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:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Two paid for Facebook ads for Brianna Trades, a financial educational platform, seen on 2 May 2026:
a. The first ad included text that stated “Starting with trading doesn't need a finance degree. Just AI that does the hard part – and 15 minutes a day” followed by a rocket emoji.
The ad included a video that showed two men speaking to each other, one holding a phone. In the bottom right-hand corner a moving image of a screen was shown with a trading graph on it. The man with the phone said “Mine. Learn how to trade with AI.” The second man said “Since when?” The first man said “A few months back. Started with 20 bucks”. The second man said “And you never told me”. The first man said “Wanted to see it hold up first. Now I just check the results every morning”. The second man said “20 dollars” and the first man responded “20 dollars.” Two different men were then shown opposite each other in a studio talking into microphones. The first man, shown holding a phone and scrolling through it, said “Three months ago I let an AI start trading for me with 20 dollars. I hadn’t made a single trade before in my life”. The second man said “You just handed it over to AI?” The first man said “Yes. Here look” and he showed his phone. An image of a trading graph was shown on the screen. The second man said “Wait, that is all happening on its own right now?” The first man said “Every bit of it, I don’t touch a thing, it reads the market, finds the moves, handles everything, I just check in.” The second man replied “And you set this up yourself?” The first man said “Through Finelo yes. Told it what I wanted and it just went”. “I am 52 you really think I can do this”, “53 what do you think”, “Okay. Show me how”. “Download Finelo. Don’t think about it. Just start.”
At the bottom of the ad, text stated “QUIZ.FINELO.COM” and “Start Now!” alongside a “Learn more” button.
b. The second ad included text that stated “Starting with investing doesn't need a finance degree. Just AI that does the hard part – and 15 minutes a day” followed by a rocket emoji.
The ad included a video that showed a man talking to the camera as he walked. In the bottom left- hand corner a moving image of a screen was shown with a trading graph on it. The man said “I am going to ask you something. What is your plan for retirement because eight years goes fast. I started with 20 bucks, AI handles the investing. Now I check it every morning before anything else. You’ve got a phone, that’s enough.” A trading graph was then shown on screen. A male, holding a microphone, addressed a group of people, and said “Listen just try investing with AI. No experience needed. 20 dollars. Start tomorrow by end of month you will thank yourself. A second male in the audience and holding a microphone responded said “Hold on. Like I don’t need to know all the charts and stuff?” The first male said “None of it. The AI reads all that for you. You just need to understand what it is telling you. That is literally it.” The second voice said “Okay but is it actually working? Like for real?” The first voice said “It is crushing the market right now. Doing it better than ever.” The second voice said “Okay but I genuinely don’t know where to start. Like I’d open my phone and I would have no idea what to do.” The first voice said “That is why the app exists. It shows you exactly what to do. Step by step, no guessing.” The second voice said “So I just let the AI handle the hard part?” The first voice said “Exactly. Open it, follow it, let it do its thing. You just have to start.” The second voice said “Alright I’m in.” On-screen text said “TRY NOW” with an arrow pointing downwards”.
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 it did not otherwise make clear the risks involved in investment;
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; and
3. misled as to the nature of the service.
Response
1. Finelo Ltd, who were responsible for the Brianna Trades account, said the two ads were only live on 2 May 2026 and were removed before ASA contact. They said the ads had not been used since and would not be used in future.
They explained at the time the ads appeared Finelo provided educational content and simulated trading through demonstration accounts. Consumers did not trade real funds through their product and Finelo did not hold or manage consumer funds. They therefore did not believe their product was a financial one or that it should be considered under financial rules of the CAP Code.
They confirmed that while it was not their intention to suggest that trading carried no risk, the ads did not include a statement that investments were variable and could go down as well as up.
2. Finelo said that their product was educational and therefore it allowed people with no prior experience to learn about financial markets. However, they made no claims about returns, with no specific figures, profits or performance mentioned in the ad. While it was not their intention to take advantage of the inexperience or credulity of consumers, they acknowledged that the informal, conversational tone of the ads did not emphasise the knowledge and care that engaging with financial markets needed.
