Privacy and what happens to your numbers

Calculator inputs

The calculators run in your browser and the numbers you enter are never sent to a server. Position size, margin and pip-value workings are done on your own device, so the figures you type in do not reach the desk or anyone else. There is no account to create and no form to submit.

That also means the results are only as good as the inputs and the reference price shown. Nothing is stored on our side, so if you close the page the calculation is gone unless you saved it yourself.

Traffic and local storage

We count traffic only in aggregate, as totals rather than per-person records. The purpose is to know which pages are read, not who read them. We do not build a profile of an individual reader from these counts.

Local storage in your browser holds your own preferences, such as a setting you chose on a tool, so the page behaves the same next time. That data stays on your device and can be cleared by you at any time through your browser settings.

Your rights over data held about you and how to exercise them

You have the right to ask what personal data Vaal Rules holds about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to its processing, and you can exercise these rights by emailing the address on the contact page. Because Vaal Rules holds almost no personal data, most requests will result in confirmation that only browser-side preferences and aggregated analytics exist. If you have sent an email query, you can ask for that correspondence to be deleted once your question is answered.

To exercise a right, state clearly what you want, such as deletion of an email thread or confirmation of what is stored, and allow a reasonable period for a response. Vaal Rules will not charge a fee for a routine request and will not refuse a request without explaining why. If your request concerns data held by a broker you reached through a link on this site, you must contact that broker directly, because Vaal Rules cannot access or delete records held in your trading account.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your personal information has been processed unlawfully, and the contact details for that body are publicly available. Vaal Rules will cooperate with any lawful request from the regulator. For data held by FxPro, the broker's own privacy policy sets out the rights you have against the specific entity your account is opened with, which may be the FSCA-licensed entity or another group company.

Cookies used on Vaal Rules and the purpose of each kind

Vaal Rules uses three kinds of cookies: strictly necessary cookies that keep the site working, preference cookies that remember your calculator settings, and analytics cookies that count visits without identifying you. Strictly necessary cookies enable basic functions like page navigation and cannot be switched off through the site's controls because the site would not function without them. Preference cookies store your last-used lot size and leverage input so the calculator does not reset on every visit.

Analytics cookies on Vaal Rules collect aggregated data such as the number of visitors, the pages viewed, and the country of origin, and they are used only to understand which tools are useful. These cookies do not collect your name, email address, or any rand amount you type into a calculator. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time, and the calculators will still work, though your saved preferences will not persist between visits.

Vaal Rules does not use advertising cookies to build a profile of you across other websites, and it does not sell cookie data. The cookies set by the site are first-party, meaning they are placed by Vaal Rules rather than by an external ad network. If you follow a link to a broker, that broker may set its own cookies on its domain, and those are governed by the broker's cookie policy, not by this page.

What Vaal Rules stores and what it never stores

Vaal Rules stores only what is needed to remember your calculator preferences, such as the lot size, leverage, and instrument code you last selected, and it keeps those values in your browser rather than on a server. It does not store your name, email address, ID number, bank account details, or any funded trading account credentials. If you type a rand amount into a field, that figure stays in your browser and is not transmitted to Vaal Rules or any third party.

The site does not store any record of the broker links you click or the pages you visit beyond anonymous analytics data that cannot identify you. There is no account system on Vaal Rules, so there is no password, profile, or transaction history held on our side. Any personal information you choose to send by email is kept only as long as needed to answer your query, and you are not required to send any to use the calculators.

Vaal Rules does not store payment card details, EFT references, or e-wallet identifiers because the site does not process deposits, withdrawals, or any trading transactions. Funding your broker account happens entirely on the broker's platform, not on this site, so those records sit with the broker and its payment providers under their own privacy terms. On Vaal Rules, the only stored data is your browser-side calculator state and aggregated, non-identifying analytics.

Broker cookies and links

When you follow a link to a broker, that broker sets its own cookies under its own policy. The desk does not control those cookies and cannot read them. What the broker records, and how long it keeps it, is set out in that broker's privacy notice, which is worth reading before you open an account.

