Trader Guide

Last updated on 21-03-2018 

1. ZuluTrade Traders

A) Introduction to Traders Program

A "Trader" is a ZuluTrade user, who trades either on a Demo or Real account while ZuluTrade publishes his/her results and statistics publicly through the website. Each trading action performed in the Trader’s account is sent to all ZuluTrade Demo and Real accounts in the form of a broadcast signal.
Users, who have chosen to follow the Trader ("Investors"), have the trading action automatically executed in their account, residing in their brokerage firm. Since a simple Trader signal is executed by various different Brokers that have different trading interfaces and configurations, trading problems can occur. A possible instance is an orphan trade. An orphan trade is a trade that although it is closed in the Trader’s account, due to a variety of reasons, it may be left open on one or more of the Investors' Real accounts. This incident can lead to different results between the Trader and the Investor- e.g. although the Trader gains, the Investor ends up losing as a result of the trade having closed long after it had been closed in the Trader’s account. However, Traders have the ability to both monitor and close their Real Investors' positions that are detected as "orphans".
Investors can fine-tune and override Traders signals by configuring their settings in their ZuluTrade account portfolio, or even manually.

For Risk Management purposes, ZuluTrade may restrict Traders for being copied by Investors in case they don't follow the Program's Guidelines.

B) Creating a Trader account

Everyone can sign up to become a Trader. To register your Trader account, please click here. You can open up to 10 Trader accounts with the same email address.
Competition however is fierce. Traders’ performance is constantly ranked by ZuluTrade's ZuluRank algorithm and the ZuluTrade community, so that only the best ones appear on the top of our lists.

For the European version of our Traders page, competition is even stronger! As per EU legislation, traders will be displayed and available to Investors residing with EU, provided that:

• Their minimum trading time is of at least 8 weeks.
• They have less than 30% Drawdown (in pips or equity)
• The average number of pips is above 3 or average rate of return is above 0.015%.

For our US Traders page only, the Trader account must be compliant with the FIFO and No-Hedging market policy set up by NFA.

If you want to find out more about the way ZuluRank is calculated, please click here!

C) Trading platforms

Traders may select one of the following Trading Platforms to place their trades:

1. ZuluTrade+
   

   In ZTP, both Live and Demo Traders are equipped with a fully-fledged Trading Station user interface with technical charts and indicators, along with the ability for Traders to create trading robots by running their own ZuluScripts. In more detail, the in-built Trading Station offers technical charts (Candlesticks, OHLC, Lines), a large variety of Indicators (Trend, Oscillators, Volatility, Volumes, Bill Williams, etc), custom lines/text/objects etc, all inside the Trader account, without the need for any external platform. Therefore as the platform is entirely web-based, the Trader account is shielded against connectivity issues and can run EAs uninterruptedly without the need for a VPS. For more details about how to create and run ZuluScripts, please see here.

   ZuluTrading API

   The ZuluTrading API can also be used with ZTP. ZuluTrade offers its own REST API which enables Traders to submit trading requests straight to their accounts from their own custom program. In other words, instead of logging in to the Trader account to manually open, manage and close trades, Traders can configure their own algorithm to do this for them. Although some basic programming skills are required, a comprehensive step-by-step guide is provided for setting up the ZuluTrading API.

2. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform
   

   It is possible to link an external live or demo MT4 platform to a Trader account. In this case the Trader account becomes read-only and any trading activity that takes place in the MT4 account is copied over to the ZuluTrade account. The list of brokers compatible with Trader accounts can be found in the Settings tab of the Trader account, or by contacting Support.

