Provider selection criteria for Zulutrade

Here are critera for selecting signal providers. I'm a relatively conservative investor and I want to grow the account, as safely as possible with capital preservation a high priority:

1) No large, open drawdowns.
I avoid providers that hang onto large, loosing positions for weeks or months. Ideally the provider should have no open trades, since I usually do my analysis on the weekends.

2) Consistent effort
I need to see at least one trade every 2 weeks or I assume the provider is disengaged.

3) 85% or better winning percentage

4) No "Painting the Tape".
Whenever I see an entire screen worth of the same trade, I assume the provider it taking multiple open positions. I'm limiting my trading to 2 open lots per provider at one time, so this is a negative.

5) No large drawdowns in History
Whenever I see multiple trades going more than -200 pips, in the account, that's bad. My stops are set to about 150 and those trades would all be loosers for me. Plus, I can't understand the fact that a trade would go that far against the provider without them closing it. I can't take those type of drawdowns.

6) Must have at least 3 weeks history.

7) Must have live, subscribed users.

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Tips To Help You Chose A Signal Provider On ZuluTrade

There was a time when trading was a headache. Not anymore! You don't have to study or monitor the market to make a good pick, because hundreds of industry well-known experts from all over the world are doing it for you. All you have to do is pick the experts you like, and Zulutrade will quickly convert their advice into live trades in your trading account directly with the broker. And the best of all, it's completely FREE!

This is probably one of the most important aspects to Zulutrade is picking a Signal Provider to trade for you. From the statistics provided by the site there is over 1,200 traders to pick from.


performance statistics

Zulutrade has made life a little easier by providing detailed performance statistics.

1. Signal Provider - is the name of the 3rd party expert signal provider

2. Graph - shows the history of accumulated pips. You can select different time frames to display results, from 3 days up to 2 years. This a great visual indicator for when you are scrolling through the different providers, you want to pick one with a consistent upwards trend.

3. Pips - is the total amount of pips that the signal providers has made.

A pip is the minimum movement of a currency upwards or downwards. To calculate each pip for every currency, divide 1/ (currency pair exchange rate) Ex: 1/224.92 (GBP/JPY) = 0.00444 GBP. If you’re trading a 100:1 leverage account, then multiply this with 100. Ex 0.00444 x 1000 = 4.44 GBP. To transform this to USD just convert it. Ex: GBP/USD = 1.9377 x 4.444 = 8.6 USD / pip

Another example is to calculate a pip for GBP/USD. 1/1.9377 = 0.516 GBP. For a 100:1 standard account, multiply that with 10. Ex: 0.516 x 10 = 5.16. To convert in USD multiply with 1.9377. Ex: 5.16 x 1.9377 = 9.98 USD / pip

4. Profit - is the total amount of money in dollars that the signal provider has made

5. Trades - is the total amount of currency trades that the signal provider has made since they have been a memeber on Zulutrade

6. Avg Pips - is how many pips they make on average per trade

7. Win % - out of their trades this is how many were successful, which mean that they are in positives for pips

8. Avg Trade (hrs) - this is the average length in hours that open trades last for.

9. Weeks - how many weeks the signal provider has been trading on Zulutrade

10. Max DD pips - this is the biggest drawdown that the signal provider has experienced in their history of trading on Zulutrade. I find that the smaller the better, other your equity is in danger if there is a big drawdown.

11. Users - this is how many registered users are using this signal provider to trade for them

Before choosing a provider:

Before we get into choosing a provider we need to have a good understanding of what a third party signal provider is. A signal provider is a trader or analyst that generates trades that in turn get placed on your account. You can have several signal providers trading your forex account or just one.

All of these performance indicators play a big part in the decision, there is not just one component to consider when picking a provider. You have to take everything into consideration including their profile and description that they provide. This will detail their trading strategy that they use. To get a good feel for how this all works is to have a good look around and analysis individual signal providers.

Another excellent feature is that you have sort by any of the headings at the top, all you have to do is click on one of them. For example if you would like to see who has the most user you would click on the Users heading.

