Forge Private Market Index Disclaimers & Acknowledgments

Version 2023•May 4, 2023

Copyright; Restrictions on Use

© 2023 Forge Data LLC (“Forge Data”). All rights reserved. The Forge Private Market Index is calculated and disseminated by Forge Data and is a trademark of Forge Data. Forge Data is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forge Global, Inc. (together with Forge Data and other affiliates, “Forge”).

The Forge Private Market Index (including index data, company valuation data, company transaction data) or any part thereof may not be modified, reverse-engineered, reproduced, scraped or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without Forge Data’s prior written permission. Redistribution or reproduction of the Forge Private Market Index in whole or in part is prohibited without written permission of Forge Data.

Without a separate license agreement with Forge Data, you may not:

Use the Forge Private Market Index or related marks or content in connection with the creation, operation, issuance, marketing or promotion of any financial product, instrument, index, or service;

Use any such content/information in the operation of your or a third-party financial database or index business;
Use any such content/information to populate any database that is commercial and/or distributed to third parties;
Redistribute such content/information outside of your company or firm;
Use the Forge Private Market Index or related marks or content in connection any SEC, government or regulatory filing;
Use the Forge Private Market Index or related marks or content to promote, market or endorse, or to create the impression that Forge endorses, approves of or is connected to any investment vehicle, product or service marketed, promoted, distributed, offered or sold by or on behalf of you; and
Use the Forge Private Market Index or related marks or content in any manner or in connection with any activity except for noncommercial informational internal research purposes as permitted hereunder.

Any data you export from the Forge Private Market Index webpage that is displayed/provided thereon and is noted as being provided by third-parties may be used only for individual research and analysis purposes. This does not alter any prohibitions/restrictions on your use of other data provided to you in connection with the Forge Private Market Index.

Accuracy

The Forge Private Market Index is prepared and disseminated solely for informational purposes. While Forge Data has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, Forge Data does not perform an audit or undertake any duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. Forge Data makes no assurance that investment products based on or underlying the Forge Private Market Index will accurately track index performance or provide positive investment returns.

The Forge Private Market Index prices provided are derived from the performance and pricing activity of the underlying constituents based on secondary activity on the Forge platform and other private market trading platforms. The Forge Private Market Index price is not intended to, and does not necessarily, represent the market price of any securities (I.e., the price at which you could buy or sell such securities).

Not Professional Advice

Forge Data is not an investment adviser and makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in any asset classes or investment vehicles. Past performance of the Forge Private Market Index is not an indication or guarantee of future results. The Forge Private Market Index is not tailored to the needs of any person, entity, or group of persons. A decision to invest in any private company or private company investment fund should not be made in reliance on the Forge Private Market Index. While exposure to the private company asset class represented by the Forge Private Market Index may be available through investable instruments, the Forge Private Market Index is not an investable instrument.

The Forge Private Market Index does not in any way constitute a recommendation to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and does not address the suitability of investment in any security. Forge Data does not assume any obligation to update the Forge Private Market Index following publication in any form or format. The Forge Private Market Index should not be relied on and is not a substitute for the skill, judgment and experience of the user or its management, employees, or legal, financial and tax advisors when making investment and other business decisions.

Forge Data is not a tax advisor. You should consult your tax advisor to evaluate the impact of investing in any private company or private investment fund.

Risk of Private Securities

Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors. An investment in private company securities is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk and should only be considered a long-term investment. Investors in private company securities must be prepared to withstand a total loss of their investment. Private company securities are highly illiquid, and there is no assurance that investment objectives will be attained nor any guarantee that a market will develop for such securities. Each investment in private company securities also carries its own specific risks, and prospective investors in private securities should complete their own independent due diligence regarding the investment, including obtaining additional information about the company, opinions, financial projections and legal or other investment advice. Accordingly, investing in private company securities is appropriate only for those investors who can tolerate a high degree of risk, including a total loss of their investment, and do not require short-term liquidity.

Conflicts

Inherent, actual, or potential conflicts of interest may exist between Forge and some of its affiliates or clients. Forge does not sponsor, endorse, sell, promote, or manage any investment fund or other investment vehicle itself or that is offered by third parties and that seeks to provide an investment return based on the performance of the Forge Private Market Index or to track the Forge Private Market Index.

