With the growing popularity and easy access to the foreign exchange (ForEx) market, more and more people are drawn to it as their financial vehicle of choice. Along with this popularity come all the extras. This includes all kinds of software, trading systems for sale, books, videos, and third party signal providers. Today I’m going to touch on a few points when seeking out a third party forex signal provider.
In order to choose the proper third signal provider, we should have a nice understanding of what a third party signal provider really is. A third signal party provider is an analyst or another trader that facilitates trades that are placed on your account. You can choose to have several signal providers or just one.
You have to be careful when choosing your forex signal providers. At a glance a trader may look like he or she has a really good track record. If you take a better look, though, you may find that the trader isn’t quite as good as you thought. To help to make sure that you always choose quality providers to trade your forex account we have to set some ground rules.
1. The first thing I look at is whether the trader is a winner or a loser. This may seem obvious to nearly everyone, but I often see losing signal providers with 50-100 people trading their signals.
2. The next thing to look at is how long the trader has traded profitably. You don’t want a brand new trader without a track record trading your real money account.
3. Look at the max draw down. 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. 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. Look at their actual trades. Do they have a good win rate because they have opened a ton of trades all at the same time on the same currency pair? They may have 20 winners in a row. This looks great, but if you look a bit deeper you will see that its really only 1 winning trade places 20 times. Not as impressive is it?
b. Look at their draw down on individual trades. Do they let a trade go 300 pips against them and then close it out when it hits 5 pips of profit? This is a trader who lets their losses run out of control and cuts their winning trades short. It’s not a trader that you want in control of your money.
c. Make sure that they do not constantly average down. A trader who is adding to losing positions and trying to buy a better entry point is asking to go broke. This is a trader to avoid.
5. The most important thing is to choose a signal provider that you can live with. If you are risk adverse than an aggressive trader will probably more than your stomach can take. Its OK to let your account grow at a more modest pace if it helps you sleep at night.
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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