Best Traders to Copy on ZuluTrade
I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that trying to find the best ZuluTrade traders to copy is not as easy as it sounds.
I can imagine what happened to you.
You simply chosed some traders with many copiers or you followed the ZuluTrade suggestions… and unfortunately, after some time, you had some bad surprises.
Or…
You tried to think on your own… but you never could find a search method, with a basic logical sense, and a precise procedure to find good traders.
Don’t worry, it happened almost to everyone.
Today, however, everything will change.
With this post, step by step, you’ll learn:
1 – A precise, effective and simple (but yet professional) procedure to find the best ZuluTrade traders (or Signal Provider)
2 – How to effectively exploit the ZuluTrade ”wisdom of the crowd”, but this time in an intelligent and profitable way
3 – As a bonus (although from today you would no longer need it) at the end you will find a list of the best traders to copy on ZuluTrade in our opinion, all found using this procedure.
Do not jump immediately to the end though!
This post really deserves your attention. Discover how to really become a professional Copy Trader.
How to find the best ZuluTrade’s trader with the Advanced Search Filters
New to ZuluTrade? Then it is the perfect time to open a Free Demo Account (Your capital is at risk when trading CFDs) in a bunch of seconds and follow this procedure live, step by step.
To find the best traders, or as they alternatively say, the best Signal Provider of ZuluTrade, to be included in our portfolio, we have a great search tool called “Advanced Search”.
To access it, click on the “Traders” voice from the menu.
Afterwards make sure you’re in the “Advanced Display Mode” and click on the button on the right with the shape of a wheel.
Now you’ll see the “Advanced Research” tool on top of the list of traders.
In no time I’ll reveal what are the important data that you see and that no one else around will never tell you to observe.
But first, it is important to understand what these data mean.
If you want to become a real professional and learn how to find the best ZuluTrade’s traders, you need to know all the values very well.
However, if you already know them and you also know how the Advanced filters works, then click here to skip to the procedure.
List of Data of the Trader’s Performance Table of ZuluTrade
The ZuluTrade Advanced search tool is divided into three main blocks:
- The first at the top where you can select the specific conditions you want the research to comply with;
- The second in which instead you can select a range of values with the aid of a bar;
- The third in which instead the reference range values are entered manually.
– Advanced Search – BLOCK 1
– Are in the Top 100: With this option you will see only the first 100 Signal Providers of the rank. This is useful if you want to add other specific conditions, and see if someone meets it and is in a good ranking position.
– Have been rated by traders: Only follower investors with real account can vote the Signal Provider. With this option, you will only see traders who received at least one vote.
– Are not trading exotics: an important option, with which you can exclude all those Signal Providers that make online trading using also the exchange rates currencies known as “exotic”. Changes on exotic currencies are very risky, in the first place because they are rarely used and the spreads are very high. Consider that some brokers don’t even treat them.
– Have approved photo and description: ZuluTrade retains the right to disapprove a Signal Provider’s picture or the description of his strategy, if openly in conflict with its policy. With this option, you will exclude all those that have not been approved in those two aspects.
– Have live traders subscribers: This option is used to see only those Signal Providers that, in that precise moment, have some Live follower investors linked to their account that are replicating their signals.
– Traded within last week: This option will show you in the rank only those Signal Provider who have made at least one transaction in the last trading week. On the other hand, also those who perhaps are only having a pause for holidays or other reasons, thus have not operated for a week, will not be shown, therefore this is an option to be used with caution.
– Have description strategy videos: we have seen how Signal Providers are encouraged to upload a video description of their strategy. With this option, you can see only those who have done it.
Below you have some other choices marked with icons. We have already seen what these icons mean. They are symbols that ZuluTrade used to classify traders according to different features. We have:
– Green Dollar: Signal Provider is using a Live account
– Blue Dollar: Signal Provider is using a Demo account and has a Live account linked to his Signal Provider
– ZS (ZuluScripts): the Signal Provider uses the new ZuluTrade+ system with the ZuluScript function. This feature allows the trader to host his automatic EA trading strategy directly on the ZuluTrade server. In theory, this system should make the signals replication even more fluid and especially lightning.
