Your money stays with your broker.
You don't deposit investment money with Ballast. When you enable real trading, your Trade Desk can send orders to your connected brokerage account.
Privacy & safety
Your data.
Your choices.
See where each desk keeps your data, what Ballast holds, and what to know before using real money.
Last reviewed October 6, 2026.
You choose real trading.
A Trade Desk starts with practice money. Real trading needs your review of the Terms and an explicit GO LIVE confirmation.
You still need to check in.
The bot needs a running server, internet access and working services. Ballast cannot guarantee a profit or prevent losses.
Trade Desk
On your server.
Connected when needed.
Your Trade Desk runs on a private server in your own DigitalOcean account. Your settings, trading records and saved broker sign-in are kept on that server, not with Ballast.
You sign in to your desk with a passkey. Ballast never switches your server off, and anything running on it keeps running.
Your broker
Receives account and order requests so your desk can check your holdings and trade when you've enabled it.
News and AI services
Supply market information and research. AI features can send relevant research, holdings or trading-plan information to the AI provider. Provider terms and charges apply.
Ballast
Gives your desk its web name and offers signed updates, which you choose when to apply.
What Ballast keeps
A short list.
For a Trade Desk, Ballast keeps your email, your username, your server's public IP address and public key, and a daily check-in (username, time and app version). Your username is part of a public web name.
What Ballast never sees
Your broker logins, balances, orders, passwords and codes. During setup, your DigitalOcean token and your one-time setup code stay between you, DigitalOcean and your own server.
If your desk goes quiet
If your desk is silent for 7 days, Ballast emails you. After 14 days the web name is removed and updates stop, so no one else can use the name. Your server is not touched.
Sports Desk
The Sports Desk is hosted by Ballast, under its own terms. It keeps the US state you chose, when you confirmed you are 21 or older, the terms version you accepted, and what you save there, including any bets you report placing yourself. Your email and sign-in belong to your Ballast account, described below. Ballast does not check those reports with a sportsbook, takes no wagers and holds no money. You can export or delete your account at any time; deleted data leaves Ballast's encrypted backups within 30 days. Ballast never asks for a sportsbook, broker or bank password.
Your Ballast account
One account for both desks.
You sign in on ballastdigital.xyz. The Sports Desk asks this site who you are; a Trade Desk keeps its own separate sign-in on your own server.
Ballast accounts are for adults. The Sports Desk requires you to be 21 or older.
What Ballast keeps for your account.
Your email address, your username if you choose one, the date you joined, and which invite you used. For each way you sign in:
Passkey: the public half of the key and a label. Your fingerprint, face or device PIN never leaves your device.
Password: a one-way scrambled form of it. Ballast cannot read your password and support will never ask for it.
Google: Google's ID for your Google account and the email address Google confirms. Ballast asks Google for nothing else, and keeps no access to your Google account.
Sign-in records.
Ballast keeps a list of your signed-in devices so you can sign them out, and a security log of account events such as a sign-in, a new passkey or a password reset. The log does not hold your password or the content of any email. Your network address is used briefly to slow down guessing attacks.
Cookies.
This site sets only the cookies that sign-in needs: one that keeps you signed in, one that remembers a browser you have used before, and short-lived ones during sign-in. There are no advertising or tracking cookies and no third-party scripts.
Email.
Ballast emails you to confirm your address, to reset a password, and when your sign-in methods or account status change. These come from hello@ballastdigital.xyz.
Who else is involved.
Cloudflare hosts this website and delivers its email. Google is involved only if you choose to sign in with Google. When you open the Sports Desk, this site tells it your account ID, your email and your username. Ballast does not sell your information and does not share it for advertising.
Deleting your account.
You can delete your account from your account page. It is locked at once and erased after 72 hours; until then the link in the confirmation email cancels the deletion. Your Sports Desk data is removed with it. Two things remain for a time: your username is held for 90 days so nobody else can take it and pose as you, and security log entries that no longer identify you by email.
Questions.
Write to hello@ballastdigital.xyz.
Before using real money
Know what
can stop a trade.
Trading can lose money. A stop-loss cannot guarantee a sale or a price. Internet problems, unavailable prices, broker outages or an order needing review can prevent the bot from acting.