A referral link may tell the broker that a visit came from this desk, which is how an affiliate fee is attributed. It does not give the desk access to your account, your trades or your identity. Your relationship after the click is with the broker, under the broker's terms and the broker's privacy policy.

Analytics measured on Vaal Rules and the data deliberately left out

Vaal Rules measures aggregated page views, unique visit counts, referral sources, and country of origin, and it deliberately does not measure your name, email address, calculator inputs, or any rand amount you type. The analytics are used to see which tools and explanations are useful and which pages need improvement, not to identify individual readers. The data is reported in aggregate, so no single reader's behaviour is isolated.

Deliberately not measured are the specific leverage or lot size you select, the results of any calculation, your trading experience level, and whether you hold a funded broker account. Vaal Rules also does not measure cross-site behaviour, because it does not run advertising or retargeting scripts. The site does not use fingerprinting techniques to recognise your device across visits beyond a standard analytics cookie.

Because the analytics are aggregated, they cannot be used to reconstruct your session or to contact you. If you block analytics cookies, the site still functions and the calculators still work, but Vaal Rules will not count your visit. The absence of individual-level measurement is intentional and is part of the site's approach to keeping the tools usable without collecting personal trading information.

Children, age limits, and use of this site

Vaal Rules is not directed at children, and the site is intended for adults who are old enough to open a trading account with a regulated broker. Trading gold (XAU/USD) with leverage carries a high risk of loss and is not suitable for minors. Vaal Rules does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and if you believe a child has sent personal data by email, you can ask for it to be deleted.

The calculators on Vaal Rules are educational tools and are not designed for use by children, and no account or profile is created that a child could access. Because the site does not require registration, there is no age-verification step, but the content assumes an adult reader who understands margin, leverage, and the rand amounts involved. Parents and guardians should supervise internet use and explain that trading losses are real.

If Vaal Rules becomes aware that a child has provided personal information, it will delete that information on request. The site does not market to children, does not use cartoon characters or gamified features, and does not offer bonuses or rewards for signing up. Any broker you reach through a link will have its own age and eligibility checks, and those are enforced by the broker, not by Vaal Rules.

What leaves your browser when you follow a broker link

When you click a broker link on Vaal Rules, your browser sends a request to the broker's domain that includes the referral code, your IP address, your browser type, and the page you came from, and the broker may set its own cookies in response. This is standard web behaviour and is necessary for the broker to load its site and attribute the visit. Vaal Rules does not send your calculator inputs, your email address, or any rand amount in that request.

The broker may also receive the fact that you arrived from Vaal Rules through the referral parameter in the URL, and it may store that attribution in a cookie on its own domain. From the moment the broker's page loads, the broker's privacy and cookie policies govern what is collected, including any account application data you choose to submit. Vaal Rules has no visibility into what you do on the broker's site after the link is followed.

No data leaves your browser when you use the calculators alone, and no data leaves when you simply read a page. Data leaves only when you actively click a link to an external domain, such as a broker, or when the analytics script sends an aggregated page-view record. You can prevent the broker request by not clicking the link, and you can limit analytics by blocking cookies in your browser settings.

Third parties that may receive data when you use Vaal Rules

The third parties involved when you use Vaal Rules are the analytics provider that counts visits, the broker whose link you follow, and the broker's own payment and platform providers, and each receives only what is necessary for its function. The analytics provider receives aggregated page-view data and a truncated IP address, not your calculator inputs or any rand amount. Vaal Rules does not share data with advertising networks, data brokers, or any party that is not listed on this page.

When you follow a broker link, the broker receives the referral code, your browser's standard request information, and any cookies it sets on its own domain, and from that point the broker's privacy policy applies. FxPro, the broker linked from this site, operates through the entity FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL for South Africa, and its group includes entities licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, with an FxPro entity holding an FSCA licence in South Africa. You should check which entity your own account is opened with, because the privacy terms follow that entity.

Vaal Rules does not pass your email address, name, or calculator figures to any third party, because it does not collect them in a form that could be passed on. The site's hosting provider processes standard server logs for security and reliability, and those logs are not used to identify individual readers. No third party receives a rand amount you type into a calculator, and no third party receives a list of pages you viewed beyond the aggregated analytics described in this policy.