– ZuluTrading API: the Signal Provider is sending and managing signals using his own trading program that communicates with ZuluTrade through its API.
– FIFO Rule: the Signal Provider trades in accordance with the FIFO rule and also he does not use hedging techniques on the same instrument (eg, long and short at the same time on EUR / USD)
– Star: This Trader Has an average user rating of at least 4 star.
– Hedging: this provider is trading currelated currency pairs, by using a natural hedging strategy that potentially lead to limited drawdown
– Medal – Zulu Veteran: A Signal Provider that has been trading with ZuluTrade for more than 2 years with a consistently high ranking.
– C: This signal provider is frequently trading economic calendar release!
– EA – Metatrader 4 Expert Advisor: This signal provider trade using an automated trading program hosted on the Mt4 trading platform.
The last two options on the right of the advanced search block 1 will allow you to display only the traders who, thanks to their operations, are in profit (Profitable account) or only those that are in loss (Losing Account). A pretty useless option, unless you are willing to follow in reverse the operations of those Signal Provider with bad performance, but we’ve already talked about the risks of this choices.
– Advanced Search – BLOCK 2
– Running weeks: you can select the minimum and/or maximum age of the Signal Provider. Considering the principle of evaluating only a trader who is at least a year old, we always insert a minimum of 50/52 weeks, in order to see all those who are at least a year old, or that are about to be.
– Max DD %: You can select the minimum and maximum percentage levels of Max Drawdown, but obviously calculated in the not very useful ZuluTrade manner, as we saw in the previous lesson.
– Trader Slippage: the minimum level of slippage up to a maximum of 20 pips, considered both in the complex, both for a specific broker. It should be noted that slippage is present and can only be calculated only if the Signal Provider had follower investors with live account, because in that case ZuluTrade could check with the follower’s broker how much the difference has actually been. So whenever you enter a level of slippage you will automatically exclude those who have not been followed yet by any follower, and that maybe were even worthy.
– Average Pips: the pips earned on average in each operation. It’s a very useful tool for identifying easily those Signal Provider of some specific categories. You can put a low value just to get the day trader, or a high value for those long term or trend following strategies. But remember always that a Signal Provider doesn’t fall into a category only for a specific value, but for the sum of more values and conditions.
– Win %: the winning percentage of the Signal Provider, with the possibility to check the condition only for certain exchange rates. As before, it’s very useful to find or exclude specific categories of traders, but it should not be the only verification method. Every trader must then be analyzed in detail to be sure to have found the characteristics you are looking for.
– Correlation Percent: we have seen what correlations and the percentage ZuluTrade uses to quantify them means. Here you can get a reference range. The higher the percentage, the greater the number of transactions made between changes correlated to each other, and vice versa.
– Advanced Search – BLOCK 3
Just below the 6 bars you can find 2 pull-down menu, which work in combination. In the first menu you can choose to display only the Signal Providers that are trading on certain exchanges, or you can choose to filter and see only the Signal Providers that are not trading on certain exchanges.
You can choose what these currency pairs are in the second drop-down menu to the right. It can be a very convenient option at times. Suppose you have already in the portfolio some Signal Provider specialized in a few pairs, and that you want to find others that just don’t work on the same, because you want to diversify your portfolio in accordance with the currencies used. With this option, you can quickly find alternatives.
Below instead there are the options in which you can directly enter the maximum and minimum reference values:
– Pip: the number of pips, maximum and/or minimum, earned up to that point. This option is very useful, used in conjunction with the Running Weeks, if you want to find Signal Providers with a specific weekly average of pips gained.
– Max DD Pip: the ZuluTrade Maximum Drawdown value is expressed both as a percentage and as an absolute number. Here you can work on a range of values using the absolute one. But remember always that it’s the ZuluTrade drawdown, not the classical one, as explained in the previous lesson.