Like anything else, all third party signal providers are not created equal. At first glance a trader may look like a home run. That same trader may well end up completely torpedoing your entire account in one afternoon. To help make sure this doesn’t happen we’ll set down a few guidelines. These guidelines will give us something to look for when choosing our third party signal provider.

1- Choose A Winner - This may seem obvious to everyone but it goes a bit more in depth than first glance may imply.  Not only will you look at profit in both pips and actual dollars, but you should also take a look at pips per trade and how many trades that system generates per week.  If one system generates 10 pips per trade but only makes 3 trades a week you average 30 pips per week.  You may have another system that generates only 6 pips per trade but generates 25 trades per week.  With this system you make 150 pips per week.  All things to consider.

2- Choose A Trader That Is Established - I often see traders with only a week or 2 of history and they have 20 or 30 people trading their signals.  Generally less than a month later these traders are deep in the red and their 20 or 30 investors have moved on to the next signal.  Remember that anyone can go on a run for a week or two.  Make sure that you have someone who has proven themselves for at least a couple of months trading your account.

3- Check The Max Draw Down - A really big draw down often equates to a trader that cannot cut his losses.  Since he isn't trading with real money he can leave a trade open until it turns a profit.  That will often lead to a good trading record on paper but in actuality it will make you(the investor) go broke.
This is the largest peak to trough draw down in equity that the trader has historically had. Some traders refuse to take a loss. This causes them to hold on to losing trades forever or until they turn to a winner. Turning a loser into a winner sounds great, but it will eat up a huge chunk of margin and may never turn around. If it doesn’t turn in your direction, you will have your entire account destroyed by a trader that could have taken a 30 pip loss but held on until it was an 800 pip loss.

4- Look At The Actual Trades - Once you narrow it down to a few traders its time to look at their actual trading history.Some traders have a great track record and have made a lot of money in a short amount of time.  The first thing I look for is if they are opening the same trade over and over.  ie. Some traders will go buy 1 lot of EUR/USD 25 seperate times at once. 
This means that if the trade goes in their favor, all of a sudden they have 25 winning trades in a row.  It causes their results to be skewed and makes them look a lot better than they are at first glance.  If you are trading a signal provider like this you will often find yourself getting margin calls as well as he continues to open trade after trade and never closes the previous ones.

5- Make Your Own Decision - Just because a signal provider has hundreds of people trading his or her signal does not make them a great choice for you.  Do your own homework and decide which system is best for you.

6. Choose a signal provider that suits you - Some traders may provide larger returns over time, but take bigger risks leading to bigger draw downs. This might be OK with you. If you are more conservative and cannot stomach large drops in equity you probably should choose a more conservative trader.


These are just a few things to look for when choosing a third party signal provider to trade your forex account. You should always trade a demo account before opening a live account with real money. Remember it’s your account. In the end you choose the signal providers, and you are responsible for what happens.

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Setting User Account page in zulutrade

Let's take a look for the main window of auto trade system
Like the No. in the picture


1. ACCOUNT SETTING
2. OPEN POSITION
3. PENDING ORDER
4. TRADE HISTORY
5. CREATE ATRADE
6. ACCOUNT No. +EQUITY
7. A PPOINT to view the profit in the month and from the beginning of the account

ACCOUNT SETTING

The client has full control over your account in the way each selected provider will trade it.
Lets first start with every function and how to use it under your account settings tab.

1-Backtest. Your signal provider: Its show the graph combined performance for the selected providers in your portfolio. It does not take into account custom settings (stop, limit etc), but the exact trades as recommended by the signal providers.

2-Margin call:
Avery bad situation when the floating loss in your account is threatening the $ amount reserved by your broker to keep your position open

3- Signal provider:
Its appear the provider you choose to deal with him

4-Lots/ Trade:
This selection pertains to the total number of lots that will be traded for each individual trade by that provider

5- Max total open trades :
The maximam number of trades this signal provider is allowed to open

6-Max open trades /currency:
This setting pertains to the total number of lots that can be opened and/or pending at any one time in your account. This is a drop down menu selection that ranges from 1 to 500 with different incriminations along the way, and also has a no limit setting at the end.

