Community Guidelines

Investment Nerds is an investment-education community for people who want to understand investing and personal finance and develop their own financial judgement.

We welcome beginners and experienced investors, including members in Ghana and members of the Ghanaian and wider diaspora.

Our purpose is education, discussion and responsible exchange of information.

Unless separately authorised and licensed to perform a particular activity, Investment Nerds is not a bank, broker, dealer, fund manager, portfolio manager, investment adviser, financial planner, securities exchange, investment scheme or payment service.

Nothing in this community authorises Investment Nerds, its administrators, moderators, Contributors or members to conduct an activity requiring a licence, registration, approval or other regulatory authorisation.

These Guidelines apply to Investment Nerds-operated or controlled website, application, forums, community spaces and official social-media, WhatsApp and messaging groups.

Learn together. Decide independently.

Information, opinions, analysis and experiences shared in the community are for general educational and informational purposes.

They are not personalised investment advice, financial planning, portfolio management, a recommendation to buy or sell an investment, an investment solicitation, an offer to manage another person's money, or individualised professional advice.

Members remain responsible for their own investment decisions.

Permitted educational subjects may include:

• shares and securities;
• government securities and Treasury bills;
• bonds;
• mutual funds and collective investment schemes;
• listed companies;
• investment concepts and terminology;
• personal-finance principles;
• financial literacy;
• investment research and analysis;
• risk management;
• financial markets and economic developments; and
• related educational subjects.

The community is not a place to obtain personalised investment recommendations, solicit investments, raise investment funds, manage another person's money or execute transactions for others.

Disagreement is welcome. Personal attacks are not.

Do not:

• harass, bully, threaten, stalk or intimidate;
• make malicious personal attacks;
• unlawfully discriminate;
• publish another person's private information;
• impersonate another person; or
• encourage violence or unlawful conduct.

Protect beginners. No question is too basic.

Correct ideas with evidence and reasoning rather than ridicule.

No member, administrator, moderator, expert, educator or creator may use the community to provide personalised investment recommendations.

Do not recommend investments based on another person's income, assets, liabilities, age, financial objectives, risk tolerance, experience, family circumstances, employment, portfolio, tax position or other personal circumstances.

Prohibited examples include:

"Based on your salary, put 40% into this fund."

"Given your portfolio, sell these shares and buy these three."

"Send me your portfolio and I will construct one for you."

"You should put GH¢20,000 into this investment."

General educational discussion of investment principles is permitted.

Do not use Investment Nerds to:

• offer or solicit investments;
• recruit investors;
• raise investment capital;
• promote investment schemes;
• market securities or financial products;
• solicit clients for investment services;
• operate or promote unlicensed investment activities;
• collect investment funds;
• facilitate investment transactions between members;
• provide paid investment signals;
• operate investment groups or pools;
• manage members' portfolios; or
• direct members to transfer investment money to another person.

Neutral educational discussion and factual information may be permitted where it does not amount to solicitation, endorsement or inducement.

Do not:

• guarantee profits;
• describe an investment as risk-free where it carries investment risk;
• promise a particular return;
• create artificial urgency or fear of missing out;
• pressure members to buy or sell;
• deliberately exaggerate expected returns;
• knowingly circulate false or materially misleading financial information;
• coordinate activity intended to manipulate a market or security price;
• participate in pump-and-dump activity; or
• coordinate deceptive campaigns intended to create artificial demand or supply.

Where reasonably practicable, support factual investment claims with credible sources.

Distinguish facts, estimates, assumptions, opinions and personal experience.

Honest mistakes are not treated the same as deliberate deception. Correct material errors promptly when identified.

Disclose material conflicts when discussing an investment, issuer, product or service.

This includes relevant situations where you:

• own the investment being discussed;
• work for the issuer;
• receive compensation, commissions or referral payments;
• have a commercial relationship with the relevant company; or
• have another financial interest that could reasonably affect your objectivity.

Failure to disclose a material conflict may lead to content removal or account sanctions.

Experts, educators and creators must follow all Community Guidelines.

They must not:

• falsely represent themselves as licensed or regulated;
• misrepresent qualifications;
• provide personalised investment recommendations through the community;
• solicit clients;
• receive investment funds from members;
• manage members' money;
• execute transactions for members;
• sell investment products through the community; or
• disguise investment solicitation as educational content.

A Contributor who describes themselves as regulated must accurately identify their professional capacity and, where relevant, the regulated entity with which they are associated.

Professional status does not create permission to conduct regulated activities through Investment Nerds.

