# ETFCTA Category Intelligence Charter

Status: governing reference  
Adopted: 18 July 2026  
Precedence: this charter governs every sprint, route, tool, dataset, and commercial surface.

## Position

ETFCTA is a **Managed Futures ETF Category Intelligence Source**. At maturity it may become category intelligence infrastructure. It is not merely a site about managed-futures ETFs, an issuer directory, an official standards body, or an investment-recommendation service.

The governed purpose is:

> ETFCTA is the governed intelligence source for managed-futures ETF structure, evidence, and change.

## Domain thesis

> The ETF wrapper made managed futures accessible. It did not make them understandable.

> Same label does not mean same exposure.

> A classification without evidence history is only an opinion.

ETFCTA exists to convert dispersed disclosure, structurally different products, and lost historical context into verifiable classification memory.

## Interface thesis

> The interface must show not only what is known, but how knowledge was admitted, derived, changed, and constrained.

Every interaction MUST help a user understand how a judgment formed. Motion and visualization MAY expose evidence paths, fingerprint layers, time comparisons, and reasons for change. Decorative market animation, purposeless parallax, and generic AI effects MUST NOT be used.

## Governing chain

Every public tool and reference page MUST read from the same truth chain:

`Fund → Source → Evidence → Decision → Change`

Tools MUST NOT create an independent factual store outside that chain.

## Category language

Canonical terms are defined in `reference/glossary.json`. A canonical term becomes public only when it has a definition, data representation, reference route, and citation form. Labels are not adopted merely for branding.

## Five collapse risks

1. **Truth collapse** — admitting undocumented information.
2. **Classification collapse** — presenting inference as direct fact.
3. **Time collapse** — overwriting a state and deleting its predecessor.
4. **Independence collapse** — allowing issuer or sponsor influence over classification.
5. **Growth collapse** — expanding coverage faster than evidence quality permits.

## Route and SEO boundary

Routes MUST add a distinct, evidence-governed reference object or workflow. Empty ticker pages, keyword variants, automated comparisons without sufficient evidence, performance listicles, and pages that merely reorder the same table are prohibited.

Internal links MUST form a knowledge graph between dossiers, dimensions, evidence, sources, changes, glossary terms, strategy families, and implementation routes—not a collection of SEO landing pages.

## Commercial boundary

Revenue MUST increase the utility or distribution of the reference asset without changing classification outcomes. Sponsorship MUST be disclosed, separated from classification, and unable to buy rank, admission, approval, or preferential treatment.

## Roadmap gate

- Sprint 0A — Architecture of Truth: closed.
- Sprint 0B — Evidence Admission Protocol: current.
- Sprint 0C — Canonical Fund Admission: blocked until the 0B release gate passes.
- Later tools and monetization remain non-operational concepts until their truth-chain prerequisites exist.