A commercial license for PineForge Codegen
PineForge Codegen is free for personal trading and for noncommercial purposes, including use by schools, universities, public research organizations, charities and government institutions for their teaching, research and other operations. Investment management is not free for anyone except as personal trading: managing, advising on or trading investment capital, an endowment, a pension or public fund or a foundation's treasury included, is Commercial Use. So is use for a company or fund, inside a product or service you offer, or in a hosted service. Commercial Use needs a commercial license.
What the commercial license covers
The LICENSE defines Commercial Use as any use that is not one of its permitted purposes, and makes investment management Commercial Use for every individual and organization except as personal trading. It names four uses as examples. A commercial license permits them for the scope you buy:
- Use (1)Managing, advising on, or trading capital that belongs to any other person or entity, whether or not for a fee.
- Use (2)Use by, for, or on behalf of a company, fund, partnership, or other organization, including an individual's work for one.
- Use (3)Embedding the software, or its Output, into a product or service made available to others, including using the software to generate Output for one.
- Use (4)Operating a hosted, software-as-a-service, or otherwise public-facing service through which others can run the software or receive its Output.
Four plans map onto those uses: Solo covers use (2) for one person and a company they wholly own; Team covers use (2) for one organization; Fund adds use (1), others' capital and institutional funds such as endowments, pension and public funds, priced by assets under management; OEM / Embedded covers uses (3) and (4), products and hosted services. Anything outside the bands is quoted.
Do I need one?
Answer a few questions about how you use PineForge Codegen. The guide follows the LICENSE and quotes the sentence each answer rests on.
Not legal advice; the LICENSE is the controlling text; ask enterprise@pineforge.dev if unsure.
How the guide decides
- Questions 1, 2, 6 and 7 are the four uses the LICENSE lists as Commercial Use, unless they are a permitted purpose. A yes to question 1 is also Investment Management, which is never a permitted purpose except as Personal Trading: it needs a commercial license whatever else you answer.
- After a yes to question 2, question 3 asks whether the organization is one of the noncommercial organizations the LICENSE lists. If it is, question 4 asks whether it uses the software for Investment Management. No: its teaching, research and other operations need no commercial license, unless question 1 is yes. Yes: it needs Fund, or a quote with a product or hosted service. If it is not, question 5 asks whether it is a company you wholly own, alone or with your household, holding only your household's capital, where no one but you uses the software; trading through it is Investment Management too, which Solo covers.
- If no answer so far needs a commercial license whatever else you answer, a yes to any of the four uses leads to question 11: is all of that use for a noncommercial purpose? Yes: no commercial license is needed. Otherwise you need one. Solo covers use (2) for such a company of your own; Team covers use (2) for one organization; Fund adds others' capital (1) and other Investment Management, such as an endowment or a pension fund; OEM / Embedded covers products (3) and hosted services (4). A combination no single plan covers needs a quote.
- If all four uses are no, questions 8 to 10 test Personal Trading: an individual trading for their own account (including household, joint and retirement accounts) with their own capital (including household capital and margin). Three yes answers: no commercial license is needed. Otherwise question 11 decides: a noncommercial purpose needs no commercial license; any other use needs one, by quote.
The questions
- 1.Will you manage, advise on, or trade capital that belongs to any other person or entity outside your household, whether or not for a fee?LICENSE use (1). It is also Investment Management, which needs a commercial license whatever its purpose. Your household is you, your spouse or domestic partner, and your dependants. Capital that an employer, a prop-trading firm or a funded-trader program gives you to trade, and still owns or bears the losses of, belongs to others.
- 2.Will you use it by, for, or on behalf of a company, fund, partnership, or other organization, including your own company or your work for one?LICENSE use (2). The account of a company you wholly own is not your own account, so trading through one counts.
- 3.Is the organization a charitable organization, educational institution, public research organization, public safety or health organization, environmental protection organization, or government institution?The noncommercial organizations the LICENSE lists among its permitted purposes, whatever their source of funding. Their teaching, research and other operations are free; Investment Management is not.
- 4.Will the organization use the software for Investment Management: to manage, advise on or trade investment capital, such as an endowment, a pension or retirement fund, a sovereign or other public fund, or its treasury or reserves; to research, develop or backtest strategies for such capital; or to run the software for others who do?Investment Management is never a permitted purpose, except as Personal Trading: it needs a commercial license for every organization, noncommercial ones included, whoever the capital belongs to and whether or not for a fee. The organization's teaching, research and other operations stay free.
- 5.Is the organization one you wholly own, alone or with your household, holding only your household's capital, where no one but you uses the software?For example, a company you trade your own savings through. Your household is you, your spouse or domestic partner, and your dependants. Trading through such a company is Investment Management, not Personal Trading, so it needs a commercial license even for a noncommercial purpose.
