Background
This ruling forms part of a wider piece of ongoing work on the advertising of AI products across a number of sectors. The ads were identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by our Active Ad Monitoring system, which uses AI to proactively search for online ads that might break the rules. See also related rulings published on 16 September 2026 and 14 October 2026.
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld
Ad description
Two paid for Facebook ads for ChartPrime, a financial educational platform, seen in May 2026:
a. The first ad showed text that stated “This is not your average trading indicator” followed by a red cross emoji. Further text stated “Precise Buy & Sell Signals”, “Automatic TP & SL Zones”, “AI-Powered Backtesting” and “Smart Money Concepts Integration”, each preceded by a green tick icon.
The ad included a video that showed a laptop screen displaying a trading chart. Over the chart, text stated “Trading shouldn’t be this simple…” alongside emojis of a money-face and a face visibly exhaling air. Further text said “Accurate Signals & Multiple take profits” alongside a target emoji and a money-face emoji.
At the bottom of the ad, text stated “WWW.CHARTPRIME.COM” and “Master Your Trades”, alongside a “Learn more” button.
b. The second ad included all the text of ad (a). A separate video had on-screen text that stated “THIS SIMPLE TOOLKIT CHANGED EVERYTHING” beside an emoji of a face with sunglasses. A phone was shown being held with a trading graph on it. The voice-over said “Who said trading was hard?” On-screen text said “Accurate Signals” and “Multiple take profits” alongside a target emoji and a money-face emoji. The voice-over continued “This toolkit shows me literally when to buy and sell and even when to take profit. Just look how accurate it is. If you want to try this out for your self it is called ChartPrime. Just click the link below to see if it is still available.” On-screen text said “LINK BELOW!”
Issue
The ASA challenged whether ads (a) and (b):
1. were misleading because they implied investment was risk free and also breached the Code because they did not otherwise make clear the risks involved in investment; and
2. took advantage of the inexperience and credulity of consumers by suggesting returns could be made easily for everyone with minimal time and past experience.
Response
1. Chart Prime Trading LLC (ChartPrime) said they were a software and educational technology company. Their platform provided indicators, tools and educational content to help traders perform their own analysis. Their software provided information similar to other technical analysis platforms commonly used by traders. They said they were not an investment manager, did not execute trades, provided no financial advice and did not manage customer funds. Further they did not guarantee investment returns and users were responsible for their trades and risk management.
They said that the ads described features of the software, including AI-powered backtesting, buy and sell signal generation, automatic take-profit and stop-loss zone identification and Smart Money Concept integration. They explained those terms were just descriptions of the functionality of their software and were not promises of investment performance. They further said claims such as “Accurate Signals,” “Precise Buy & Sell Signals,” and “Multiple Take Profits” also described how the software functioned and did not state profitable trading outcomes were guaranteed. Further claims such as “Trading shouldn’t be this simple” and “Who said trading was hard?” were marketing language used to highlight the accessibility and user friendliness of their software and did not state or indicate that profitable investing was effortless or without risk. They said therefore the ads never guaranteed profits, promised positive returns or claimed that users could regularly outperform the market. In addition they also did not say that investing had no risk and that losses couldn’t be made.
While they did not believe the ads would be interpreted as guaranteeing investment success, they acknowledged the inclusion of an explicit investment risk statement would have assisted the balance of the ads. Therefore, they had proactively begun a review of their UK-facing ads and intended to include clearer and more risk disclosures in future advertising that related to trading and financial markets. Specifically, they would be stating that trading involved substantial risk, capital was at risk, past performance did not guarantee future results and they would make clear ChartPrime did not provide investment advice.
2. ChartPrime said the purpose of the ads was to explain how their software and tools made financial markets easier to understand and more accessible but not that trading on the markets themselves was easy or that making returns could be done with no knowledge or experience. They said that statements such as “Trading shouldn’t be this simple”, “Who said trading was hard?” and “This toolkit changed everything” were advertising puffery that described how accessible and user friendly the software was and did not address investment outcomes. They said their software did not automate investment decisions on behalf of users. Instead, it needed users to select appropriate trading strategies, manage risks and make their own independent trading decisions. The platform was educational and was designed to support informed decision-making rather than replace it.
Therefore, they did not believe the ads encouraged inexperienced consumers to think that trading was guaranteed to be successful or that experience was unnecessary. Nevertheless, as part of the review of their UK-facing advertising they had decided to modify language in their ads to ensure that the sophistication and the inherent risks of financial markets were appropriately reflected. They said in addition to the review they would provide additional internal compliance guidance for future marketing materials.
Assessment
1. Upheld
Section 14 of the CAP Code, which reflected rules prescribed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on promotional material for regulated investments, required that financial marketing communications not regulated by the FCA should make clear that the value of investments was variable and, unless guaranteed, could go down as well as up. The ads promoted ChartPrime’s software that provided educational content and assistance to consumers who traded, or were looking to begin trading, on financial markets. As such the ASA considered that the ads were for financial marketing communications. They included no risk warning to make clear that investments could go down as well as up.
In addition, ad (a) included a video that stated “Trading shouldn’t be this simple…” alongside emojis of a money-face and a face visibly exhaling air. Further text, in both ads (a) and (b) said “Accurate Signals & Multiple take profits” alongside a target emoji and a money-face emoji. The voice-over in ad (b) said “This toolkit shows me literally when to buy and sell and even when to take profit.” We noted ChartPrime’s comments that claims like “Multiple Take Profits” and “Trading shouldn’t be this simple…” intended to describe the functionality and usability of their product. However, we considered the use of money-face emojis in both ads, alongside references to profit and how the product was simple and made trading decisions for consumers, implied consumers could expect to make large sums of money after investing, with minimal risk. We therefore concluded that the ads breached the Code by not making it clear that investments could go down as well as up and they were also misleading because they implied money could be made with minimal risks.
On that point, the ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 14.4 (Financial products).
2. Upheld
Ad (a) stated “Trading shouldn’t be this simple…” alongside emojis of a money face and a face visibly exhaling air. Ad (b) stated “THIS SIMPLE TOOLKIT CHANGED EVERYTHING” and “Who said trading was hard?” The ad also included a money face emoji.
We noted ChartPrime’s comments that the references to trading being “simple” and not being “hard” were intended to highlight the user friendliness of their platform, rather than stating trading itself was straightforward. Nevertheless, their platform provided trading advice and we considered the implication from the claims was that financial investment, based on the use of the product, was straightforward, regardless of experience, and would not require consumers to spend significant amounts of time to achieve results.
We therefore concluded that the ads took advantage of consumers’ inexperience and credulity by suggesting returns could be made by everyone simply, with minimal time and experience.
On that point, the ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 14.1 (Financial products).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Chart Prime Trading LLC to ensure their ads made clear that the value of financial investments could go down as well as up and that they did not mislead by suggesting money could be made quickly with minimal risks. We also told them to ensure that they did not take advantage of a consumer’s lack of experience or credulity by implying that financial investment was straightforward, or that returns could be made with minimal time and experience.
