Editorial Independence & Conflicts

AltQ publishes standardized, evidence-based research for financial professionals and institutional users. Its role is to assess funds and publish opinions about them, not to sell fund interests or direct investors into transactions.

AltQ does not operate as a fund manager, placement agent or broker-dealer, and does not manage or distribute investment products. Its research is intended to remain independent of the commercial interests of the funds it covers. Positive, negative, neutral, qualified and unavailable assessments are all possible outcomes.

Fund coverage, analytical interpretation, AQ Score outputs and material changes must be governed by a documented research methodology and editorial review process. Commercial staff, outside issuers and research subscribers should not be able to require a particular AQ Score, suppress an unfavorable conclusion, or obtain an unpublished positive assessment in exchange for payment.

Requests for coverage or corrections may be considered, but they do not determine the rating result. Where material facts change or errors are found, the research team should follow documented correction and version-control procedures.

AltQ may derive revenue from subscriptions, licenses and other research-related commercial arrangements. The existence of a paid customer relationship is not, by itself, an endorsement of any covered fund. Terms for using AltQ reports are governed by applicable contracts and Terms of Service.

If AltQ receives payment or another material benefit from a fund sponsor, its adviser, affiliates or other interested party in connection with coverage or related services, AltQ must disclose the nature of that relationship where material to the research recipient. A material relationship should be disclosed even if AltQ concludes that the relationship did not influence the rating.

AltQ should not accept transaction-based compensation for placing fund interests or procuring investors as part of its research publishing activities. Any materially different activity would require a separate legal and business review before commencement.

Personal financial interests in rated products, outside positions with issuers, and other material interests may create actual or perceived conflicts. AltQ's staff and relevant research contributors should be subject to written identification, escalation and mitigation requirements. A material conflict should be disclosed, managed, or result in recusal or non-publication as appropriate.

Do not publish a statement that employees are categorically prohibited from owning covered investments unless that prohibition is true, enforceable and monitored. This policy requires documented controls; it is not a claim that every possible conflict has been eliminated.

An issuer or manager may be approached to verify identity, obtain public or voluntarily supplied documents, or correct factual errors. This does not give the issuer editorial control over the rating, its conclusions or publication timing. Any pre-publication fact-checking should be limited to correction of factual inaccuracies and should not amount to issuer approval of AltQ's research opinion.

To request a correction, submit the fund's name, relevant report or registry identifier, the disputed fact, and supporting documentation to info@altq.ai. AltQ should distinguish corrections of factual errors from disagreements with research opinions and preserve an internal record of material changes.

An issuer, distributor or third party must not portray an AQ Score, Data Trust indicator, identity certificate or AltQ research report as SEC approval, a regulatory compliance certificate, a guarantee, or a recommendation to invest. Public quotations, extracts, marketing reuse and reproduction are subject to AltQ's licensing terms and any applicable research-context requirements. Where a rating is reused, its as-of date, relevant class, Data Trust indicator and material qualifications should remain visible.

For each published fund report, AltQ should be able to identify or affirmatively report the following, based on a recorded conflicts review: (1) material issuer-related compensation connected to the subject fund; (2) significant ownership or other interests held by AltQ or relevant research personnel; (3) material business relationships or other affiliations that could affect independence; and (4) any limits or recusal measures relevant to the published assessment.

If no material report-specific conflicts were identified after the required review, the report may state that fact with an effective date; it should not declare an absolute absence of all possible conflicts.

AltQ's independent-research position is intended to support bona fide, disinterested research publishing, distinct from issuer promotion and personalized investment advice. The Regulatory Status & Independent Research page explains that intended role and the boundaries of our services. A policy statement alone does not establish regulatory classification; actual practices and relationships remain decisive.