Tips and Techniques
1) As tempting as it may seem, avoid adding too many providers to your portfolio. Many times you will find that many of them trade the same currency pairs and also trade at the same time. I have found it to be far better to stick with the higher percentage winners and slowly increment up their lots.
2) This is not a race - In this game that the tortuous wins. Try to look at this as something you will build and grow over the course of the next year. Build it slow and consistent. Allocating too many positions over too many providers is a disaster waiting to happen. At first, your account may seem to be growing really fast and then all of a sudden, you will find yourself sitting on multiple positions by multiple providers that are all starting to drawdown. This is because many of the providers trade the same currency pairs and a lot of time, they trade in the same direction. This drawdown can take you right back to where you started in a matter of no time.
3) When you are ready to open a live trading account, open one with a broker that will allow you to trade micro lots. You will find that it really helps when you begin to increment up the lots per provider or when you are live trading a new signal provider (This will really limit your risk until he proves himself).
4) You are allowed to set up 20 demo accounts per email address. Really take advantage of this and set up 3 or 5 demo accounts. Set up different types of accounts, have one conservative, one medium, one high risk and just watch to see how they perform. I've had demo accounts packed full of signal providers that that have made over 20K in a week, only to give it all back and then some the following week. You will really build an appreciation for playing it conservative.
5) Don't initially allocate too many lots to any one provider, let him earn it. As the profits he/she makes for you grow, then increase the lots with the profits that are made. This way you are not risking your own money.
6) Have a plan and trade the plan. Try looking ahead a year from now and project how much you would like your account balance to be at. Then working backwards see how much you would need to make each month and then each week, then finally each day to accomplish that goal. You will hopefully find that on a daily basis, the amount is not out of reason.
7) Always have stops set on your providers. Take a look at the drawdown section in our signal provider table and try to determine appropriate stops for each provider that is acceptable for you. I usually set my stops at between $100 and $300 per mini lot, depending on the provider. I try to pick a stop that coinsides with 94% or better success rate (based on the percentages listed in the signal provider table). I figure once the trade drawsdown over a 100 pips, the trade has pretty much gotton away from him and you can only hope that statistically the trade will reverse. I am comfortable risking up to a max of $300, but not more than that. I have seen too many trades that have drawn down to over 800 pips. I will usually start out with a $100 or $200 stop and after the provider makes some profits, I will slowly move his stop up to $300.
8) When analyzing a signal providers trades you may find it much easier to use the "Export to Excel" feature so that you can really fine tune your analysis. Once I download to Excel, the first thing I will do is use the "Sort" function within Excel and sort on the "Worst Drawdown" column. This will give me a very quick picture of the overall risk this provider takes. I've seen providers who have 97%+ track records only to find that their drawdowns on occasions will exceed 1800 pips (how would you like to be in that trade, having your money tied up for 4 months or 5 months on that single trade).
Next, I will sort on the "Total Pips"column to see how many losses the provider has had and the amount of the losses. Just sorting on the "Worst Drawdown" and the "Total Pips" columns will quickly tell you if you should continue analyzing this particular provider.
I also like sorting on the "Date Opened" column to see how many trades this provide opens at the same time. Some providers will open 20 to 30 trades one after another. I don't find anything wrong with this, I just like to know because it relates to the YTD pips that the providers has made. Consider 2 different providers who have each made 6000 pips YTD. I would much rather have my money on the one that places 1 to 3 trades at a time versus a provider who places 30 trades at a time. Speaking for myself, I don't ever see myself allowing a provider to have 30 open trades in my account at any one point in time.
It is always good to look at how the provider has performed over the past 3 months, 6 months, etc.
9) Review your trades. From time to time it is possible for erroneous trades to show up in your account. It is also possible for an open trade to not get closed. If you do experience one of these problems, contact ZuluTrade support and they will help you resolve the issue.
10) Be cautious of selecting too many providers that trade the JPY pairs. The JPY pairs tend to move very fast in a short period of time. You will usually have to widen your stop a bit more than normal for these providers. In my own account, I will usually keep the JPY trades limited.