- 6.Will you embed the software, or its Output, into a product or service made available to others, or use the software to generate Output for one?LICENSE use (3). Output is code the software generates, such as the C++ it generates from PineScript, and any program or library built from that code. Backtest results, charts, reports and trade signals are not Output.
- 7.Will you operate a hosted, software-as-a-service, or otherwise public-facing service through which others can run the software or receive its Output?LICENSE use (4). Output is the code the software generates, not backtest results, charts, reports or trade signals.
- 8.Are you an individual (a natural person) using it to research, develop or backtest trading strategies, or to execute trades in financial instruments?The Personal Trading permission covers natural persons only. Trading in your own name counts even when it is your business or livelihood, and so does publishing or teaching about your own trading, even for pay, as long as you give no Output to others.
- 9.Are the trades placed, or will they be, for your own account?Personal Trading, condition (a). Your own account includes an account you hold alone or jointly with your household, a household member's account, and a retirement, pension, education-savings or other tax-advantaged account, or a revocable trust's account, for your household. The account of a company, partnership, fund, other trust or other organization is not, even if you wholly own it.
- 10.Are the trades funded, or will they be, solely by your own capital?Personal Trading, condition (b). Your own capital includes your household's capital, money you received outright such as pay, a gift or an inheritance, and ordinary borrowing such as margin that you or your household are liable for. Capital that an employer, a prop-trading firm or a funded-trader program gives you to trade, and still owns or bears the losses of, is not, even if you share in the profits.
- 11.Is all of your use of the software for a noncommercial purpose, without any anticipated commercial application, such as a free hobby project, teaching, or research for the benefit of public knowledge?The LICENSE makes any noncommercial purpose a permitted purpose, but never Investment Management: managing, advising on or trading investment capital, or researching strategies for it, other than as Personal Trading. If any part of the use has an anticipated commercial application or is Investment Management, answer no.
The possible results
You need a commercial license: Solo
Use for an organization is Commercial Use, even for a company you wholly own: its account is not your own account, so trading through it is Investment Management, not Personal Trading. The Solo plan covers one natural person using the software for a company they wholly own, alone or with their household, trading up to $10M of own capital.
An account of a company, partnership, fund, trust or other organization, other than an account described under own account above, is not the person's own account, even if the person wholly owns or controls it.
Investment Management means using the software to manage, advise on, or trade investment capital; to research, develop or backtest strategies for investment capital that you, or anyone you do the work for, manage, advise on or trade; or to operate the software for others who do any of these things; in each case whoever the capital belongs to and whether or not for a fee.
Investment capital means any money or other assets held for investment or trading, including capital belonging to any other person or entity, such as a friend or relative, clients or investors, an endowment, a pension or retirement fund, a sovereign or other public fund, or the treasury or reserves of a foundation or other organization.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Investment Management is Commercial Use for every individual and every organization, including the noncommercial organizations listed under Permitted Purposes, whatever its purpose, unless it is Personal Trading.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
(2) use by, for, or on behalf of any company, fund, partnership, or other organization, including use by an individual in the course of work for such an organization;
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
You need a commercial license: Team
Use by, for, or on behalf of an organization is Commercial Use. The Team plan covers one organization's internal use by its named users, with up to $10M of its own capital traded with the software; above that, the Fund plan.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
(2) use by, for, or on behalf of any company, fund, partnership, or other organization, including use by an individual in the course of work for such an organization;
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
You need a commercial license: Fund
Investment Management, such as managing, advising on, or trading other people's capital, is Commercial Use for every individual and every organization, whatever the purpose. The Fund plan covers it, together with use for your organization, priced by assets under management. Organizations that use the software for an endowment, a pension or public fund, or a foundation's treasury buy Fund too, noncommercial ones included.
Investment Management means using the software to manage, advise on, or trade investment capital; to research, develop or backtest strategies for investment capital that you, or anyone you do the work for, manage, advise on or trade; or to operate the software for others who do any of these things; in each case whoever the capital belongs to and whether or not for a fee.
Investment capital means any money or other assets held for investment or trading, including capital belonging to any other person or entity, such as a friend or relative, clients or investors, an endowment, a pension or retirement fund, a sovereign or other public fund, or the treasury or reserves of a foundation or other organization.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Investment Management is Commercial Use for every individual and every organization, including the noncommercial organizations listed under Permitted Purposes, whatever its purpose, unless it is Personal Trading.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
(1) managing, advising on, or trading capital belonging to any other person or entity, whether or not for a fee;
(2) use by, for, or on behalf of any company, fund, partnership, or other organization, including use by an individual in the course of work for such an organization;
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
You need a commercial license: OEM / Embedded
Embedding the software or its Output in a product or service for others, or running a hosted or public-facing service with it, is Commercial Use. The OEM / Embedded plan covers it, scoped by products and end users. It also includes Team rights for your own staff, within its seats.
