Licensing & Tiers

Your Tempest license determines which symbols you can view, which symbols you can trade, and whether extra add-ons such as AI Price Action Commentary are available.

Note: Trading futures carries substantial risk of loss. Signals and AI commentary are informational only and are not recommendations or guarantees. You alone are responsible for your configuration and your trades. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

The Tiers at a Glance

Tempest shows your current tier name in the Activate License dialog (under Help → Activate License…). The tiers are:

The main difference between the paid assisted trading tiers (Standard and Executive) is the list of symbols you are allowed to trade. Assisted trading features themselves — brackets and scale-in, position sizing, and Interactive Brokers execution — work the same on both.

📷 Screenshot: The Activate License dialog showing the "Activated — Tier: ..." status banner at the top.

Basic

The manual tier. You see every signal for the micro futures (MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K) in the Signals view and trade them yourself, by hand, in your own broker. There is no trade assist (no assisted order placement) and no trading journal on this tier.

Standard

Adds trade assist (assisted trading) and the trading journal, filtered to the micro futures (MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K). Tempest can place real orders through Interactive Brokers for these symbols — and you confirm each one before it is placed (see Approvals below).

Executive

The same trade assist as Standard, extended to the larger E-mini index futures (ES, NQ, YM, RTY) in addition to the micros. This is the widest tier.

Trial

A 14-day trial with the same access as the Standard tier: you can view and trade the micro futures (MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K), use the trading journal, and AI Price Action Commentary is included for the trial period. No license key is required to start a trial.

Note: A trial cannot be ended manually — it expires automatically after 14 days, or you can activate a license key at any time, which immediately supersedes the trial. The trial is tracked by your machine and reinstalling Tempest or clearing local files will not reset it.

What "Tradeable Symbols" Means

Each tier has a list of root symbols it is allowed to trade:

• Micros: MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K
• E-minis: ES, NQ, YM, RTY

When a signal arrives, Tempest checks the signal's root symbol against your tier's list before it can place an order:

• If the symbol is on your tier's list, the signal can proceed through your assisted trading settings as normal.
• If the symbol is not on your tier's list, the signal still appears in the Signals view so you can monitor it, but Tempest will not trade it. The signal is dropped from the assisted-trading engine with a clear reason such as "Symbol NQ not on tier (Standard)", and a warning appears in the status bar listing which symbols your tier does allow.

📷 Screenshot: A signal row marked as dropped/skipped with the "Symbol ... not on tier" reason, plus the status-bar warning.

This check is enforced in the trading engine itself, not only in the on-screen controls — so a signal for a symbol your tier doesn't cover cannot reach order placement.

AI Price Action Commentary

AI Price Action Commentary is a separate add-on that can be included on any tier. Whether it is active on your license is shown in the Diagnostics… panel of the Activate License dialog (the Has AI add-on line). On a Trial, the commentary is included for the trial period.

Note: AI commentary is informational only. It is not a recommendation, a signal, or a guarantee of any outcome.

How to Activate a License

Activate with a license key

1. From the menu bar, open Help → Activate License….
2. In the License Activation dialog, paste your license key into the License key: field. Tempest trims surrounding spaces automatically and the field is wide enough to show the full key.
3. Click Activate.
4. Tempest contacts the license server (a brief "Contacting license server…" message appears), validates the key, and applies your tier across the app. You'll see a confirmation showing your new tier — no restart is needed.

📷 Screenshot: The License Activation dialog with the License key field, and the Activate / Start 14-day Trial / Deactivate this machine / Diagnostics buttons.

You can activate, manage, or recover your subscription and license key in your online account at fortemare.net/settings/license.

Start a free trial

If you don't have a license key yet:

1. Open Help → Activate License….
2. Click Start 14-day Trial.
3. Confirm in the prompt. Tempest starts the trial and unlocks micro-futures viewing and assisted trading (with per-trade approval), plus AI Price Action Commentary, for 14 days.

Note: The trial can be started once per machine. If a trial has already been used, the Start 14-day Trial button will report that it is unavailable — activate a purchased license instead.

Switch or refresh a license

To change keys (for example after upgrading from Standard to Executive in your account), paste the new key into the License key: field and click Activate. Tempest swaps in the new tier immediately. The same step refreshes your entitlements if your subscription changes online.

Deactivate this machine

To free your license so it can be used on another computer:

1. Open Help → Activate License….
2. Click Deactivate this machine and confirm.
3. The license is released from this machine (subject to the per-license machine limit) and you can activate it elsewhere.

Note: Deactivate applies to paid licenses, not trials. The Deactivate this machine button is hidden while a trial is running, because a trial ends only by its 14-day expiry or by activating a license.

Approvals Are Required

By default, every tier that can trade (Standard, Executive, and Trial) requires you to confirm each trade before Tempest places an order. There is an administrator-only option to skip per-trade approval; it is available solely on specially issued administrator licenses and is hidden for everyone else. For normal use, plan on approving each trade. See Assisted Trading for how the approval prompt works.

Warning: Assisted trading places real orders with real money at your own direction. Always review your position sizing and risk settings before enabling it, and remember that trading futures carries substantial risk of loss.

Running Without a Configured License

If you run a build of Tempest that has no license configured, it operates in an unrestricted "bundled" mode with full feature access. The Help → Activate License… menu item is only shown when licensing is configured, so most users will always activate a key or start a trial.

Troubleshooting

A few common situations:

• "License inactive." Your subscription needs attention. Open fortemare.net/settings/license to view or recover your key, resolve an inactive or suspended license, or sign up, then paste the key and click Activate.
• Activation fails with an error. The dialog shows an actionable message (for example, a network problem, an expired key, or an activation limit reached). Confirm you are online and that the key belongs to Tempest. If it persists, click Diagnostics…, then Email Support to send the details to Forte Mare support.
• Can't paste the full key. The key field stays editable even when you're already activated; clear it, paste again, and confirm the whole key is visible before clicking Activate.

For more, see Troubleshooting and Feedback & Support.