   ZuluTrade VPS

   ZuluTrade offers Traders trading via MT4 the chance to host their trading strategy for free via ZuluTrade's own VPS service. ZuluTrade supports over 60 Brokers and there is no need to download any platform - the MT4 client of your choice will be pre-installed into your VPS account, and can be accessed via any browser. The ZuluTrade VPS service is available only for Traders trading via MT4 terminals; there is a limited number of available VPS, so Traders should keep an eye out for the 'Connect to my VPS' button at your Settings tab - it appears only when VPS slots are available. ZuluTrade VPS is a premium service and as such a fair use policy applies; if it is detected that the VPS service is misused in any way, then usage of the VPS service may be revoked. Typical examples of misuse are:

   • malicious intentions
   • low or excessive usage
   • use of 3rd party executables that interfere with the OS
   • multiple instances of MT4 clients and EAs
   • usage beyond ZuluTrade's environment, etc

   Please also note that there is a limit of one free ZuluTrade VPS per physical person.

D) Performance, Stats and Indicators

As a Trader trades, their performance and position in the ZuluTrade Traders page will gradually evolve; moving up and down in ranking. All data and information of the Traders are taken into consideration in order to calculate their place in the ranking. Some decisive factors for the ZuluRank are (please note that this list is not exhaustive):

• Maturity: How long the Trader has been trading for, reflected in ‘Weeks’.
• Exposure: How many positions might be open at the same time, reflected in ‘Max Open Trades’, the 'NME' required, etc.
• Drawdown: How many ups and downs the Trader’s historical performance has experienced.
• Performance: Overall pips earned, average pips per trade and other performance metrics.

For Our European Performance Page only, the below mentioned factors are also taken into account in order to form the list of the top 2000 Traders:

• Their minimum trading time is of at least 8 weeks.
• They have less than 30% Drawdown (in pips or equity)
• The average number of pips is above 3 or average rate of return is above 0.015%.

For our US Traders page only, the Trader account must be compliant with the FIFO and No-Hedging market policy set up by NFA.

If you want to find out more about the way ZuluRank is calculated, please click here!

The Performance page is updated several times per day, as trades and Traders' statistics develop. Performance page also contains visual indicators, helping Investors to identify certain Trader attributes. Most common of which are:

• The Trader is using a Real Account.
• The Trader is operating on a Demo Account but is copying his own signals in a Real Investor Account.
• The Trader is using MT4 Expert Advisor
• The Trader is operating on ZTP, using ZuluScripts
• The Trader is submitting trading requests through ZuluTrading API
• The Trader's strategy is complying with the FIFO rule and does not hedge
• The Trader has an average user rating of at least 4 stars!
• The Trader is trading correlated currency pairs, by using a natural hedging strategy that potentially lead to limited drawdown
• The Trader is frequently trading economic calendar releases!
• Zulu Veteran - a Trader that has been trading with ZuluTrade for more than 2 years with a consistently high ranking
• Traders that have partially or fully verified their account.
• Trading history from XX/XX/XX To XX/XX/XX has been imported to ZuluTrade

In order to appear in the Traders page, a Trader must first close 1 position, while a minimum of 12 weeks of trading activity is required in order to appear on the Traders page for Europe!

2. Payments

Traders’ compensation differs according to the Account Type of their Real Investors as well as the Trader's location in order to comply with local regulation.

• Volume Based Compensation – Classic Accounts
• Profit Sharing Compensation – Profit Sharing Accounts
• Compensation for U.S. Investors and /or U.S. Traders
• Compensation for Investors of Japanese Brokers

i. Volume Based Compensation Scheme

Traders earn 0.5 pips per standard lot (5$), for each closed trade executed in a Real Investor account under Classic Account Model. The 0.5 pip value depends on the lot size executed in the investor’s account, not in the trader’s. For example, the trader opens 1 standard lot and the investor receives 1 mini lot according to his/her settings, then the trader will get 0.5$. In case that the investor only opens a micro lot, then the trader will get 0.05$. Pip cost varies according to the currency pair traded.

ii. Profit Sharing Compensation Scheme

Traders get compensated on a monthly basis according to the profits they generate on their Real Investors under Profit Sharing Account Model.

Every time you generate a profitable monthly PnL to a Profit-Sharing Investor, you will be credited a 20% Performance Fee. This Fee will only apply for the amount above High Water Mark (“HWM”). HWM is the maximum profit made by the Trader and it is calculated on the 1st calendar day of each month since the Investor added the Trader to his portfolio.

