[MichaelFXVIC]

Hi – my name is Michael and I am new to FOREX. Whilst I am interested in FOREX trading, I am not a Trader (I operate a series of businesses in Australia). I am interested in setting up a process where I can mirror successful traders (with their permission), in real time, for a percentage of my profits or for a monthly rate. I would greatly appreciate any advice on the steps required in setting up such a process.

[Mike]

I've always wanted a service for this myself before I actually emmersed myself in learning how to trade. But alas, do not fret. There are actually a few different websites that are like this somewhat. The major one being ZULUTRADER.com where a signal provider signs up as a "provider" and users come along and join him as a "client" and any trade he enters, the clients enter simultaneously.

Now, many of us here at the forums have been keeping our eye on ZuluTrader and our biggest concern is the fact its hard to find any signal providers with massive "maximum drawdowns" which means at any given point this providers trades are X amount of pips in the red.

The second major complaint is the fact the spreads are just simply too high. I mean, 6 pip spread on USDCAD? 4 Pip Spread on EURUSD? The reason for the high spreads is the fact many people are making money with that spread, including Zulutrader Owners, your ZuluTrader Signal Provider, and Zulutrader affiliates.

I'm not saying Zulutrader is a bad idea, its actually a brilliant idea. It just takes care to find the right signal provider on that website.

Maybe we can find more examples together.

[MichaelFXVIC]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for this insight. I apprecaite your feedback.

We have looked at Zulutrader.com, onix-trade.net, fxtraderlink.com, prosignal.net, and collective2.com
Whilst all of these systems are very clever, it has a few flaws (for our needs):
a. As you mentioned, they have massive drawdowns
b. Many of their trading systems are young (new) and haven't been tested in many market conditions
c. It is not verifiable if the person(s)/EA behind the system is actually trading this system (on a live account - not demo) themselves. We need to verify their trading track record.

I welcome any input into this conversation.

I will keep you updated on what we find.

thanks again,

[Mike]

Yes, your complaints are similar to mine about those types of services.

[Mike]

Anyone else have an idea? I'm a proponent of learning how to trade, finding a system that works for you, and sticking with it, trading your own funds, but to each his own, and it's a big subject, this idea of forex signal providers.

I mean, I always wanted to find or at least host what was in my mind the ideal signal service that allows people to sign up and receive signals but only have to pay if the signal works. And even then, are allowed to only get signals in the future if they pay that "donation" or fee or whatever you call it.

What can we compare this to? Account managers that trade for you also take out a percentage, sometimes half of what a trade makes you, so in comparison, finding a signal provider that is profitable that takes out a flat rate ($5 or $10 per signal) is actually a good deal. ZuluTrade is one idea, but I can see how alot of those signal providers there fake their results by entering 10 trades of the same pair at the same time which allows them to give the illusion of making 1000+ pips when the "standard size" trade only made 100 pips. Why we see alot of "profitable" signal providers on ZT is because they are most likely luckier than the ones in the red, and even then, they mostly all have huge drawdowns which most small traders like us can not sustain.

[Mike]

We all have to be weary of signal providers though, that's where the only "risk free" money lies in Forex trading, so people have caught on to that fact, both good and bad.

I wish I could program better and make a ZuluTrade spin off site, because my trading system rocks and it could help alot of people.

[Chloe]

I can personally speak for the Signal Provider aspect of the Zulu Trader system and they've recently made a lot of changes to their interface which makes trading alot easier for us.

Spreads are still the same, unfortunately, but they have instituted a limit on how many times you can enter a trade within X amount of seconds, which, in theory, will help reduce the amount of signal providers entering many of the same trades at once, which sort of paints a rosier picture of their strategy than usually. Secondly, they added a CLOSE ALL TRADES button to your open trades page which allows an SP to do just that. A really great addition if you ask me, because before this we had to close each one by one via the java interface, which sometimes responded slowly.

I have a lot of the same gripes with ZuluTrader that alot of you said, namely the spreads and the sometimes large discrepency between my charts price and their price. There was a point there where I felt it was untradable, but slowly I began to like it as the optimal "trade for me" service.

[#Evan#]

I also am a signal provider on Zulu, and the last time I tried the Close All Trades tab, it never did! I had to close them one by one anyway. The site is a great idea like my said, but the reality of it leaves alot of room for improvement.

[#Evan#]

I'm actually in there now, and it still just does not work I want to get out of these trades!

[WynnBonadona]

I would suggest every client stop trades on their accounts until zulutrade fixes their 'problems', which i doubt they would because every extra pip loss for the client is a profit for them. For me, I won't be trading till further notice.

[DickP]

Duly noted WynnBonadona

[USMC]

Zulu still is a good idea if you ask me... just have to find the best provider there.