Zulutrade - How to select a Signal Provider 3/4

These are other tools available in Zulu Trade for your choice…

We are now into the heart of the tools available in Zulu Trade for analyzing the signal provider. Today we will evaluate the tools of the middle section.

Here Zulu Trade provides you several tab that contain different analysis instruments.

Let’s start with the first.

Zulu Trade Selecting a Signal Provider 3/4 – Profit Tab

This is the section that Zulu Trade show by default just as you open the signal provider’s page.

What you see is a chart showing the amount of pips gained or lost, since the provider operates with Zulu Trade. The chart is the same one we have seen in the “Graphic” column, except that now is bigger so to facilitate the consultation.

The green color indicates that the trader is currently in profit, the red one will indicate that the sum of all the trades made by the signal provider in Zulu Trade, still have a negative result.

On the ordinate axis are represented the pips, on the abscissa axis is represented the time. In the bottom right there’s the possibility to change the time period, by acting on the “Time Frame” selection provided by Zulu Trade.

Goes without saying that this tool gives you the opportunity to graphically see how the signal provider’s performance evolved over time. It’s a real equity line that shows the trend of the signal provider’s account.

Warning! The values shown are just of the closed positions, that is, if the signal provider has opened a buying trade, and then he closed it with a profit of 10 pips, we will see in this trend an increase of 10 pips. What we can’t see in this chart is if that position, before going to + 10, went maybe to - 200, and we don’t even know how long this position has been open to generate then the profit or loss reported in the chart (there are tools that will highlight this things, we’ll see them in the next line)

Open Trades:

Here are represented graphically the amount of open positions in the market during the trading history of the signal provider on Zulu Trade.

From here you can see how the signal provider operate and you can get an idea if you like his operativity or not. Also here is given the possibility to change the time frame on bottom right.

EVERYTIME YOU MAKE A CHANGE IN THE TIMEFRAME, THE PAGE WILL BE REFRESHED AND WILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO SECTION YOU WANT TO ANALYZE, THAT THIS WILL BE WITH RIGHT PERIOD OF TIME.

Zulu Trade Selecting a Signal Provider 3/4 – Performance Tab

Inside the performance section there are different information:

Monthly PnL:

Zulu Trade provides you a chart where on the abscissa axis there are the months, and on the ordinate axis there are the pips. In this case the graph is with histogram and makes you see the amount of pips gain or lost each month.

You can see then the behavior of the trader you are looking at on the basis of his monthly performance.

Trade volume:

Again you have a histograms, on the abscissa axix it shows the time, on the ordinate axis the number of operations made per month by the signal provider since he began working with Zulu Trade.

In this chart, in each candle, you can see how many operations have closed with a profit or with a loss, and also those one closed at break even. It’s a way to see graphically represented that “Win %” I’ve already talked to you.

You are therefore able to distinguish how many operations are made by the signal provider, and the outcome was historically.

Best-Worst Week Trade:

It a linear chart, on the abscissa axis there’s time per weeks, on the ordinate axis there are pips. In this chart Zulu Trade shows you two different lines. One green, above the zero, which is the pips value of the best trade of the week, and the other one red, for the worst trade of the week.

This way you can see, week by week, due to the angulation of the best and worst trade, how the signal provider behaved.
This tool provided by Zulu Trade enables you to evaluate if these values have been balanced or not over time.

In theory, we should prefer signal provider with red curves limited, and green curves expanded, or at least with the two curves balanced.

Being in front of a provider who has the best trades much less than the worst, in terms of pips, it probably means that, to be in profit, he needs to make a lot of very small profits, and, given that traders don’t have the crystal ball, or they are very good, or they use system for the price mediation or martingale system, which I don’t like very much.

Ranking:

The linear chart make you see the progress of the signal provider’s placement in the Zulu Trade ranking. As always on the abscissa axis there’s time and in the ordinate one the ranking positions.

In my opinion these are not very useful information, except for the curiosity. As mentioned various time, the Zulu Trade ranking system can be misleading.

Zulu Trade Selecting a Signal Provider 3/4 – Trades tab

It shows, with a pie chart, the currencies that have been traded by the Zulu Trade’s signal provider, and in what percentage of the total, and of course for the period of time taken into account.

Zulutrade Selecting a Signal Provider 3/4 – Drawdown tab

This is one of the section I check the most and with greater care. In this chart, with time on the abscissa and pips on the ordinate, Zulu Trade gives you a graphical representation with two lines.

The green line represents the trend of the account in pips, taking into account the value of just the closed positions. In this line, for example, you will see that the signal provider closed a trade at +10, then at -20, then at +50, and so on.

Then, with the red line, you can see the drawdown of the open positions.

Let me explain: in this red line is represented the trend in pips of the account, taking into consideration the whole life of the transactions, not just the value at his closure. You need to understand this to figure out at what kind of stress your account may be exposed if you will use that signal provider.

As you can see from the attached pic, while the closed positions trend (represented by the green line) has a very smooth and linear progression, with drawdown apparently very small, on the contrary, if you also take the trend of the account when the operations where still open (the red line) you realize that the signal provider’s account actually had to suffer very important moments of drawdown.

Given the importance of this issue and of the correct evaluation of these values, I’ll make a post specifically dedicated to this operational issue.

Zulu Trade Selecting a Signal Provider 3/4 - Slippage Tab

In this last section provided by Zulu Trade, there’s highlighted the average value decrease for the operations, in terms of pips, depending on the broker that will be used to follow that signal provider’s operativity.

On the abscissa there’s the various brokers, on the ordinate the pips. Obviously, the figures have been made with historical measurement between the transactions of the signal provider and of his followers.

In other words, if the change is very high, there is a taller column, this way you can discover which broker has cause the significant decrease of value when replicating the operations of that particular signal provider.

So, this is another parameter that allows you to assess whether to insert or not that signal provider in your portfolio for your Zulu Trade account.

Continue to the last article…

Filippo

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