For each profitable monthly PnL, the Trader will be compensated based on a 50% Payment-Reserve model. More specifically:

• 50% of the Performance Fee charged is being credited in the Trader’s account
• The same amount (50%) is requested from Reserve bucket. The amount that will be released and credited is limited to the reserved amount generated from previous periods.
• 50% of the Performance Fee charged is added to the Trader’s Reserve Bucket for next periods.

Each Trader holds one Reserve Bucket for all his Profit Sharing Investors. The Reserve amount is updated on the 1st calendar day of each month based on the profits/losses generated on the Real Investor accounts from the Trader during the previous month.

Case 1: Profitable monthly PnL - Profit above HWM

Investor’s Monthly Performance Fee (20% of the Profit above High Water Mark) is split, as follows:

• 50% is credited in the Trader’s account
• 50% is credited from Reserve Bucket (if applicable - see the example below)
• 50% is placed into the Trader’s Reserve Bucket for future release.

Case 2: Negative monthly PnL

In case of underperforming, the Reserve amount will be deducted by 20% of the generated losses.

Case3: Recovering Losses Period - Profit below HWM

In case of a Recovering Losses Period, the Performance Fee will not apply, yet the Trader’s reserve will be increased by 20% of the generated Profit.

For example:

In June, a Trader makes a profit of $1000 - This will be the HWM. The Investor will be charged 25% (20% for the trader, 5% for ZuluTrade) out of the accumulated profit ($1000): $1000 x 25% = $250

Based on the Payment-Reserve Scheme, the 20% for the Trader breaks as follows:

• 50% of the Performance Fee paid by the Investor will be credited in the Trader’s account immediately: $200 x 50% = $100.
• 50% of the Performance Fee paid by the Investor will be credited in the Trader’s account from the Reserve (in case there is available amount). In this example, there is no Reserve.
• 50% of the Performance Fee paid by the Investor will be reserved in the Trader’s Reserve Bucket: $200 x 50% = $100.

Monthly Reserve Amount = $100

Total Reserve Amount = $100

In July, the Trader has a negative month (-$100) – HWM remains $1000.

• Performance Fee will not apply for the Investor
• The Trader’s Reserve amount will be deducted by 20% of the losing amount: -$100 x 20% = -$20.

Monthly Reserve Amount = -$20

New Total Reserve Amount = $80 (=$100 - $20)

In August, the Trader makes a profit of $500 – New HWM $1400

• The first $100 is considered as Recovering Losses Amount (loss generated in July) and the Investor will not be charged any Performance Fee. However, the Trader’s Reserve amount will be refilled again with the amount of $20 (20% x $100).
• Performance Fee will apply for the Investor, only for the $400 (amount above new HWM): $400 x 20% = $80.
  The Trader will now receive
  • 50% of the Investors' Performance Fee will be credited immediately: $80 x 50% = $40.
  • 50% of the Investors' Performance Fee will be credited from Total Reserve Amount reserved so far: $80 x 50% = $40
  • 50% of the Investors' Performance Fee will be added to Reserve Bucket: $80 x 50% = $40.

Monthly Reserve Amount = +$20 (from Recovering Loss Period) + $40 (placed into Reserve bucket) = $60

New Total Reserve Amount = $100 (=$80 + $20 + $40 - $40)

iii. Compensation for U.S. Clients

U.S. Investors

Traders will receive a $21 monthly commission for each U.S. Investor copying their strategies.

The monthly amount will be calculated on a pro-rata mode based on the Investor’s Subscription date, which is the date that the Investor added the Trader to his/her portfolio.

More specifically:

Example 1

Investor A purchases a monthly recurring subscription to the Trader on September 1.
For September, the Trader will receive the full commission amount of $21.

Example 2

Investor B purchases a monthly recurring subscription to the same Trader on September 15.
In this case, the Trader will be compensated in proportion to the Investor’s subscription date, thus, he/she will receive $10,50.

