Guaranteed return

A claim rather than a product. Trading outcomes are uncertain by construction: a position gains where the market moves one way and loses where it moves the other, and nobody on either side of a quote knows in advance which it will do. A guarantee of profit therefore asserts knowledge that does not exist, which is why it is prohibited in financial promotions rather than merely discouraged.

It is the single most reliable indicator that an approach is not what it presents itself as, and it carries more weight than every tell of tone, spelling and urgency combined. A licensed firm operating under conduct rules cannot make the claim, cannot make it in softened language, and cannot make it through a third party promoting on its behalf. An operation that makes it is either unauthorised or breaching the terms of its permission, and both are answerable from a public register.

The forms it takes are worth recognising because few of them use the word. A stated monthly percentage, a promise that losses will be covered, an assurance that capital cannot fall below its starting figure while positions remain open, and a description of a method as risk free are the same claim in different clothes. On a leveraged position the opposite is the fact that has to be stated: losses can exceed the amount deposited.