The popularity and easy accessibility of the ForEx, or foreign exchange market, makes many people choose it as their financial stepping stone. Together with its indisputable popularity come some extras. The extras include computer programs, trading systems, videos, books and most of all, third party signal providers. Now, I will discuss some points when searching for a good third party signal 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.
The US Constitution states that all men are created equal. Unfortunately this is not the case with traders or signal providers. Some traders look like a million bucks at first glance but turn out to be bad news upon further inspection. To keep away from these types of traders we have to set some guideline to follow when choosing a third party signal provider.
1. Is your signal provider a winner? It would seem that no one would trade the signals of a losing trader, but still I see losers with a big following from time to time.
2. After that I always look at the longevity of the account. Anyone can get lucky and ride a trend for a week, but it takes a little more to trade profitably for months or years on end.
3. An important factor is the maximum drawdown that a trader has caused to their account to date. Big draw downs mean a greater chance of a margin call and a much bigger chance that you will never recoup all of the losses that take place in a massive draw down.
4. The first three are easy to look at. They will be displayed right on the main screen of signal providers to choose from. Once you get a few signal providers you are thinking of using, its time to dive a bit deeper into their history.
a. Have a look at some of the trades placed by each trader. Are they all unique trades or are there 20 trades all placed on the same currency pair at the same time? If so its really just one trade placed twenty times.
b. Have a look at how far they let their trades get away from them. Is your signal provider letting trades get 300 pips or more against them at times? Do they close trades the minute they turn into profit? If so this is a trader who does not understand risk and reward and should not be considered to trade real money.
c. Does your trader add to losing positions? Generally someone who is doing this is trying to average down their entry point and is setting themselves up for failure. Make sure when they do fail that your money is not on the line.
5. 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.
This is only a simple guide for you to consider when looking for good third party signal provider. Remember to always trade a demo before a live account and that ultimately the money is yours and no matter what happens to it, you are the one who’s responsible for it.
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