US Traders

ZuluTrade compensates US Traders by a variable monthly Subscription Fee. Monthly compensations for Traders can vary depending on the date they were added in the Investors accounts. The monthly Subscription Fee has been fixed to $21 per Investor. Example 1: Investor adds the Trader on September 1. For this month, the Trader will be credited the full amount of the Subscription Fee, which by default is $21. Example 2: Investor adds the Trader on September 15. For this month, the Trader will receive the Subscription Fee in proportion to the Investor’s registration date, which in this case is $10.5.

Please note that ZuluTrade has established a monitoring mechanism in order to detect violations. We regret to inform you that any compensation deriving from US Investors will be rejected if your strategy is not compliant with the aforementioned rules.

iv. Investors of Japanese Brokers

Compensation for Real Investor accounts of Japan based Brokers is 0.3 pips per lot executed, due to different trading conditions.

Due to local restrictions, Japanese residents are eligible to register for a Trader account in ZuluTrade, however, no revenues will be generated for their trading activity.

AutoPay Service for Real Traders

Real Traders may select to receive their total outstanding commissions automatically in their Real Broker account at the 1st business day of each month.

To be eligible for the AutoPay Service, Traders must:

• Operate on a Real trading account registered in a Broker participating in this Program.
• Have completed the verification process by submitting a valid identification document as well as a proof of address.

Traders may enable the AutoPay service on the Revenue page of their account. On the 1st business day of each calendar month, they will be receiving automatically the accrued commissions of the previous month directly in their trading account. There are no minimum amount requirements nor fees apply if AutoPay is enabled.

Also please take the following under consideration:

• To submit your request, ZuluTrade needs to be provided with sufficient evidence of the Trader credentials – typically we require a valid photo ID (passport, government identification card or government issued voter’s card) and a recent formal bill indicating your name and full current residential address.
• Before issuing payments, all trades need to be checked against our Trading Compliance rules and relevant commissions need to be collected from our collaborating Brokers; the estimated time frame required to process a payment after a request has been made via our website is approximately 60 days.
• An active account balance with a minimum of $100 is required before proceeding to request a payment.
• Please ensure that your bank account details, PayPal account or ZuluTrade Mastercard is set up properly to avoid any complications with payment.
  The relevant fees for each payment are the following. Bank transfer ($45), PayPal ($20 for 0-$500 transfer and 3.9% for $500 and above), Mastercard ($25)
• The Traders must at all times fully, promptly, truthfully and transparently communicate with the Investors copying their strategies via Social Pages, as well as the ZuluTrade Traders Community Desk.
• ZuluTrade values the safety of its Investors’ capital as an utmost priority. For this reason, Traders who apply abusive trading behavior, introducing high risks to their Investors, will be examined carefully and if deemed malicious, they will be refused compensation.
• For each specific calendar month that a Trader presents a negative Total Monthly PnL performance in $, the Trader will not be compensated. Total Monthly PnL includes unrealized PnL deriving from the end of month valuation of the Trader’s open positions.
• Please note that payment must be requested within 30 days of receipt of the termination notification. Payment requests received after this period will be rejected. In case of disabled or terminated accounts, any accrued commissions that fail to reach the threshold of $100 get automatically rejected.
• Accounts with considerable deposits can be characterized from the Broker as Institutional due to the low spread offered. Compensation for such accounts is 0.1 pips per lot executed in a Real Investor account.

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3. Trading Compliance Rules

Trading

When trading from a Demo account, please make sure your trading strategy complies with the following restrictions:

• There is an upper limit of 50 market and 50 pending orders, as well as a limit of 5000 update signals, permitted to be broadcast to Investors within a 24-hour interval.
• Signals to create market/pending orders should have a minimum time interval of 5 seconds from the last one accepted in order to be broadcast to Investors.
• Maximum overall number allowed of open - market and pending - orders is limited to 50; any further signals will not be broadcast to Investors.

Please note that none of the above restrictions apply to Traders operating on a Real Account.

