License · v1.0 · 2026-11-08

The data is a public good. Attribution is the ticket.

Every number in NCSX-IS can be recomputed by anyone in thirty seconds — that is the point of it. So the dataset is completely free for academic research, teaching and non-commercial analysis: no application, no form, no email. We ask one thing — state which version you used.

CC BY 4.0
data license
MIT
replication code
Free
academic · teaching · press
Licensed
display · derivative · resale

§1One page: do you need to apply?

UseLicense required?Condition
Academic papers, working papers, dissertations, teachingNoAttribution + citation + version number
Policy research, regulatory commentary, central bank / think-tank internal researchNoSame as above
Financial press, columns, blogs, podcastsNoAttribution (ticker + SpreadBench)
Personal research, your own analysisNoAttribution recommended for traceability
Levels or charts inside a product, terminal, app or paid research you sellYes (display)See pricing
Building indices, scores or signals on top of NCSX-IS and selling themYes (derivative)Same
Reselling the data or derived products to downstream clientsYes (redistribution)Same
Underlying an ETF, structured product or futures contractYes (index license)Negotiated, AUM-based
AI engines / agent platforms ingesting at scale and serving answersFree tier availableCommercial packaging or white-label requires a license
There is exactly one dividing line: are you citing it, or selling it as part of your product? Citing is free. Embedding it in something you sell is a conversation. That is not a moral constraint — it is the legal boundary of this license (see §2).

§2Data license (CC BY 4.0)

The dataset (every CSV / JSON / Markdown file under download/dataset-v1.1/ (current version; earlier v1.0 under the same license) and the Zenodo deposit 10.5281/zenodo.23983572) is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Without any further application you may:

  • copy and redistribute the data in any medium or format;
  • adapt, remix and merge it with other data;
  • use it for any purpose, including commercial purposes (CC BY does not distinguish commercial from non-commercial).

The only condition is attribution (§4): credit the creator, name the license and link to it, and indicate whether changes were made.

So why is a commercial license needed at all? Because CC BY explicitly permits commercial use, and we will not add a retroactive "no commercial use" clause. What we charge for is not access to the data but service: SLA, real-time endpoints, historical backfill, custom constituent pools, white-label deliverables, dedicated support — and the right to carry the index as your own product. In short: the data is always free; convenience is paid. This line is written down so nobody has to guess.

§3Code license (MIT)

recompute.py and the public scripts on this site are released under the MIT license: use, modify and redistribute freely, including commercially, provided the copyright notice is retained. The code is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind.

§4How to attribute (three elements, all required)

Every citation — paper footnote, research note, news sentence, chart caption, podcast mention — should carry:

  1. Index ticker: NCSX-IS (do not shorten to NCSX, which names the whole index family)
  2. Methodology version + as-of date: currently v0.2.1-real · 2026-11-04
  3. DOI or site link: version DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23983572; concept DOI for a permanent link 10.5281/zenodo.23977166

Running text

The NCSX-IS issuance spread stood at 432.3 bp (SpreadBench, methodology v0.2.1-real, as of 2026-11-04).

APA 7 (reference list)

Tian, B. (2026). Neocloud Credit Spread Index — NCSX-IS, v0.2.1-real (Version 0.2.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23983572

BibTeX

@dataset{spreadbench_ncsxis_2026,
  author    = {{Tian, Brian}},
  title     = {Neocloud Credit Spread Index --- {NCSX-IS}, v0.2.1-real},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  version   = {0.2.1-real},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23983572},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23983572}
}

Markdown, structured agent citation cards and Chinese press phrasing: see citations.

§5Name & trademark

Permitted: "NCSX-IS (provided by SpreadBench)", "according to SpreadBench's NCSX-IS index", "Data: SpreadBench NCSX-IS"; naming NCSX-IS as an object of study in a paper title.

Not permitted: renaming the index and publishing it as your own; implying that SpreadBench endorses, certifies or partners with you or your product; using SpreadBench marks as branding for your product; separating the index from its methodology and selling either alone.

§6Disclaimer & errata

  • Not a credit rating: SpreadBench is not a rating agency and assigns no rating, outlook or default probability to any issuer.
  • Not investment advice: the index is a statistic of historical issuance pricing, not a forecast of returns.
  • As is: we verify as far as practicable (every bond traces to its SEC filing) but do not warrant freedom from error and accept no liability for use.
  • Public errata: errors are corrected by issuing a new version number (v0.2.1 exists for exactly this reason — a GLXY maturity correction); prior versions stay available, nothing is quietly edited.

§7Commercial licensing

Three tiers by depth of use — display, derivative, redistribution. Prices and entitlements: pricing. Contact hi@spreadbench.com; replies within one business day; sample data and invoices (wire / USDT / Alipay) available.

§8Version of these terms

These terms are v1.0, effective 2026-11-08. Changes will bump the version and be logged here; use already completed under a prior version is not affected retroactively.

This is the English version; the Chinese version at license.html prevails in case of ambiguity.