Choosing A Forex Signal Provider
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.
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. 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. 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 few are fairly easy to keep an eye out for. They should all be displayed on the main screen and you may even be able to sort by each of them. Once you find several signal providers that you are considering, you should think about looking a little closer.
a. Take a look at individual trades. Are all of the trades placed in the same direction on the same currency pair? If so this trader has not yet seen a reversal.
b. Look at the draw down on each trade. If your signal provider lets trades get several hundred pips away from them and then cuts them short the second they head back into the black you are in trouble. This is a trader who lets losses run and cuts profits short. You do not want to trade a signal provider of this variety.
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. 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.
Article Source: FxTradingStock.com
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To learn more about Forex Trading Signals visit Automated Forex Trading Systems.
by: Tk Kearns
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Word Count: 663
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010
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