7- Reverse:
This is a checkbox next to each provider?s name that you have selected in your account. It is a fact that some providers don't send good advice. Even more, their market predictions are so wrong that it can be profitable to do the opposite of what they suggest. So when they say buy you actually sell, and vice versa. When reversed, some of the worst providers outperform even the best ones. Toggle the reverse checkbox and see for yourself how profitable some providers can be.

8- Limit, Stop, Save :
These settings can also be found next to each provider you have selected in your account. Limit is a setting that if put in place by the client or a provider it will close the trade at a given profit. Stop is a setting that if put in place by the client or a provider it will close the trade at a given loss. Trail is a sliding stop value that follows the trade as it is making a profit.
11- Configure
This setting can be found next to each provider further to the right. By selecting this you will be taken to a new page where all possible currency pairs are displayed. The current setting for all the pairs will initially be 1 lot per each pair. However you may change this setting, so you can have as many lots as you wish per each different currency pair to be traded by a signal provider.

12- Remove :
You will notice this selection at the far right of every signal providers name that you have selected in your account. By simply selecting this option you will remove this provider from auto trading your account, however any remaining open trades, or pending orders that the provider has placed in your account will remain there


13- Add signal provider :
While logged into your account, under your account settings tab at the bottom left hand corner you will notice a selection tilted ?Add a provider?. By selecting this you will bring up our vast selection of signal providers. You may select any provider at any time to auto trade your account and there is no limit to how many providers you will use

TRADER HISTORY

Here you will find a history with all the trades that have opened and closed in your account.

1-Time frame:
2- single provider: The name of provider you select and if you click on it then you find some history about his trade with graphic
3- Graph :Its show you the graph dawing to the providers
4- Pipes: Browsing howmany pipes that the provider make through the selected time
5- Proift :Howmany profit that the provider make
6- Trades :Browsing howmany trades the provider do
7- Avg pipe :Points average to all trades
8- Win ;Percant valu tell about the provider success of all his trades
9-Avg trade/Hrs :Avrage of trade opration inOne Hour
10- Weeks :Time to use the trader strategies in weeks
11-Max DD :pipes own point maximum limt
12- Users :Howmany users dealing with this provider
 

OPEN POSITION 

This is where executed signals that providers place in your account will show. Here you can see what your current earnings or losses are at the moment. Each trade that is open under your open positions tab, you can change certain values of that trade if you wish. By clicking on the current ?stop? value of the trade, this will bring up a popup window where you change this value if you wish, you can do the same for ?limit? as well. Furthermore to the far right of the trade you will see a selection titled ?close? by selecting this you will then be prompted with a ?sure? selection, after this has been chosen, the trade will then close and no longer appear in your open positions tab.

TRADE HISTORY

Here you will find a history with all the trades that have opened and closed in your account. You will also have a graph and a few filters to represent the data as you see fit. You can click on the ?date open? of each trade to generate a pop up window showing you a graph with the high and low reached of that trade, also it will show if the trade was opened at market price, or if it was a pending order, the reason for the trade being closed i.e. via a signal from a provider, or a manual close by the client. Also in your trade history you will notice a filter selection where as you can filter the graph and data below to represent all signal providers, or one at a time, thus the same goes for currency pairs, and furthermore you can change what dates you wish the history to represent.

MANUAL TRADE

Here the client can place manual trades as he/she sees fit. You will notice all the currency pairs, a buy and sell column and a constant green and red color-flashing price upwards or downwards. If you wish to place a manual trade simply click on either buy or sell for a given pair and a popup window will appear. This window will consist of the current market price, and a limit and stop setting.

You may change the current market price by unchecking the ?market? box, thus enabling you to place a different market price, which in turn will create a pending order. You may also place stops and limits through this popup window as well. Once you have entered the information you wish, simply click on OK and the trade will be placed either in your open positions, or pending orders.

 

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