Output means code that the software generates, such as the C++ source code it generates from PineScript, and any program or library built from that code. Backtest results, charts, reports and trade signals are not Output.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
(3) embedding the software, or its Output, into any product or service made available to others, including using the software to generate Output for such a product or service; and
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
You need a commercial license that no single plan covers
Your answers combine uses that none of the self-serve plans covers on its own. Ask for a quote and describe your use.
Investment Management means using the software to manage, advise on, or trade investment capital; to research, develop or backtest strategies for investment capital that you, or anyone you do the work for, manage, advise on or trade; or to operate the software for others who do any of these things; in each case whoever the capital belongs to and whether or not for a fee.
Investment capital means any money or other assets held for investment or trading, including capital belonging to any other person or entity, such as a friend or relative, clients or investors, an endowment, a pension or retirement fund, a sovereign or other public fund, or the treasury or reserves of a foundation or other organization.
Output means code that the software generates, such as the C++ source code it generates from PineScript, and any program or library built from that code. Backtest results, charts, reports and trade signals are not Output.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Investment Management is Commercial Use for every individual and every organization, including the noncommercial organizations listed under Permitted Purposes, whatever its purpose, unless it is Personal Trading.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
(1) managing, advising on, or trading capital belonging to any other person or entity, whether or not for a fee;
(3) embedding the software, or its Output, into any product or service made available to others, including using the software to generate Output for such a product or service; and
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
No commercial license needed: a noncommercial organization
The LICENSE makes use by such an organization for its teaching, research and other operations a permitted purpose, free of charge. Investment Management is not: using the software for an endowment, a pension or public fund, or the organization's treasury or reserves needs the Fund plan.
Noncommercial organizations. Use by any charitable organization, educational institution, public research organization, public safety or health organization, environmental protection organization, or government institution for its teaching, research and other operations, regardless of the source of funding or obligations resulting from the funding.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
Investment Management, defined in the Commercial Use section, is never a permitted purpose, except as Personal Trading. That is so even when it is done by a noncommercial organization or for a noncommercial purpose.
No commercial license needed: Personal Trading
Researching, developing or backtesting trading strategies and executing trades as a natural person, for your own account and with your own capital, is Personal Trading, which the LICENSE permits free of charge, even when trading is your business or livelihood.
The software is free of charge for the permitted purposes below, including Personal Trading.
Personal Trading means use of the software by a natural person to do any of the following, solely for trades that meet conditions (a) and (b) below: research, develop or backtest trading strategies, or execute trades in securities, derivatives, currencies, crypto-assets, commodities or other financial instruments.
(a) The trades are, or will be, placed for that person's own account.
(b) The trades are, or will be, funded solely by that person's own capital.
A person's household is that person, their spouse or domestic partner, and their dependants.
A person's own account includes an account held by the person alone or jointly with members of their household; an account of a member of their household; and a retirement, pension, education-savings or other tax-advantaged account, or an account of a revocable trust, held for the benefit of the person or members of their household.
A person's own capital includes capital belonging to members of their household, and capital borrowed in the ordinary course from a broker, bank or other lender, such as margin, leverage or credit on a trading account, for which the person or their household is liable. Money the person has received outright, such as pay, a gift or an inheritance, is the person's own capital.
Trading in the person's own name, for their own account and with their own capital, is Personal Trading even when it is the person's business or livelihood.
Publishing or teaching about the person's own Personal Trading, including its results, is part of Personal Trading even when the person is paid for it, as long as they do not give Output to others.
No commercial license needed: a permitted purpose
Noncommercial purposes are permitted purposes under the LICENSE, free of charge. Investment Management never is, except as Personal Trading, even for a noncommercial purpose.
Noncommercial purposes. Any noncommercial purpose.
Personal uses. Personal use for research, experiment, and testing for the benefit of public knowledge, personal study, private entertainment, hobby projects, amateur pursuits, or religious observance, without any anticipated commercial application.
Unless it is a permitted purpose, each of the following is also Commercial Use:
Investment Management, defined in the Commercial Use section, is never a permitted purpose, except as Personal Trading. That is so even when it is done by a noncommercial organization or for a noncommercial purpose.
Your use needs a commercial license
Your use is neither Personal Trading nor a noncommercial purpose, so the free permissions do not cover it. Ask for a quote and describe your use.
Commercial Use means any use of the software that is not a permitted purpose, other than distributing copies under the Distribution License section.
Commercial Use requires a separate commercial license from the licensor.
What it does not change
Personal trading with your own capital, for your own account, stays free under the LICENSE, including household, joint and retirement accounts and ordinary margin. Noncommercial purposes stay free, and so do the teaching, research and other non-investment operations of the noncommercial organizations the LICENSE names. A commercial license adds no right to sell or host the transpiler as a standalone product.