– Worst Trade: To search precisely for those Signal Providers that have closed their worst losing trade within certain values.
– Best Trade: To search precisely for those Signal Providers that have closed their best winning trade within certain values.
– Max Open Trades: As mentioned several times, this is one of the most important, but to be considered in conjunction with the Signal Provider’s trading style. Here you can search only those Signal Providers who have a Max Open Trade under certain values. You can also filter this data considering all the available time, or even just the last 3, 6 or 12 months.
– NME – Necessary Minimum Equity: We’ve seen what this value means and what are the calculation principles used by ZuluTrade to get it. We have also seen how it is NOT practical to operate the correct management decisions. However, here is your chance to look for those Signal Provider who have their NME in a specific range.
– Number of Trades: With this option you can search for Signal Providers that have opened and closed a specific number of trades, between a minimum and a maximum. As for Pip before, if you use this filter in combination with the Running Weeks option, you can get those Signal Providers that meet a specific average transactions per week.
– Followers: to find those Signal Providers that have a specific minimum or maximum number off follower investors, both live and demo. As said many times, you know this sort of thing is almost totally useless.
– Average Trade Time h: the average duration time of the operations, expressed in hours. This is a very useful option to search for a specific Signal Provider class, especially those that hold transactions open for a long time. But be careful, even those who implement risky strategies such as the martingale can have a very long average trade time, just for the fact they never close their losing operations, that can thus remain open for a long time.
– The last advanced search option is also very useful. You can visualize those Signal Providers with their Best Trade greater or smaller than their Worst Trade. Obviously, the option we prefer is Best greater than Worst, because it’s a first indication that the trader prefers to cut his losses and let his profits run. But please note that this is very common for trader that implements strategies for the medium or long term, but you would like to try instead some of the short-term trader, maybe this option would exclude some worthy.
Step by step guide to find the Best Trader on ZuluTrade.
At this point we are ready to begin to “play” with data and to use filters to find the best traders on ZuluTrade.
Here are the steps, one step at a time.
PHASE 1 of the PROCEDURE to find the BEST ZULUTRADE TRADERS
1. Click the RESET button to get the Zulurank’s ranking
ZuluTrade offers an automatic classification system, called Zulurank, a system which seeks to measure the skill of the trader with a series of automatic calculations.
We want this to be our starting point, i.e. exploiting the ranking made directly by ZuluTrade (at least to begin with, then we’ll see more).
Simply, to get the Zulurank, click the “Reset” button as you can see on the picture.
2. INSERT FILTER: are not trading exotics
In principle, trading on exotic currencies involves risks and costs of additional spread. So, at least at first, it’s good to exclude traders who use them.
3. INSERT FILTER: have approved photo and description
This way you’ll exclude all those Signal Providers who, for some reason, haven’t followed the ZuluTrade’s guidelines.
In fact, when this happens, you can usually discover that this particular trader is a “fake”, he’s not interested in doing trading seriously.
4. INSERT FILTER: Profitable Account
No need to comment on the fact that we only want to observe those traders that are generating profits.
As a curiosity, the fact that someone might be interested in the losing accounts depends on the ZuluTrade Reverse Mode, which makes you replicate particular Signal Providers but doing the opposite of what they are doing (it means that if the trader buys, I sell, and vice versa), reversing the trend.
Definitely it’s a nice option, but we are not interested.
5. INSERT FILTER: Running Weeks > 104
We have often said that, when considering a Signal Provider or a trader in general, it’s good to take at least one year of historical and data about his performance.
Trusting data collected in shorter periods can be a big risk, because the trader’s strategy might not yet have faced particular periods that could have shown its vulnerability.
But ZuluTrade (Your capital is at risk when trading CFDs) has been active for several years, so, as first research we can go over a year and consider those that are active at least since two years.
In a second phase of research we can consider a year to expand a bit the traders list, but we’ll see later.
6. INSERT FILTER: Avg pips> 5
This filter is important for two reasons.
