Everything about NoVo — the design, the honesty, the refusals — comes down to one simple agreement: you decide and set the boundaries; the machine executes within them. This is the manual-first contract, and it's the foundation the whole product rests on. Understanding it is understanding NoVo.
The two halves of the contract
You decide. The directional call — the judgment that is your edge — stays yours (manual-first, human-in-the-loop). You also set the boundaries: your risk limits, sizing rules, the envelope NoVo must operate inside. The machine executes within them. Once you decide, NoVo does the labor — strike, sizing, stop, exit — fast, precise, and unemotional, but never outside the limits you defined. Human judgment on the decision; machine precision on the execution; your boundaries binding both.
Why it's a “contract”
Because it's a promise built into the architecture, not a setting: you decide and initiate every entry, and NoVo manages the exit strictly inside the boundaries you defined. It will not execute a single tick outside the rules you set — it cannot exceed them. The contract is what makes NoVo trustworthy: you're never handing control to a black box, because the machine's entire operating envelope is defined by you and it cannot exceed it.
The manual-first contract: you decide and set the limits, the machine executes within them, always. Every feature is just this promise, kept.
Why everything else follows from it
Once you see the contract, the rest of NoVo makes sense. It's non-custodial because your money is yours. It gives structure, not signals because you decide. It won't promise profits or claim an edge because the trading is yours. It's a cockpit, not an auto-pilot. Every honest position in this entire pillar flows from the same source: you're the trader, NoVo is the tool, and the boundaries are yours. That's the manual-first contract, and it's the whole of what NoVo is.