Forge is not affiliated with, or sponsored by, any of the companies included in the Forge Private Market Index. However, affiliates of Forge receive compensation for facilitating the purchase and sale of private company securities and private company funds included in the Forge Private Market Index. Forge Data may license the Forge Private Market Index or other indices to affiliates or third parties and may receive compensation in connection therewith.

Index Calculation

The performance information for the Forge Private Market Index is hypothetical and backtested and is not that of any investment product or strategy. The Forge Private Market Index is a proprietary index developed by Forge Data designed to reflect the performance of a hypothetical portfolio of private companies.

The Forge Private Market Index is comprised of data points consisting of (i) buy and sell Indications of Interest (“IOIs”) received by Forge Securities LLC (“FSLLC”) (an affiliate of Forge), and (ii) trade prices of transactions facilitated by FSLLC and other third-party private trading markets, in U.S. private company securities.

Any reference to "performance" or similar terms represents a subjective assessment by Forge Data based on research and analysis of historical private company trading information and IOI interest. It is not predictive of actual return, and prospective investors should not rely on the Forge Private Market Index for this purpose. Actual returns may differ significantly from the hypothetical performance of the Forge Private Market Index or its constituent companies.

The Forge Private Market Index is not an investable instrument or investment vehicle, does not hold any securities and has no operations. Companies included in the Forge Private Market Index were selected using a proprietary formula based on trading and IOI activity in those companies’ securities as described above. These selections were made with the benefit of hindsight, and no fund managed by Forge Data, or its affiliates or subsidiaries, has the characteristics of the Forge Private Market Index.

Backtested index results, such as those of the Forge Private Market Index, are inherently limited. This hypothetical information was prepared by means of a retroactive application of a model designed with the benefit of hindsight. Potential risks include but are not limited to: data risks (including cleanliness of data), validity of assumptions, hindsight bias, incorrect model, inappropriate usage of the model, and hardware and software bugs. 

An index of private securities, such as the Forge Private Market Index, requires assumptions that the constituent securities were available for investment at the time of inclusion in the Forge Private Market Index and sufficient capacity existed to make an investment in each position with equal weight to that position in the Forge Private Market Index, and have other limitations, such as not considering the fees and costs associated with making private investments. Unlike indices that track the performance of publicly traded securities, the Forge Private Market Index is designed to reflect the performance of secondary trading in certain private company securities. Such private securities are highly illiquid and do not trade in a public marketplace or exchange, and there is limited public data available about their valuation.

Because the constituent securities comprising the Forge Private Market Index are not offered publicly to a broad group of investors, it would not be possible for any person, or any fund, to invest in each of the component securities that comprise the Forge Private Market Index, at the times and in the way they are included in the Forge Private Market Index. Nor would it be possible to time the disposition of a component of the Forge Private Market Index to mirror the timing of such component being dropped from the index, due to restrictions on sales of such securities that are inherent in their terms. As a result of the limitations and restrictions applicable to privately issued equity securities, the performance of any portfolio that seeks to replicate the Forge Private Market Index (even before reductions for fees and expenses) would be materially different, and could be materially lower, than that of the Forge Private Market Index itself. Private company securities are highly illiquid, and the Forge Private Market Index may rely on a very limited number of trade and/or IOI inputs in its calculation.

The Forge Private Market Index calculation methodology is inherently subjective and is not designed to provide a representation of the valuation of any single constituent security, or of the U.S. private company asset class as a whole.

Disclaimer of Liability

Forge Data, its affiliates and its third-party data providers and licensors do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or availability of the Forge Private Market Index. Forge and its affiliates are not responsible for any errors or omissions, regardless of the cause, or any results obtained from the use of the Forge Private Market Index.

The Forge Private Market Index is provided on an “as-is” basis. Forge Data, its affiliates, its third-party data providers and licensors disclaim any and all express or implied warranties, including but not limited to, any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use, freedom from bugs, software errors or defects, calculation errors, that the content’s functioning will be uninterrupted or that the content will operate with any software or hardware configuration.

In no event shall Forge Data, its affiliates, its third-party data providers, and licensors be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special, or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the Forge Private Market Index even if advised of the possibility of such damages.