosure is in good faith, thank the participant publicly or privately (by agreement) and may grant a reward.

Exploitation of the vulnerability rather than its responsible disclosure constitutes a breach of Section 23.

Contact

Email (legal queries): legal@scalping.life
Email (support): support@scalping.life
Telegram: @artio_ssl