Risk disclosure
Trading crypto assets, shares and other financial instruments involves substantial risk. This page explains, in plain English, what can go wrong, why it happens and what you can do about it before and while using the Cerfina platform. Read it before making your first deposit: understanding these risks is a condition of using the service responsibly.
1. Introduction and general warning
Cerfina provides access to automated, AI-assisted trading in crypto assets and shares. The value of any position can move against you quickly, and leveraged or volatile instruments can move further and faster than most people expect. Prices reflect the judgement of millions of market participants and news that arrives without warning, so no algorithm, manager or strategy can promise a positive outcome for any period.
The automated nature of the platform changes how trades are executed, not whether risk exists. If anything, automation deserves extra respect precisely because it acts quickly. Treat every deposit as capital you could afford to lose in full, and size your first deposit accordingly.
2. Market risk and volatility
Market risk is the risk that prices move against your open positions. Crypto assets in particular can move by double-digit percentages within a single day, and quiet periods can end abruptly. A strategy that performed well for months can hit a run of conditions that no longer suits it, and past results do not indicate future performance.
Volatility cuts both ways: it creates the opportunities the engine is built to detect, and it is the same force that produces drawdowns. The platform's volatility circuit breakers can pause trading when conditions become extreme, but they react after conditions change, not before, and they cannot rewind losses already incurred.
3. Liquidity risk and slippage
Liquidity is how easily a position can be closed near the price you see on screen. In thin markets, or during news spikes, the price available when your order executes may differ from the price when the decision was made. That difference is slippage, and on fast moves it can be significant in both directions.
Stop orders do not guarantee an exit price; they guarantee an attempt. During gaps, an exit can execute far through the intended level. The engine prefers liquid venues and trading pairs, and avoids opening positions when spreads widen abnormally, but these precautions reduce rather than remove slippage.
4. API connections and integrations
The platform connects to external exchanges through their interfaces. Those connections can be interrupted, rate-limited, changed by the exchange or delayed exactly when markets are busiest. A brief disconnection can mean a decision is executed late or a position is closed at a different level than intended.
API keys also carry their own risks. A key with the wrong permissions, or one stored insecurely on your side, is a security issue no platform feature can offset. We ask for the narrowest permissions that allow the platform to operate, and our Security page explains the exact scopes used and how to revoke a connection at any time.
5. Counterparty and custody risk
When funds or assets sit with an exchange or another third-party provider, you are exposed to that provider's solvency, operational health and adherence to its own terms. Failures of major venues have historically frozen or lost customer assets, and recovery processes can take months or fail entirely.
Cerfina distributes connections across several major venues rather than relying on one, but diversification of venues does not create a guarantee against provider failure. Under the UK framework, eligible cash deposits with authorised firms may be protected by the FSCS subject to its rules, while crypto and digital assets are generally not covered by the FSCS.
6. Operational and technical risk
Software has defects, infrastructure has outages, and networks drop packets. A platform as technically complex as an automated trading system depends on servers, data feeds, exchange interfaces and the internet between them. Any link can fail, and maintenance windows are sometimes unavoidable.
We mitigate this with redundancy, monitoring and staged releases, and the audit log records what the system did around any incident. Still, you should assume that brief interruptions are possible at inconvenient moments and avoid sizing positions so large that a short delay would be unmanageable.
7. Cybersecurity and phishing
Accounts holding transferable value attract attackers. The most common attacks do not break encryption; they trick people. Fake websites mimicking the login page, emails impersonating support, and phone calls referencing real account details are all used to harvest credentials.
Protect yourself with the tools the platform provides: two-factor authentication, login alerts and a unique password you do not reuse elsewhere. Verify you are on the genuine domain before entering credentials, and remember that Cerfina staff will never ask for your password or a code from your authenticator. Our Fraud Warning page lists the channels we do and do not use.
8. Model and automation risk
The AI engine is a tool built on statistical patterns in historical data. Patterns shift, relationships break down, and a model that was well-suited to last year's conditions can be poorly suited to this year's. Automation also executes consistently, which is a strength with a good configuration and a weakness with a poor one.
No back-test, live track record or manager commentary constitutes a promise of future returns. Review your session reports, ask your manager to explain anything that looks off, and treat a change in performance regime as information to act on rather than noise to wait out. You can pause strategies or adjust settings at any time.
9. Service availability
The platform requires scheduled maintenance and can face unscheduled downtime. During such windows you may be unable to change settings, open or close positions, or request withdrawals until service is restored. Exchange-side outages can produce the same effect even when Cerfina itself is fully operational.
Announced maintenance is published in the dashboard in advance. For live incidents, status updates go to the email on your account. If you depend on being able to act at a specific moment, plan around the possibility that you cannot, and keep position sizes consistent with that reality.
10. Before you begin
Four practical steps make an enormous difference. First, understand the strategy you are running: what it buys, when it exits, and how it behaved in past drawdowns. Your manager will explain this without jargon if you ask. Second, decide in advance the maximum loss you are willing to accept, write it down, and reduce your deposit if you exceed it.
Third, protect the account itself: two-factor authentication, a unique password and immediate reporting of anything suspicious. Fourth, keep watching even though the machine does the trading. Read the reports, notice changes in behaviour and stay in contact with your manager. Automation works best for people who remain engaged owners of their own money.