> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://guida-2.gitbook.io/guida-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://guida-2.gitbook.io/guida-docs/reference/security.md).

# Security & Control

Trusting software with your investment strategy is a serious decision. This page explains the principles that guide how Guida is built, and the ways you stay in control.

## You define the rules; Guida enforces them

Guida is not a discretionary system that decides on its own what to buy and sell. It executes **your** strategy, within **your** limits. Every action it takes traces back to a rule you defined and can review. There are no hidden decisions and no independent behavior. *(See* [*Autonomous Trading Agents*](/guida-docs/core-concepts/autonomous-agents.md) *for more on this distinction.)*

## Guardrails you set

Before any strategy runs, you set the boundaries it must operate within:

* **Maximum spend** — the ceiling on capital a strategy can commit.
* **Position sizing** — how much goes into any single trade.
* **Stop-loss** — the level at which losses are automatically cut.
* **Take-profit** — the level at which gains are automatically secured.
* **Expiry** — an optional automatic wind-down date.

Guida cannot act outside these limits. They're the walls of the sandbox your agent operates in. Learn more in [Risk Controls](/guida-docs/features/risk-controls.md).

## Always able to intervene

You are never locked out of your own strategies. At any moment you can:

* **Pause** a strategy to halt new actions.
* **Adjust** its rules or limits.
* **Stop** it entirely.
* **Review** everything it has done, and why, from the [dashboard](/guida-docs/features/dashboard.md).

## Transparency by default

Automation should make you more informed, not less. The dashboard gives you a complete, timestamped record of every action Guida takes and the trigger behind it. Nothing your agent does is hidden from you.

## Paper-first, by design

Early-access Guida is **paper-trading first** — you build and run strategies on live market data with simulated funds. This is a deliberate safety choice: it lets you learn the entire system, and prove your strategies, without financial risk. Live trading arrives in a later release, at which point the strategies you've already validated are ready to graduate.

## A realistic word on risk

No tool can remove market risk. Prices move unpredictably, and any strategy can lose money. What Guida provides is **disciplined execution and rigorous testing** — the tools to manage risk intelligently, not a promise to eliminate it. The most important safeguards are the ones you set: sensible sizing, always-on stop-losses, and strategies you've genuinely tested.

> Guida is a tool for executing strategies you define and control. Nothing in this documentation is financial advice, and no strategy or feature guarantees any outcome. Markets involve risk, including the risk of loss.

***

**Related:** [Risk Management](/guida-docs/core-concepts/risk-management.md) · [Risk Controls](/guida-docs/features/risk-controls.md) · [Autonomous Trading Agents](/guida-docs/core-concepts/autonomous-agents.md)


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