ZuluTrade review

ZuluTrade

ZuluTrade is a social network for forex traders AND a platform that allows you to connect with tens of thousands of traders (referred to as signal providers) all over the world. The ZuluTrade network allows you to pick signal providers in order to automatically copy their trades to your forex trading account. The advantage is that you have the option to set your own risk limits!

ZuluTrade started with social trading in the forex market and then broadened its offer by adding CFD trading to equity indices, metals, commodities and cryptocurrencies. ZuluTrade's social aspect is demonstrated through their forum and through the votes attributed by active users, who are able to submit comments directly on the profile pages of forex signal providers. You can also link your ZuluTrade account to your Twitter and Facebook accounts so that a message is posted each time a trade is closed in your account.

Is it possible to earn money with ZuluTrade? The answer is... YES! Is it easy to earn money with ZuluTrade? Unfortunately, it isn't, you need need to make an effort to collect certain information. Typically, beginners who use a social trading platform such as Zulutrade's encounter obstacles, but they can successfully earn profits if they are smart enough to learn from their mistakes. They must be methodical and rigorous when selecting signals and they must set a reasonable risk level.

ZuluTrade is a social network of traders that anyone can use. New traders must initially use the demo platform (click here to open a free ZuluTrade demo account). The problem with ZuluTrade, though, is that traders (signal providers) do not necessarily trade with their own money, they can generate signals from a demo account and their profiles are not formally approved by ZuluTrade (meaning, if a user claims to be a professional trader with 10 years of experience, it may not be true, ZuluTrade does not verify this information).

The number of signal providers that you can follow is massive (over 20,000), but ZuluTrade features an easy to use filter that ranks users according to your preferences. For example, you can choose to see only those traders who have a track record of several months, who use their own money (not a demo account) and who have a minimum success rate of 65%. The website also features a performance chart that ranks all of their signal providers. You nevertheless need to exercise caution as the ranking is not subject to radical change. Sometimes a top-5 signal provider can suddenly lose a lot of money and finish at the bottom of the rankings in the following month.

You also have access to a list of the performances of followers! With just one click, you can copy another user's settings if you want to follow the same signal providers that they follow.

For each signal provider, you can examine several performance indicators and graphs to help you decide whether you want to follow them or not. ZuluTrade is totally transparent in this respect. Moreover, it shares each trader's entire trading history; you can also download this information into an Excel file to conduct your own analysis (other trading networks don't provide access to users' transaction histories). If you are new to forex trading, it might take you a few months to assemble a portfolio of suppliers that match your own profile and risk tolerance.

The choice of forex brokers you can use with ZuluTrade is very wide, but ZuluTrade seems to favour AAAFX because they directly integrate ZuluTrade and they typically have the lowest slippage (the difference between the price obtained by the signal provider and the price you're able to get) and reduced brokerage fees. ZuluTrade also features a tool that allows you to compare the slippage between various forex brokers. However, if you already have a trading account with a broker, odds are that they are one of the brokers that are compatible with ZuluTrade (over 14 forex brokers currently support the ZuluTrade platform). However, other brokers charge a small commission on each transaction, while AAAFX does not increase the spread.

Slippage is a significant thing to keep in mind regarding auto-trading and mirror trading platforms, since the speed of the systems that execute orders influence the performance of the trading signals that you follow in your own account. Although order execution delays are usually rare, when combined with scalping strategies (small, quick profits during volatile market conditions), slippage can totally distort the history of trading a signal provider.

After selecting one or more forex signal suppliers that you want to follow, ZuluTrade's options allow you to set the amount you want to invest on each signal, the maximum number of trades, the stop loss or take profit on each transaction, the maximum number of open positions, etc. You can also use the backtest function to evaluate the performance of a supplier based on historical performance and on the settings you have chosen.

You nevertheless need some forex trading skills and knowledge in order to determine the maximum amount that you should allocate or risk on each signal provider. To help you out, ZuluTrade displays a Margin Call counter, which is very useful to estimate the risk of a margin call (i.e. when your account balance is not sufficient to cover a trade's potential losses). Although these tools are useful, they are only indicators and they cannot replace the skills you need to manage money properly on ZuluTrade. It is very easy to blow up a ZuluTrade account with incorrect parameters, especially if the signal provider changes his or her strategy from one day to the next. However, since December 2012, ZuluTrade has introduced an additional risk management feature that allow you to set a maximum accepted loss for each signal provider.

You can check the performance of your ZuluTrade account at any time. They will send you email reports every day or week, which are useful to keep track of your results. ZuluTrade will also send you an email if the behaviour of one of your signal providers changes. For example, if he or she modifies his or her usual stop-loss levels or if he or she opens up many more trades. In this case, ZuluTrade doesn't intervene on your behalf, it's your responsibility to act on the info that's available in ZuluTrade's mirror trading platform. You can also use the ZuluGuard feature, which disables or automatically replaces a signal provider if you certain behaviours that you have defined are detected (for example, if X number of trades open at the same time or if his or her account reaches a certain drawdown level.

ZuluTrade's online trading interface enables you to close all trades opened by your signal providers so that you can make your own manual trades. If you own a smartphone or tablet, ZuluTrade's application allows you to view your performance, look for new traders to copy and manually manage your risk parameters in real time.

ZuluTrade provides customer support via phone and email in multiple languages. They are competent, fast and reactive (immediate response by phone and within 23 hours by email).

Benefits of using ZuluTade:

  • Free demo account allows you to test the platform without taking any risks
  • Huge selection of traders that you can follow and copy
  • Many brokers based worldwide support ZuluTrade
  • Historical performance data is fully transparent and easy to understand
  • Customer feedback is posted directly on signal providers' profile pages
  • Low cost (just the spread)
  • No entry fees and a low minimum deposit
  • Powerful risk management features
  • Great mobile phone and tablet applications

Drawbacks of using ZuluTrade:

  • Although there are serious and profitable signal suppliers, there's an equal number of beginners on there (anyone can become a signal supplier)
  • Signal providers are not obligated to trade with their own money
  • Money management can be complex for novice forex traders
  • Requires regular monitoring until the right combination of signal suppliers is found
ZuluTrade