Trading from MT4 Terminals

In addition to the above rules for Traders operating on MT4 terminals and outside of the ZuluTrade web interface, compliance with the following rules is also expected:

• Closing partial lots is not supported.
• Deleting Stop/Limit via EA (updating Stop/Limit from non-zero values to zero via EA) is not supported and related signals will not be broadcast to Investors.
• We support trading in Forex, CFDs, Indices, Gold and Silver.
• Altering of mt4 trading records and statistics in any way is strictly prohibited.
• Closing trades via the 'Close by' type is not supported.

Inappropriate Trading Behaviors

ZuluTrade values the safety of its Investors’ capital as an utmost priority. Consequently, Traders who apply abusive trading behavior, introducing high risks to their Investors, will be examined carefully and if deemed malicious, they will be refused compensation and may be banned from future use of ZuluTrade’s services Likewise any attempt to take advantage of their status, extort or even break the communication channel with the community or the company will be deemed as malicious.

In order to avoid extremes, Traders are required to comply with a minimum set of guidelines that aim to reduce risks, such as:

• A Trader's maximum total draw-down should not exceed their profit in currency or pips. This applies once there is an adequate record of Trader's performance (6 months).
• No positions should be allowed to reach losses of 700 pips or more. The use of stop loss at reasonable values is mandatory to ensure Investors' safety. A careful and short use of Stop-Loss will also assist and promote you in our Ranking algorithm. Large stop-losses or no stop-losses is not appropriate trading.
• ZuluTrade is not endorsing a winning trades ratio close to 100%. It is a potentially risky strategy as it may indicate exposure to unusually large draw downs.

Note that the above thresholds in pips are indicative for basic FX pairs. Please assume equivalent amounts for exotic pairs including XAU, XAG or CFDs.

Market Hours

No trading should be performed outside of ZuluTrade's Market Hours. Market Opens Sunday 22:00 UTC and closes Friday 22:00 UTC. When Eastern time is in daylight saving, market opens Sunday 21:00 UTC and closes Friday 21:00 UTC.

For CFD trading hours, click here.

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4. Recommendations for Effective Strategies

• Scalping is not Recommended.
  Due to the combination of different trading policies, configuration and rate feeds of various brokers to whom your Investors may subscribe, scalping is not a recommended manner of sending signals to your Investors. The practice frequently leads to very inconsistent results for different broker accounts.
• Trading During News
  Many brokerage firms will often reject trading signals during News announcements that affect the market, resulting in possible discrepancies between the execution in your account and your Real Investors.
• Trading with Unrealistic Amounts of Virtual Funds
  Apart from producing unrealistic trading results, no trader will ever be able to relate with your strategy if your starting balance is extremely high, or you trade huge amounts of lots.
• Accurate Strategy descriptions
  Your Strategy description needs to be accurate and descriptive, so that your Investors can be aware of what to anticipate from your trading activity.
  As unexpected trading behavior is not appreciated by your ZuluTrade Investors, any Strategies that are not in accordance with your actual trading behavior will be disapproved, affecting your Compensation or Ranking accordingly.
• Up-to-date Status
  Your current Status should always be up to date. Please keep in mind that Investors can request for a Status Update, in which case you will be notified via email and expected to provide a status update as shortly as possible. Awkward silences are not friendly towards your ZuluTrade Investors, so please ensure timely updates are provided.

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5. Suspension

Suspension of a Trader’s account may occur in two ways: temporarily as a warning, or permanently, leading to prohibition from using the service. Liability for any consequences from a Trader account getting suspended burdens the account holder.

Temporary Suspension

Traders linked with MT4 terminals that violate the Compliance Policy Rules, will be automatically disconnected from their MT4 accounts. They can try to re-connect after they have reconfigured their strategy according to the suspension reason.

Permanent Suspension

• Inactive Accounts. A Trader account is considered inactive if there is no trading activity for a certain period of time.
  1. All Trader accounts that have been inactive for more than 3 months will be permanently suspended.
  2. Especially for Trader accounts linked with MT4 terminals, the permitted inactivity period is limited to 1 month.
• Trader accounts that repeatedly get temporarily suspended.

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