Investment Nerds does not receive, hold, pool, transfer or invest members' investment money.

Never:

• send investment money to another member;
• send investment money to an administrator, moderator or Contributor;
• provide another person access to a brokerage, bank, mobile-money or investment account;
• disclose passwords, PINs, one-time passwords or authentication codes;
• authorise another member to trade on your behalf; or
• give another member custody or control of investment assets.

Investment Nerds will not ask members to disclose passwords, PINs, authentication codes or financial-account credentials.

A payment for an official Investment Nerds service, where one is offered, is not investment money. Verify such payments only through official channels identified by Investment Nerds.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• Ponzi or pyramid schemes;
• fraudulent investment opportunities;
• fake investment platforms or products;
• phishing;
• identity fraud;
• forged documents;
• fraudulent testimonials;
• fake licences or qualifications;
• deceptive referral schemes;
• fraudulent payment requests; and
• attempts to obtain members' money or credentials through deception.

Do not impersonate Investment Nerds, its administrators, moderators, employees, partners or other members.

Investment Nerds does not authorise members to collect money on its behalf unless expressly stated through an official channel and supported by applicable terms.

Verify important communications that appear to come from Investment Nerds.

Official communication channels will be identified through the Investment Nerds website, application or other designated official channels.

Do not rely solely on a private message, unofficial WhatsApp account, unsolicited payment request, unfamiliar link or individual claiming to be an administrator as proof that a communication is genuine.

Subject to applicable law, Investment Nerds is not responsible for losses arising solely from a member's decision to act on an unauthorised communication, impersonation or fraudulent representation.

Do not publicly post:

• bank or mobile-money account information;
• passwords, PINs or authentication codes;
• brokerage credentials;
• national identification information;
• financial-account numbers;
• private addresses;
• confidential employment information;
• another person's personal information without lawful authority; or
• other sensitive information.

Personal information processed by Investment Nerds is handled under the Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection requirements.

Do not:

• hack or attempt to hack the Platform;
• access another person's account without authority;
• introduce malware or malicious code;
• conduct phishing attacks;
• scrape protected information without authorisation;
• bypass access controls;
• interfere with Platform security;
• conduct denial-of-service attacks;
• maliciously exploit vulnerabilities; or
• circumvent technical restrictions.

Report security vulnerabilities privately through the designated support or security channel rather than publicly disclosing them before reasonable remediation is possible.

You remain responsible for content you submit and must have the rights and authority necessary to post it.

Do not submit:

• copyrighted material you are not authorised to use;
• confidential information or trade secrets;
• private information belonging to another person;
• fraudulent documents; or
• unlawful material.

By posting content, you grant Investment Nerds the limited rights described in the Terms of Service to host, store, display, transmit and moderate it.

Investment Nerds does not acquire ownership of your original content merely because you post it.

Unless expressly authorised, do not use the community for:

• unsolicited advertising;
• mass messaging;
• referral campaigns;
• affiliate marketing;
• repeated promotional posts;
• commercial solicitation;
• client acquisition;
• lead generation; or
• promotional links.

Investment Nerds may establish approved educational or commercial arrangements subject to applicable law and applicable terms.

Do not use Investment Nerds to facilitate or promote unlawful conduct, including:

• fraud or theft;
• money laundering;
• terrorist financing;
• cybercrime;
• identity theft;
• unlawful securities activity;
• unlawful investment schemes;
• intellectual-property infringement;
• unlawful disclosure of personal information; or
• threats or other unlawful conduct.

Investment Nerds may restrict, preserve or disclose information where required or permitted by applicable law.

You may discuss investments for educational purposes if you do not:

• solicit investments;
• provide personalised recommendations;
• make guarantees;
• deliberately mislead others;
• manipulate markets;
• conceal material conflicts;
• impersonate professionals; or
• otherwise violate these Guidelines or applicable law.

Mentioning a security does not make a post an Investment Nerds endorsement or recommendation.

Community content may be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated or based on assumptions.

Independently verify important information before acting on it.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of capital.

Promptly report suspected:

• fraud or investment scams;
• requests for investment money;
• requests for credentials;
• impersonation;
• suspicious investment opportunities;
• market manipulation;
• unauthorised solicitation;
• serious privacy violations;
• cybersecurity incidents; or
• other serious violations.

Reports may be submitted through the in-app reporting system, support@investmentnerds.org, or another official reporting channel designated by Investment Nerds.

