July 2016: TOP 10 Trading Signals Viewed by Analyst of NordFX

The vast majority of the traders using MT4 terminals are certainly familiar with an opportunity of automatic trading by means of the 'Signals' service integrated into this platform. The main difficulty while subscribing is a selection of the most appropriate signals in terms of combination of risk and profitability.

Unfortunately, the analysis shows that many traders/investors pay attention only to the last of all parameters, neglecting possible risks, and it results in negative impact on their deposits.

In order to help traders avoid these mistakes, monthly, for more than two years, the leading specialist of NordFX broker company, John Gordon, analyzes the choice of subscribers, making recommendations on how to get the maximum profit in case at minimal risks.

As of the end of July TOP-10 most popular signals among subscribers is as follows:

"The July list of top signals”, begins the overview J. Gordon, "was updated, as compared to June Top, by only 30%, the key positions were taken by old players, on which I will focus today."

“MenjadiTrader PAMM 144842 signal has been taking the I^st place for the third consecutive month. With this, I'd like to pay your attention, that it has been among Top 3 signals during the entire 2016: January – the second place, February, March, April – the third place, and during the last three months – it proved to be an absolute leader with 784 subscribers, which have entrusted management of around one million dollars to the author of this signal management. Even though, its profitability seems to be more, than modest. Where others show a growth of hundreds and thousands of percents, it showed a growth of only 27% in last seven months

So why is it so popular? I guess, there are three reasons:

• the first one – the life span of the signal, 123 weeks in the market without loss of a deposit is already a certain guarantee;
• the second reason is a very small drawdown. It didn't not exceed 19% during these two and a half years, and in 2016 the maximum drawdown didn't exceed 3%.
• and, finally, the third one - subscription to this signal is absolutely free, that is important for investors with small deposits.

The second place in the rating is taken by Stable Forex Profit signal, it considerably differs from the first one. Suffice to say, that over seven months of this year the deposit growth made 780%. The signal is 83 weeks old, and that is a significant life span. However, on July 8, when the USA unemployment data were released, his author let himself quite a risky trading, and therefore his depositing made 72%. The maximum drawdown on this signal makes 55%, which is rather dangerous for those investors who used large bonuses on the deposit from their brokers.”

“Let me speak aside", the leading analyst of NordFX continues. "Good thing about the 'Signals' service, developed by the MetaQuotes Software Corp., is that it provides investors the data of online monitoring on more than 50 parameters, which allows evaluating a given signal fully and properly. Furthermore, the users of this service can carry on a direct correspondence with developers of signals and rate them.

So, for example, you can read how the subscribers to the signal Stable Forex Profit express their displeasure to its author (which, by the way, promised to change ‘the way of trading to a more cautious, aiming to keep DD within 10-20%’) at the most critical moments of trade.

In my opinion, such an on-line chat with subscribers and their reaction are rather useful addition to the parameters of the technical analysis and give additional information for evaluation of signal quality. So, in respect of the number of signals, for instance, the subscribers complain about slippage, as a result of which their results, when copying, appear to be significantly lower, than the results of the author of the signal. It is very important information, worth paying attention to, especially in case of pips strategies.

And, finally, one more signal which ranks among the popularity TOP among subscribers for the fifth month in a row is Q2FX_1 – impressive profit of 2189% with an admissible maximum drawdown of 32%. A certain wariness here causes the fact that in June-July the drawdown chart showed a significant increase, which is, to my mind, connected with desire of the author of the signal to improve his indicators, which were doubled in comparison with April-May ones. And, as we know, the higher the profit, the higher the risks.”

"It'd be quite convenient,” John Gordon adds, "if developers of the 'Signals' service introduced one more chart into a monitoring complex – changes of the number of subscribers. In my opinion, it would really help insufficiently qualified investors understand whether it is worth being signed to a given signal or not.

For example, let us consider the above-mentioned MenjadiTrader PAMM 144842: January – 246 subscribers, February – 250, March – 225, April – 336, May – 447, June – 430, July – 784. In six months the number of subscribers tripled, suggesting that you should not expect unpleasant surprises from this signal.

Or another signal, which riskiness we discussed in the previous reviews a lot, – Green Line Signals: February – 140 subscribers and a growth of 510%, March – 296, April – 478, May – 125. We should admit that it is a quite disturbing signal! And, finally, June – the nullified deposit and zero subscribers."

"I repeatedly warned", the leading analyst of NordFX sums up the overview, "that you should be cautious while subscribing to signals which are only several months old. Therefore, selecting this or that signal, I urge to use MetaQuotes service which allows filtering them out not only by the profit size, but also by those parameters, which we paid much attention to today, – on the maximum drawdown and the number of subscribers."