Our research must stand apart from product distribution
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.
Editorial decision-making
Fund coverage, AQ Score™ outputs and material changes are governed by a documented, rules-based methodology, and every AQ Score™ is reviewed by AltQ's research team before publication. The process is designed so that commercial staff, outside issuers and research subscribers cannot require a particular AQ Score™, suppress an unfavorable conclusion, or obtain a 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, AltQ uses commercially reasonable efforts to apply its correction and version-control procedures.
Commercial relationships
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 seeks to disclose the nature of that relationship where material to the research recipient.
AltQ does not accept transaction-based compensation for placing fund interests or procuring investors. Any materially different activity would require a separate legal and business review before commencement.
Employee and associated-person interests
Personal financial interests in rated products, outside positions with issuers, and other material interests may create actual or perceived conflicts. AltQ seeks in good faith to identify and manage such conflicts, which may include disclosure, recusal or non-publication.
This policy describes how conflicts are identified and managed; it is not a claim that every possible conflict has been eliminated.
Issuer contact and research corrections
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 is intended to be limited to factual accuracy and is not issuer approval of AltQ's research.
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 seeks to distinguish corrections of factual errors from disagreements with research opinions.
Ratings, promotional use and licensing
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.
Disclosures accompanying individual reports
AltQ uses commercially reasonable efforts to consider, for each published fund report: (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.
Where no material report-specific conflict is identified, a report may say so. That is not a statement that no conflict of any kind exists.
How this connects to our status as a publisher
AltQ's independence supports 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.