On the first hand we need it to exclude those Signal Provider that use aggressive Scalping techniques, i.e. frenetic trading with the goal of obtaining very few pip many times. Although it may seem tempting, I assure you that hides more risks than benefits.
One for all, and it’s the second reason why this filter is important, is the slippage. The Slippage is the difference between the Signal Provider’s trade’s price and yours.
The main cause of this difference is mainly time, which often affects even if the replica is now almost instantaneous. In addition, slippage can be caused by the fact that Signal Provider and followers have two different brokers, quoting different prices for the same instrument.
So, to try avoiding both Scalping and slippage, we need strategies that make us earn a good number of pips for each operation point (so an average high enough), to offset the pip that may be lost.
We will see later how to work further on this parameter.
Finally, the technical term for this parameter is nothing more than the “average return” of the strategy. In the world of trading, performance goes hand in hand with another important parameter, which is the winnings rate.
7. INSERT FILTER: Win Percentage between 40% – 80%
One of the most important filters is certainly this.
We must, in the first place, exclude those traders that have low winnings rate (for obvious reasons), but also and above all those with too high percentages.
If you know a minimum InvestinGoal you’ll immediately understand why.
To make a brief review, too high winnings rate (which for us means over 80%) aren’t a trader’s skill index, but only a sign that the trader is using some particular techniques to manage his positions, like the averaging down or martingale.
Both techniques involve essentially not to close the trade at a loss, but to instead open new ones to compensate them and recover losses more quickly. So, without closing any trade with a loss the winning percentage remains therefore very high.
These techniques can be effective in some cases, but if you do not know how to manage them, most of the time they’re a sure recipe for a failure.
If the lower limit of 40% seems too low, considering that some top traders get excellent profits with those percentages.
In a strategy, the winning rate is not the only important thing; the other fundamental part is how much you earn on average with the winning operations, and how much on average with those at a loss. This is the so called risk-reward ratio (as mentioned before).
8. INSERT FILTER: Max Open Trades – 10
The vast majority of the Signal Providers that utilize aggressive techniques as the Martingale and the averaging down have one thing in common.
A high number of operations simultaneously opened.
Therefore, we need to limit them, and on our first research we insert a maximum of 10, to begin considering a number halfway.
We will see later how to use this parameter to expand the circle of traders.
9. INSERT FILTER: Best trade > Worst trade
Going back to the Risk-Reward, in principle, the best strategies are where the trader tries to earn more than what he’s risking to get it.
In other words, where the yield is greater than the risk incurred to obtain it.
With this parameter we can filter a large part of traders who do not follow this logic, although it should be noted that this parameter applies to only two operations, the best and the worst, while the reasoning should be done on the average of the winning and losing operations.
However, as a starting point it is better than nothing.
We ended up with the filters, so… CLICK “SEARCH”.
Phase 2 of the PROCEDURE to find the BEST TRADER ZULUTRADE
Now it’s time for some manual steps.
Starting from the top, i.e. from the highest-ranked Signal Provider according to Zulurank, you should begin to start observing the data but above all the graph of the equity line of each trader.
Now quickly note the shape of equity:
- Is it in a “regular waves” trend or not?
- Have there been any “strange periods”?
- How are the drawdowns?
At this stage the aim is not to determine who are the best, but only to create a first provisional list of the eligible candidates for the final choice, in order to take down the others and concentrate more comfortably, in a second phase, on a small number of traders.
The fastest way to create this list is to exploit the Bookmark function (kindly offered by ZuluTrade), which is a feature that allows you to quickly tag all of the traders you want and quickly retrieve this list whenever you want directly from the Trader page on which we are working now.
So, stay on the general list, click on the graphics’ thumbnails to enlarge the image of the Equity Line of Signal Providers.
Watch it quickly, without losing too much time, and if, at first sight, it sounds interesting, add that trader to favorites list by clicking the Bookmark button.
Here are some examples of interesting Equity Lines:
Here you have some examples of Equity Line you should be careful with (if not be worried about):
Please note that these are general guidelines based on our own experience.
