# Paddle merchant onboarding — Read the Markets

Use this when filling Paddle's seller-application / business-description
fields. Framing is deliberately **media / publishing**, not financial
services — "trading", "signals", "advice" wording triggers rejection or
sends the application to extra compliance review.

---

## Business description (one paragraph)

**Read the Markets** is a UK-based subscription publishing service for
retail investors who want to *understand* what's moving in markets
without acting on tips or signals. The site aggregates public market
data (prices via Yahoo Finance) and public RSS news feeds, then
generates plain-English written commentary using a large language model.
Subscribers read; the service does not trade, hold client funds, or give
personal financial advice. Operated by Giorgio Gilestro, ICO-registered
as ZC098928.

## What we sell

A single B2C subscription that unlocks extended access to our written
market commentary and personal-portfolio analysis features. There is
one product, two billing cadences:

- **Read the Markets — Paid plan, Monthly** — £7 GBP / month
- **Read the Markets — Paid plan, Annual** — £70 GBP / year

A free tier exists indefinitely (no card required) and gives access to
the core editorial at reduced refresh cadence. Pricing in GBP; VAT
handled by Paddle as merchant of record.

## What subscribers get on the Paid plan

- 24-hour news headline window (free: 6 hours)
- Strategic interpretation log refreshed every hour during market hours
  (free: every six hours)
- Daily written digest emailed Monday–Saturday
- The ability to ask follow-up questions to the AI about any past
  published interpretation
- Optional upload of a personal portfolio CSV (currently Trading 212
  export) for an AI commentary on diversification and macro-regime fit
  — purely descriptive, no buy/sell calls
- Optional end-to-end encrypted cloud sync of the portfolio file

## What we explicitly do **not** do (regulatory framing)

- **Not a financial-advice service.** We do not produce personalised
  recommendations or consider a user's wider finances, debts, tax
  position, or objectives.
- **No buy/sell/hold signals.** Output is editorial commentary on
  public data.
- **No brokerage.** We never execute trades, hold client money, or
  custody assets.
- **Not regulated under FSMA / FCA COBS.** This is explicitly stated on
  the site disclaimer and in the portfolio-analysis feature
  description.
- **No crypto trading, no margin/leverage products, no copy-trading,
  no managed accounts.**
- **No tipster service.** All copy emphasises the difference between
  "understanding markets" and "gambling on them."

## Audience

Retail readers in the UK and EU who want a daily macro briefing in
plain English. Comparable to a paid newsletter (e.g. Substack finance
writers) or a personal-finance magazine subscription, delivered as a
web app + email.

## Refund & cancellation policy

Published at <https://read.markets/terms> §6: 14-day statutory
cooling-off (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013), cancel-any-time
taking effect at end of billing period, pro-rata refund if we terminate
service through no fault of the user. Refund requests handled by email
at <hello@read.markets>.

---

## Comprehensive product overview (single-field answer)

> Use this when Paddle asks **"Could you provide a comprehensive
> overview of your product?"** — one self-contained block, ~400
> words, designed so the reviewer hits the "not a financial product"
> framing within the first two sentences.

**Read the Markets** (<https://read.markets>) is a UK-based
subscription publishing service that helps retail readers *understand*
what is moving in financial markets — through plain-English written
commentary, not through trading signals, advice, or recommendations.
It is best understood as a digital newsletter / news-and-media
subscription product, with an AI-content layer, comparable to a paid
financial newsletter on Substack or a digital news magazine. We do not
execute trades, hold client funds, custody any assets, or operate as a
broker or investment adviser. We are not authorised by the FCA and we
are not a regulated financial service. This positioning is explicit on
the live site disclaimer at <https://read.markets/disclaimer> and in
the body copy of every paid feature.

The product works as follows. We aggregate public market data (stock,
FX, commodity, and rate quotes via Yahoo Finance) and public RSS news
feeds across the macro universe. A large language model (via
OpenRouter) then writes a short editorial interpretation of what the
underlying public data appears to be saying. The output is a written
article — a "strategic log" — refreshed through the trading day, plus
per-asset-class commentary panels and a daily / weekly written digest
delivered by email. Subscribers can also optionally upload a personal
portfolio holdings CSV (currently exported from Trading 212) to receive
a written sense-check of diversification, currency exposure, and
macro-regime fit on those holdings; this output is purely descriptive
and contains no buy, sell, or hold recommendations.

A free tier exists indefinitely (no card required) and serves the core
editorial at a reduced refresh cadence (6-hour news window, strategic
log refreshed every six hours, weekly Sunday digest only). The Paid
plan extends those to a 24-hour news window, hourly strategic log
refresh, daily Mon–Sat email digest, the optional portfolio upload +
AI commentary, an interactive follow-up chat against any past
published article, and optional encrypted cloud sync of the portfolio
file.

Pricing is in GBP, with Paddle as merchant of record handling VAT:
**£7 / month** or **£70 / year** (two months free). Subscribers can
cancel any time, taking effect at the end of the current billing
period. A 14-day statutory cooling-off period applies under the UK
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, plus pro-rata refunds where we
terminate service through no fault of the user — full refund policy at
<https://read.markets/terms> §6. Operated by Giorgio Gilestro,
ICO-registered as ZC098928, contact <hello@read.markets>.

---

## Practical tips when completing the Paddle form

- **Category dropdown:** pick **"Software / SaaS — Content &
  publishing"** or **"Digital subscription — News & media"** if those
  options exist. Avoid anything containing the words *financial
  services*, *trading*, *investing tools*, or *fintech*.
- **Self-declaration:** describe the product as **media / publishing
  with an AI-content angle** — not a financial service.
- **Linkable references for the reviewer:**
  - Pricing & tier breakdown: <https://read.markets/pricing>
  - Disclaimer (the legal "not advice" statement): <https://read.markets/disclaimer>
  - Terms & Conditions (incl. §6 Refunds): <https://read.markets/terms>
  - Privacy notice (ICO ZC098928 surfaced here): <https://read.markets/privacy>