3. Finelo said that the educational and simulated trading nature of their service was indicated within the ads. For instance ad (a) began with the line "Learn how to trade with AI", and both ads directed viewers to QUIZ.FINELO.COM, leading to an educational quiz rather than to any transactional or account-opening journey. They acknowledged that other elements of the ads, such as describing AI as “handling” investing could have been understood differently. They said while that had not been their intention it contributed to them withdrawing the ads.
Assessment
1. & 2. 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 ASA noted Finelo’s comments that they provided educational content and simulated trading through demonstration accounts and therefore they did not believe that their product should be considered a financial one or subject to the financial rules of the CAP Code. The ads promoted Finelo’s software that provided educational content and assistance to consumers who traded, or were looking to begin trading, on financial markets. As such we considered that the ads were financial marketing communications, subject to section 14 of the CAP Code. The ads included no risk warning to make clear that investments could go down as well as up.
In addition, ads (a) and (b) stated that starting with trading or investing “[…] doesn't need a finance degree. Just AI that does the hard part – and 15 minutes a day”. In the video for ad (a) it stated “Three months ago I let an AI start trading for me with 20 dollars. I hadn’t made a single trade before in my life” and “Every bit of it, I don’t touch a thing, it reads the market, finds the moves, handles everything, I just check in.” The video in ad (b) stated “What is your plan for retirement because eight years goes fast. I started with 20 bucks, AI handles the investing. Now I check it every morning before anything else. You’ve got a phone, that’s enough”, “Listen just try investing with AI. No experience needed. 20 dollars. Start tomorrow by end of month you will thank yourself” and “It is crushing the market right now. Doing it better than ever.” It further said “So I just let the AI handle the hard part?” “Exactly. Open it, follow it, let it do its thing”.
The ads therefore implied consumers could expect to make money rapidly, with minimal risk after investing. Further the references to not having any previous financial knowledge or trading experience and relying on AI to trade, with minimum human involvement and financial resource, implied financial investment, based on use of the product, was straightforward, regardless of experience, and that it would not require consumers to spend significant amounts of time or money to achieve results.
We therefore concluded that the ads breached the Code by not making it clear that that investments could go down as well as up and were misleading because they implied money could be made quickly with minimal risks. Further the ads took advantage of the inexperience and credulity of consumers by suggesting returns could be made by everyone simply, with minimal time, experience and financial resources.
On those points, the ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 14.1 and 14.4 (Financial products).
3. Upheld
Ad (a) stated “Starting with trading doesn't need a finance degree. Just AI that does the hard part […]” Then it showed a video of two men discussing how one of the men was learning to trade with AI. The man said he “Started with 20 bucks” and “Now I just check the results every morning”. The second part of the video showed two men talking. The first man said “Three months ago I let an AI start trading for me with 20 dollars. I hadn’t made a single trade before in my life” and when questioned about the process said “[…] I don’t touch a thing, it reads the market, finds the moves, handles everything, I just check in.” Ad (b) stated “Starting with investing doesn't need a finance degree. Just AI that does the hard part […]” In the accompanying video a man spoke to the camera and said “I started with 20 bucks, AI handles the investing. Now I check it every morning before anything else. You’ve got a phone, that’s enough.” A separate male was shown addressing an audience and said “Listen just try investing with AI. No experience needed. 20 dollars […]” A member of the audience later said ““So I just let the AI handle the hard part?” The first male said “Exactly. Open it, follow it, let it do its thing. You just have to start.”
The ads therefore made frequent references to trading with money, 20 dollars, and stating that AI “handles everything” or “does the hard part”, which we considered were likely to be understood to mean that consumers could directly invest via Finelo’s product and that it would allow the AI function to trade that money and manage it. We acknowledged that ad (a) stated “Learn how to trade with AI”. However, we considered that was not sufficient to override the overall implication from the ads that consumers could directly invest via Finelo’s product .
Because that was not the case, and Finelo’s platform instead provided educational content and simulated trading through demonstration accounts, and did not permit consumers to invest directly through their product, we concluded that the ads were misleading as to the nature of the service.
On that point, the ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.1 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Finelo Ltd to ensure their ads made sufficiently 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 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, experience and financial resources. Finally, future ads should not mislead as to the nature of Finelo’s service.