It’s not said that different Signal Provider from these examples are necessarily to be discarded, or that Signal Provider which looks like these are definitely good.
Everything needs to be measured and analyzed more thoroughly before making any decision.
For this reason, if at this stage you are in doubt whether a trader has to go to the second stage or not, you should still add him to the list.
Continue until you have at least a few dozens of Signal Provider to control.
In the third and final phase you will go into more detail and take away every doubt.
Let’s see how.
PHASE 3 of the PROCEDURE to find the BEST TRADER ZULUTRADE
Arrived at this point, you have to arm with patience, and you need to analyze one by one the Signal Providers you have in the list.
However, there are data that should be studied immediately, before you even look at the others.
I’m talking about the drawdown.
– Check the Drawdown
The first thing to evaluate in a Signal Provider before moving on to another one is the level or the management of its losses.
ZuluTrade provides two data on the Drawdown:
- Max Drawdown value
- Drawdown graph
Both of these data are very useful, but we need to know precisely how ZuluTrade considers and presents this data, because for many users this was a problem.
In our lesson on ZuluTrade’s Drawdown we explain precisely all you need to know, and that will give you a huge advantage over others who do not know InvestinGoal.
Then, proceed with the Drawdown analysis, and when you find someone that no longer meets your requirements, exclude it from the list.
– Check all other data
Creamed off the list according to the Drawdown, let’s analyze the rest of the data.
Again, we have already written everything you need to interpret like a pro all the data you find in the profile of a ZuluTrade trader.
You can find it in our lessons on ZuluTrade Signal Provider.
Take the time to read through these lessons and understand how they work and how to interpret the data.
This is the most crucial phase, one in which you really go into details and you can understand the strategy of Signal Providers, especially with regard to the risks.
– Evaluate if Fixed or Pro-Rata
The methods of replication with ZuluTrade are two, fixed or pro-rata.
With the fixed, the Signal Provider can vary the Lot Size of his trades, but the lot size of the trades you are going to replicate will always be fixed, based on the lot size you have set upstream.
With Pro-Rata, on the other hand, you can establish a ratio to replicate the lot size of the Signal Provider. With a 50% Pro-Rata, for example, the lot size of your trades will always be half of the lot size of the Signal Provider’s trades.
To find the best ZuluTrade trader you must also understand which mode will be the most appropriate based on the type of lot size management implemented by the trader.
How to find dozens more top Signal Providers on ZuluTrade
Arrived at this point you are able to follow a professional strategy to find the best traders on ZuluTrade, based on the theory and especially on specific values.
The downside of using research parameters so precise is that you’ll inevitably exclude some traders who were at the extreme limit of those values.
A simple trick to find dozens of other worthy trader is to repeat the procedure, but excluding or modifying a filter each time.
Obviously, the values must be controlled even more carefully, to avoid bad surprises.
– Change filter: Running Weeks between 52 and 104
As mentioned before, repeat the procedure but this time considering all traders who have at least one year of experience.
To avoid meeting again those already seen previously, insert the filter between 52 and 104.
– Exclude the Payout Percentage
Try to remove once the limit of 40%, once the 80% limit.
In the first case, it considers that the validity of a strategy depends on average profit and loss, as well as the payout percentage.
In the second one, all previously considerations about too high percentages remain, so try to figure out if the trader knows what he’s doing.
– Raise Average pips
Repeat the process but this time gradually raising the average pips per trade, up to even higher numbers.
This way you can find traders who maybe had remained on the edge of the standings but have definitely potential.
– Remove Filter: Best Trader > Worst
As mentioned earlier about the significance of these data remains, however, it may happen that, due to a malfunction of a stop loss, the trader once has suffered a greater loss than they should.
If this loss was greater than his best trade, the Signal Provider will be sentenced to life to be excluded from our filter, although in reality the incident has occurred only once.
Therefore, exclude this filter, but then of course check more carefully the reasons for this situation.
– Edit Filter: Max Open Trades
Here we can reason as mentioned before for the average pips, but in reverse.
