1. Socrates is an automated site guide, not a person
You are using Socrates, an automated site guide, not a human. No person reads or answers your messages. Socrates is built into this site and runs in your browser: it matches your question against the lessons and glossary on this site, then answers with links to them and questions back. It does not use an AI model.
2. What Socrates is for
Socrates is a site guide. It asks what you want to learn and points you to lessons, the glossary and other pages on this site. It explains general concepts for education only.
3. What Socrates is not designed to do
Socrates does not give investment, trading, financial, tax or legal advice. It is designed not to tell you what to buy or sell, when to trade, how much to risk, or whether a particular trade is a good idea. It does not provide trade signals, price targets or predictions. It cannot see your brokerage account, your positions or live market prices. Nothing Socrates says is a recommendation.
Because Socrates picks its replies automatically, it can make mistakes. If a reply seems to tell you what to trade, don't rely on it, and please tell us.
4. Socrates can be wrong
Automated replies can be inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or point to a lesson that does not answer your question. Check anything important against the linked lesson or another reliable source, and consider talking to a licensed professional about your own situation. You are responsible for any decision you make.
5. What happens to your messages
Your messages stay on your device. Socrates runs in your open browser tab, so your questions and its replies are not sent to us or to any other service, and we don't store them. The conversation disappears when you close or reload the page. When you ask your first question, your browser downloads the guide's index of this site's lessons from our site, like any other page file; your question is not part of that request.
If a message mentions a crisis, the guide keeps a small flag in your browser's session storage so the safety notice stays shown in that tab. It is cleared when you close the tab. Our hosting provider's operational logs record requests for the Ask Socrates page like any other page on this site, but never your messages.
6. Don't enter sensitive information
Please do not type passwords, brokerage or bank account numbers, card numbers, government ID numbers, or anyone else's personal details into the chat. Please also don't share sensitive details about yourself, such as your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, or union membership. Socrates does not need them, and they don't improve the answer.
7. Training
We do not use your chats to train or fine-tune any AI model.
8. In a crisis
Socrates cannot help in an emergency. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org (US Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Outside the US, find a local crisis line at findahelpline.com. If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number (911 in the US).
9. Age
Socrates is for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to use this site (see Terms).
10. Limits
Replies are not guaranteed to be available, complete or accurate. We may change, limit or turn off Ask Socrates, or change how it picks its replies, at any time.