STOP halts automated buying and selling. Learn how the controls work or follow the order flow.
About this beta
This is an early version for invited testers. Options execution is disabled. Research does not automatically add investments to the trading list. This is not a security certification or a claim of regulatory approval.
Setup and updates
The setup command checks a signature before it runs anything on your server, and updates are signed and checked the same way. Signed updates reduce a particular risk; they do not certify the software as free of faults.
Your server is yours to secure: keep your DigitalOcean account, your passkey and your recovery codes safe. Ballast support never asks for your codes, passkeys, broker logins or DigitalOcean password, and never logs in to your server.
What is processed and why
Follow your data.
Your Trade Desk, the Ballast website and connected providers have different roles. Enabling a feature can create additional network traffic.
Broker and data connections
When you connect a broker, requests go from your server to that provider for authentication, holdings, prices and permitted orders. Market and news providers receive the requests needed for the features you use. Their service terms, processing practices and charges apply.
Ballast's website does not need your broker password, API secret or wallet recovery phrase. Never submit those through a website form or support email.
AI research and judgment
The Trade Desk uses an AI key of your own, from Anthropic or OpenAI, whichever you choose. AI-enabled features can send relevant symbols, news, holdings or proposed-trade context to the configured AI provider. Running on your own server does not mean that every calculation happens there.
Review the feature and provider before enabling it. Provider retention and use of requests depend on their terms and your account settings. Ballast does not promise that third-party processing is anonymous or confined to your country.
Invitations and setup
The website stores your signup email, signup time, browser information and approximate country. Invitation and setup records authorize beta access and tie your username to your server.
Hosting infrastructure processes connection information, including IP addresses, to serve requests and help prevent abuse.
Website and email
What happens
when you visit.
Cloudflare hosts and protects this website. Browser requests, page usage and performance measurements are separate from anything your Trade Desk does.
Performance measurement and browser storage
Cloudflare adds browser measurement for page usage and performance. Hosting and security services can process technical request information and use browser mechanisms for protection. We do not describe the website as tracking-free or promise that every request is anonymous.
This site remembers which desk you last opened in your browser's own storage, so the next visit can take you there. It is not sent to Ballast. Read Cloudflare's performance-measurement explanation.
Email preferences
Registered beta testers can receive operational notices about their desk and maintenance. Promotional email requires mailbox confirmation. Use the unsubscribe link supplied with the message, or contact support if it does not work. We retain preference and suppression records to respect those choices; unsubscribing is not the same as deleting all access records.
Links to other companies
Broker signup, news and other external links take you to services governed by their own terms and privacy practices. Where we use a referral link, the referrer may receive a reward. Using it is optional.
Your controls
Review. Limit.
Remove.
Choose which integrations and features to enable, and avoid sending sensitive information in support requests.
Deleting your Trade Desk
Release your username from your server first, then delete the server in DigitalOcean; the tester guide gives the command. Deleting the server stops DigitalOcean's charges and removes the records kept on it. Deleting a ledger can remove information needed to reconcile existing positions.
Revoke broker and provider access with those providers when appropriate. Deleting a server cannot cancel already-submitted orders or erase copies held by backup or external services.
Website access, correction and deletion requests
Email hello@ballastdigital.xyz from the address associated with your beta signup. Tell us whether your request concerns access, correction, email preferences or an invitation. We may need to verify ownership before acting.
Do not send passwords, API keys, recovery phrases, full account numbers or database files. A screenshot should hide personal and account information.
Retention during the beta
There is not yet a published fixed retention schedule for every website record or an automatic deletion portal. Signup, invitation and email-preference records can remain until reviewed or removed; the beta should not be treated as providing automatic expiry of all data. Ask support about a specific record. Provider-held copies and your backups have separate retention rules.
Scope and accountability
Clear limits.
Running on your own server, passkey sign-in and signed updates reduce particular risks. They do not certify the software as vulnerability-free, prevent losses or protect a compromised server or account.
This page describes the current beta. It is not a claim of independent security certification or completed privacy-law compliance review. Changes to data practices should be reflected here.