Round 4 · Coverage checkpoint · Confirmed 2026-06-29
Positioning Coverage Checkpoint
This checkpoint consolidates the established Draft Stonk positioning context after the real-money, brokerage API, prize-pool, and advice-boundary follow-up. Confirm this is complete or flag the gaps before the parent `$positioning` loop can advance to framework selection.
Source note: this page uses the official sources checked in round 3 as design-risk signals, not legal advice. Changing the money, prize, brokerage, or instruction boundary later needs qualified legal review.
Coverage Summary
Covered
Target Segment
U.S. finance-curious social retail players, with friend groups, fantasy-sports-adjacent players, and college finance clubs as likely early wedges.
Covered
Competitive Alternatives
Group chats, spreadsheets, Robinhood or brokerage watchlists, fantasy sports, stock-picking games, and doing nothing.
Covered
Value Wedge
A fast social stock draft that makes market instincts visible and comparable without requiring real-money trading, real-money prize pools, or investment advice.
Covered
Mode And Category Frame
Market-positioning mode. The category frame remains social fantasy stock draft, or fantasy football for stocks, with simulated picks and entertainment-first scoring.
Boundary Decisions
| Area | Round-3 Input | Checkpoint Resolution For Positioning | Reason It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-money gameplay | User floated offloading actual purchases to brokerage apps and using disclaimers. | Keep pre-PMF positioning simulated/watchlist-only. Do not position Draft Stonk as a product that tells users how to buy the drafted stocks. | Disclaimers alone do not erase securities-advice or transaction-participation risk when product behavior points users toward specific securities purchases. |
| Paid entry and winner-take-all prize pool | Round 2 asked whether a $100 draft with winner-take-all payout is gambling. | Exclude cash entry, prize pools, and winner-take-all payouts from this positioning run. | The combination of consideration, chance/skill disputes, and prize distribution is high-risk enough that positioning should not depend on it without legal design. |
| Brokerage API | "Broker API can be a post-PMF item when there's money for legal." | Accepted. Brokerage API or execution integration is a post-PMF, legal-reviewed expansion path, not the current positioning wedge. | Execution, solicitation, transaction compensation, handling funds, or facilitation can affect broker-dealer analysis. |
| Customer language | Round 1 included "learn how to trade" and "making money social" language; round 3 approved translating it. | Translate to market instincts. Use "make better calls," "compare picks," "learn market instincts," "draft stocks with friends," and "see whose thesis plays out." | Positioning can preserve the emotional pull without implying advice, guaranteed financial gain, or a trading instruction workflow. |
Working Boundary
For the next positioning stage, Draft Stonk should be framed as a social, simulated stock-draft game. Users can independently maintain brokerage accounts elsewhere, but Draft Stonk should not provide pick-specific purchasing instructions, route orders, connect trading APIs, hold funds, pool cash, or distribute cash prizes.
Source Check
Internet Gambling Definitions
31 U.S.C. 5362 treats staking something of value on certain outcomes as a bet or wager, and its fantasy/simulation carveout has conditions around fixed prizes, skill/statistical outcomes, and no single-event dependency.
California Lottery Definition
California Penal Code 319 describes a lottery around property distribution by chance among people who paid or promised valuable consideration.
Broker-Dealer Factors
The SEC guide flags actual activities, including important transaction participation, transaction-related compensation, handling funds/securities, platforms to trade securities, or otherwise facilitating securities transactions.
Investment Adviser Factors
Investor.gov defines an investment adviser around compensation plus providing investment advice about securities, or issuing reports or analyses about securities as a regular business.
Positioning Language
| Customer Pull | Use In Positioning | Avoid In Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| "I want to learn how to trade and have fun with friends." | Learn market instincts with friends through fast stock drafts. | Learn how to trade, copy trades, buy these picks, or follow instructions to purchase. |
| "Make making money social." | Make market calls social. See whose picks, thesis, and timing perform best. | Make money together, win cash, pool entry fees, winner takes all. |
| Fantasy-sports mental model. | Draft stocks, compare portfolios, score performance, and talk trash without risking real money. | Bet on stock outcomes or tie prizes to participant fees. |
Final Completeness Gate
Confirm Updated Coverage Or Flag Gaps
Can the positioning loop advance to framework selection using the coverage summary and boundaries above?
Compile Responses
Compile the final checkpoint YAML and paste it into a fresh `$positioning` session. If you confirm final coverage, the parent loop can write the interrogation handoff and proceed to the framework-selection alignment page on the next run.