Where technically available, a report may be submitted without identifying the reporter to the reported user or wider community. Investment Nerds does not guarantee absolute anonymity where identifying information is technically transmitted or disclosure is legally required.

Reports will be handled as confidentially as reasonably practicable.

Depending on the circumstances, Investment Nerds may:

• remove content;
• restrict visibility;
• issue warnings;
• require corrective information;
• restrict posting or messaging;
• temporarily suspend accounts;
• permanently remove accounts;
• restrict access to community areas; or
• take other reasonable protective measures.

We may consider seriousness, intent, actual or potential harm, financial risk, security risk, previous conduct, repetition, cooperation and applicable legal or regulatory obligations.

We may act immediately where reasonably necessary to protect members, preserve evidence, prevent fraud, protect security or comply with law.

Serious or repeated misconduct may result in permanent removal, including:

• fraud or scams;
• theft;
• deliberate financial deception;
• unlawful investment solicitation;
• deliberate market manipulation;
• attempts to obtain members' credentials;
• fraudulent attempts to obtain members' money;
• serious cybersecurity abuse;
• serious privacy violations; or
• fraudulent impersonation.

Investment Nerds retains reasonable discretion to determine the appropriate response based on the circumstances and applicable law.

A member whose content or account is restricted may appeal through the designated appeals channel, including info@investmentnerds.org unless another channel is specified.

Where reasonably practicable, Investment Nerds will provide a general explanation for significant enforcement action.

Where reasonably practicable, an appeal may be reviewed by a person who was not solely responsible for the original decision.

Investment Nerds does not have to disclose confidential security information, another person's private information, fraud-detection methods or information it is legally prohibited from disclosing.

Administrators and moderators act on behalf of Investment Nerds when performing authorised community functions.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, they are not personally liable solely because they performed those functions in good faith for ordinary investment losses, market movements, reliance on user-generated content, unauthorised third-party conduct, impersonation, temporary service interruptions or reasonable moderation decisions.

This protection does not create immunity from criminal, regulatory or statutory obligations and does not exclude fraud, wilful misconduct or liability that applicable law does not permit to be excluded.

Additional liability provisions are contained in the Terms of Service.

Investment Nerds does not undertake to:

• monitor every investment discussed;
• identify every investment risk;
• correct every inaccurate statement;
• monitor individual portfolios;
• prevent every scam;
• guarantee all community content is accurate; or
• guarantee continuous community availability.

We will nevertheless take reasonable measures appropriate to the service to promote member safety, security and responsible conduct.

Links or references to third-party websites, brokers, exchanges, financial institutions, educators or other services do not constitute endorsement, recommendation, verification, licensing confirmation or approval.

Independently verify a third party's identity, legitimacy, regulatory status and terms before using its services.

The community must not be used as a concealed channel for investment solicitation.

Where Investment Nerds has a financial, commercial or other material relationship relevant to official content, that relationship should be disclosed where reasonably relevant.

A product, company, security or service is not endorsed merely because it is mentioned.

Investment Nerds may have members outside Ghana.

Community information is not represented as compliant with every law of every jurisdiction. Members are responsible for laws applicable to their location and circumstances.

Investment Nerds may restrict access to features or activities where reasonably necessary for legal or regulatory compliance.

Nothing in these Guidelines excludes mandatory rights or obligations that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Investment Nerds may amend these Guidelines to respond to changes in law, regulation, technology, fraud or security risks, community needs or Platform administration.

Material changes will be communicated through appropriate channels where required, and the revised Guidelines will state their effective or updated date.

These Guidelines should be read together with:

• the Terms of Service;
• Privacy Policy;
• Investment Education Disclaimer;
• Expert & Creator Policy;
• Security & Responsible Disclosure Policy; and
• other policies expressly incorporated into the Terms.

If these Guidelines conflict with the Terms of Service, the Terms govern to the extent permitted by law.

If a provision is unlawful, invalid or unenforceable, it will be interpreted or modified to the minimum extent legally permissible and the remaining provisions will continue to apply.

Failure by Investment Nerds to enforce a provision on one occasion does not waive the right to enforce it later.

Learn. Question. Verify. Decide independently.

Ask the basic question. Challenge the thesis. Look for evidence. Disclose conflicts. Understand the downside.

Never transfer investment money or credentials to another member because of a community post.

Never assume confidence equals competence.

Investment Nerds provides a place to learn. The investment decision remains yours.

Investment Nerds. Accra, Ghana. Email: info@investmentnerds.org or support@investmentnerds.org · Web: investmentnerds.org