How a change to this privacy policy is announced

A change to this privacy policy is announced by updating this page and placing a notice on the site's main navigation or footer so that readers can see the policy has changed. The revised policy takes effect when it is published, and the page itself is the authoritative version. Vaal Rules does not send individual emails about policy changes because it does not hold a mailing list of readers.

If a change materially affects how data is handled, the notice will say what has changed and will remain visible for a reasonable period. Because Vaal Rules stores almost no personal data, most updates will concern the description of cookies, analytics, or third parties rather than new data collection. You are encouraged to review this page occasionally if you want to stay informed.

Continuing to use Vaal Rules after a change is published means you accept the revised policy. If you do not accept a change, you can stop using the site and clear your browser data to remove any stored preferences. Questions about a change can be sent to the contact address on the site, and Vaal Rules will explain the change in plain language.

What the calculators do with the numbers you type

The calculators on Vaal Rules process the numbers you type entirely in your browser, and those numbers are not sent to Vaal Rules or any third party. When you enter a lot size, leverage, or rand amount, the calculation happens on your device using JavaScript, and the result is displayed on the page without a network request. This means your position size, margin requirement, and pip value figures never leave your browser.

The calculator uses the instrument facts stated on the site, such as 1 standard lot of gold (XAU/USD) being 100 oz, one pip being 0.01, and a reference price of approximately 4275.0, and it applies the leverage cap you select up to the maximum available in South Africa. For example, at 1:200 a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, and the calculator will show that figure based on the inputs you provide. It does not store the result or associate it with you.

Because the numbers stay in your browser, clearing your browser data removes any saved calculator state and there is no server-side copy to delete. Vaal Rules does not log calculator inputs, does not use them to build a profile, and does not share them with brokers or analytics providers. If you close the tab, the numbers are gone unless your browser has saved the form state as part of its own session restore feature.

How long data is kept and what causes it to be deleted

Calculator preferences stored in your browser are kept until you clear your browser cookies or site data, and Vaal Rules does not set an expiry date on them because they never leave your device. Analytics data is kept in aggregated form for a limited period set by the analytics provider and is then deleted or anonymised beyond use. Email correspondence is kept only for as long as needed to resolve your query and is then deleted unless a legal obligation requires longer retention.

Vaal Rules does not keep a database of reader names, rand amounts, or trading activity, so there is no retention period for such data. The server logs held by the hosting provider are rotated and deleted on a short cycle for security purposes. If you ask for deletion of an email thread, Vaal Rules will delete it within a reasonable time, and you will be told when that has been done.

Data held by a broker you reach through a link is kept under that broker's retention policy, which is shaped by financial regulation and is not controlled by Vaal Rules. For FxPro, the applicable entity, such as FxPro Markets Direct Costa Rica Latam SRL or an FCA- or CySEC-licensed group company, determines how long account and transaction records are kept. Vaal Rules cannot delete broker records, and any request about them must go to the broker's privacy team.

Affiliate tracking explained without the fine print

Vaal Rules earns a commission when a reader follows a broker link on this site and later opens a funded trading account with that broker, and the tracking that makes this possible is stated plainly here. The link contains a code that tells the broker the visit came from Vaal Rules, and the broker records that code if you register. This does not change the price you pay, the spread you are quoted, or the leverage available to you, because those terms are set by the broker and its regulator, not by Vaal Rules.

Affiliate tracking on Vaal Rules does not give this site access to your trading account, your balance, your trades, or your personal information. The broker may tell Vaal Rules that a referred account was opened and whether it was funded, but that report is aggregated or pseudonymised and does not include your name, ID number, or rand balance. You are never obliged to use a Vaal Rules link, and you can reach any broker directly if you prefer not to be tracked.

The affiliate relationship does not influence the factual content of this site, including the leverage cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients, and the worked margin figure of about $85.50 for a 0.10-lot gold position at 1:200. Vaal Rules does not publish a broker ranking based on commission rates, and it does not present a spread or fee as low or competitive because no such figure is given to it. Any broker link is labelled as an affiliate link where it appears.