You can change the filter and increase the number of Max Open Trades, up to the maximum number of 30 (which is the maximum allowed by ZuluTrade).
Please take into consideration, of course, that the more this number increases, the more the risks increase accordingly.
It’s a fact.
In addition, as mentioned before, the higher is the number, the greater is the possibility that the trader is using Martingale or averaging down strategies (and this is the reason why ZuluTrade has added a limit of 30 to the positions the Signal Provider can keep open simultaneously).
However, there are Signal Provider that have high numbers because they use good diversification strategies. But they are few and hard to find.
Therefore, act and analyze very carefully.
Other tips for finding the best Trader on ZuluTrade
– Tip # 1 – Analyze the Zulus Veterans
The Zulu Veteran’s label is a kind of recognition of merit given by ZuluTrade to all traders who have worked for at least two years while maintaining a consistently high ranking in their Zulurank’s ranking.
For sure you have already met some of them just by using our procedure.
However, only use the filter Zulu Veteran, no other filters, to quickly see who they are and analyze them to see if some are for you.
Do not trust any case never without analyzed them. The fact that they are in the game for at least two years with a good ranking does not mean that their strategy isn’t risky.
Be careful.
– Tip # 2 – Check History
With a little of patience, from the History section on the Signal Provider’s profile, you can observe the data of the trader’s operations.
When did he open them? At what price? Does he have other open positions at that time?
Yes I know, it’s boring, but you may be surprised of how many things you can find out with so meticulous analysis. Keep it for the finals.
– Tip # 3 – Check the Open Trades
Before you start to think about whether or not to follow a Signal Provider, you should always look at how many operations he has open at that time, and how many pips is losing or winning.
Often it is another quick way to notice if you are in the presence of martingale or similar strategies.
– Tip # 4 – Check “Also Known As”
Each Signal Provider of ZuluTrade can open different profiles, but that will be all headed to the same user.
This is because sometimes it happens that some traders may open several accounts, with very similar automatic strategies, in the hope that one of them succeeds in the enterprise to generate profits.
This type of practice should at least arouse suspicions and make you doubt about the fact that you’re in front of a real professional trader.
Sometimes it happens that some traders have multiple profiles for testing purpose, then you should evaluate with intelligence and eventually ask explanations directly to the trader in question.
– Tip # 5 – Check Comments and Ratings of Other Followers
Social Trading is useful because it also allows you to take advantage of the direct experience of others.
Take a look at the Trader updates board. Watch how he behaves, if he shares the reasons for his choices, if he proves to have a strategy, if he answer his followers.
These things are important if you decide to follow it seriously.
– Tip # 6 – Use the “Compare Trader” function
ZuluTrade provides a nice tool to help you in the process of comparing Signal Providers, to determine which are the most suitable for your needs.
– Tip # 7 – Use the Demo Account and the Portfolio Simulation
By far the most important of all.
ZuluTrade gave you an unlimited Demo Account (Your capital is at risk when trading CFDs), so, exploit it.
Enter traders that interest you in the demo account and test everything.
Above all, exploit the Portfolio Simulation’s tool. We show you how to use it. Just click on the previous link.
List of the best ZuluTrade traders to copy 2015-2016
Here we are with the long-awaited moment.
Here’s our list of the best ZuluTrade traders according to InvestinGoal.
All these traders were found following exactly the whole strategy and tips collected in this procedure. You might find some who have been trading for less then 1 year and that we are keeping an eye on for the future.
Here is the list, in no particular order.
But first, a necessary disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER
The present page is intended for teaching purposes only. It shall not be intended as operational advice for investments, nor as an invitation to public savings raising. Any real or simulated result shall represent no warranty as to possible future performances. The speculative activity in forex market, as well as in other markets, implies considerable economic risks; anyone who carries out speculative activity does it on its own responsibility. The Authors accept no responsibility for any possible direct or indirect damage arising from the reader’s investment decisions.
Here’s the link to the list of the Best ZuluTrade Traders directly from ZuluTrade.
Following, a picture of the list.
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