Plaintape LLC is registered with the CFTC as a Commodity Trading Advisor and is an NFA Member (NFA ID 0580378). The firm is not accepting client accounts. Registration and NFA membership do not imply that the CFTC or NFA has approved or endorsed the firm, its trading program, or the material on this site.
A useful track record lets you identify the account, the return calculation, the costs and the limits of the evidence. Start with what the record measures. Then ask whether another person can reproduce the reported observations and explain the difficult periods. A favorable headline supplies neither answer.
Actual results come from executed trading. Proprietary results describe the operator's own money. Client results describe customer accounts. A model account or historical simulation can contain decisions that were never executed. Ask which category applies to every table and chart, rather than assuming that one label covers the entire page.
NFA's guidance on hypothetical results explains why a disclaimer cannot by itself cure a misleading presentation. Keep live records and backtests distinct when evaluating them.
Obtain the calculation convention and the underlying account-value dates. Identify commissions, financing and other broker charges. Ask separately whether advisory fees are deducted. A proprietary account can bear its trading costs while paying no prospective client's management or incentive fee.
For deposits and withdrawals, ask when the flow was recognized and what account valuation surrounded it. A time-weighted return links returns between external cash flows to reduce the effect of the investor's transfer decisions. Sparse valuations can require an approximation. The GIPS calculation guidance describes the distinction. A familiar formula alone does not establish compliance with a reporting standard.
Volatility describes variation in the recorded returns. Maximum drawdown measures the largest observed decline from a previous peak. Time in drawdown measures how long recovery took. Report all three with their dates and calculation basis. Each statistic describes the available sample, and a short sample may omit the strategy's hardest market conditions.
Ask for the whole available series, including losing periods and interruptions. A smooth chart can result from monthly sampling, a short window or omitted observations. It can also reflect a stable trading process. Distinguishing those possibilities requires source records, rather than a judgment about how professional the chart looks.
Review strategy, capital, instrument-universe and risk-policy changes alongside returns. A record can combine periods with different opportunities and constraints. Ask whether a favorable account or start date was selected after its results were known. Ask what happened to stopped accounts and failed strategy variants. These are selection and survivorship questions, even when every displayed trade is real.
The revised futures-roll operations note provides an engineering example of how a status field can differ from completed positions or price updates.
Compare manager reports with broker statements and cash movements. Determine who performed the comparison, what records they saw and which discrepancies remain. A file checksum can show that a file has not changed since a named version. A chain of hashes can expose changes to linked records. Neither establishes that the original observations matched the broker.
An independent review can provide stronger evidence when its reviewer and scope are identified. An undefined statement that results are "verified" is insufficient. A manager's own reconciliation is useful evidence, but the reader should know who performed it.
Start with the published methodology, which identifies broker account values as the return source. The record is proprietary, and its disclosed return basis does not deduct advisory fees that would apply to a client account. Then inspect the integrity page for what its hash evidence establishes, and the change log for changes to the experiment.
There is an adverse example worth checking. The published methodology describes a correction to cash-flow handling in August 2026: treating cash-flow days as flat had also removed the trading result on those days. That episode makes the treatment of transfers and the retention of corrections material diligence questions. It supplies a reason to examine the record, rather than a reason to assume that every remaining calculation is independently certified.
The live sample is limited, and the public pages are prepared by the operator. Read losing monthly periods and source limitations alongside the favorable observations. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.
Fees, execution prices, slippage, whole-contract rounding, available instruments, capital and broker arrangements can change the realized result. A separate account also has its own custody and transfer agreements. Key-person risk remains: identify who can maintain the system and respond when its operator is unavailable. These uncertainties require evidence and agreements of their own. They are not prospective Plaintape program terms. The firm is not accepting client accounts.
Download the printable HTML checklist. Record the answer, source, date and unresolved limitation for each question. A blank answer is a finding to investigate.
For account ownership and trading authority, read the managed futures SMA guide. For the system stages behind the record, read the methodology. Futures trading involves substantial risk. This page provides an evidence framework, not a recommendation to invest.
No hypothetical performance figures are presented on this page. The prescribed statement explains the limitations discussed above.
HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.