ABOUT
WHY THIS WEBSITE?
More information
This website - SippSignal.com - aims to provide more information about the SIPP trading account listed on Signalstart.com.
If you have been following the copy-trading and signal market for many years like I do, then you know how hard it is to find a reliable trading system to follow.
One of the many problems when searching for a good trading signal is the lack of information about the trader behind the system as well as the logic behind the trading activity itself.
So the first thing we require from any signal is that it offers adequate information so that we can make better informed decisions.
Any lack of information means
(a) the trader / system in question has something to hide and / or
(b) the trader in question hasn´t got a clue what he/she is doing nor can he/she explain it properly.
Some red flags when evaluating a trading signal:
A trading signal using an unknown or unregulated broker in a far away jurisdiction should be a serious red flag. Because it is possible for brokers to tamper with the MT4 account history. Adding or deleting just 1 or 2 trades can completely alter the results of a system. Also, using an artificially delayed pricing engine feeding the MT4 account in order to build up a trading record based on "stale prices" is another possibility when there is no decent regulatory supervision.
Trading signals with a few hundred dollars trading capital, producing stellar returns... attracting many followers with tens of thousands of dollars. This should be a serious red flag. Often these signal producers make thousands of dollars per month in subscription money, but they only trade with a few hundred dollars capital. The account will blow up sooner rather than later, gambling heavily as it does not have any skin in the game. It will run out of luck. The question is only how soon?! If the account eventually blows up, the "trader" will simply start anew with a fresh account and a new identity but you have lost your savings.
Here is the oldest trick in Wall Street deception: opening a multitude of smaller live accounts of a few hundred dollars and taking opposite positions long - short in all of them, until you have 1 or 2 accounts showing a series of constant wins and therefore a stellar "audited" return percentage with a "live account". That live account will then be used to list and sell its future signals on the market. It´s one of the many reasons why small accounts can never be trusted. Besides, small money does not produce any mental pressure nor stress and hence it reduces discipline and encourages gambling.
You need maximum information
As I will also mention lower on this page, the vast majority of trading signals blow up in a matter of weeks or months, just like the vast majority of retail traders losing everything in a matter of weeks or months.
By now, many of you are aware that brokers in Europe are required to publish the percentage of traders-clients losing money. The reported percentages fluctuate between 70% and 85%. But that is not the full picture. These reports never mention the time frame of the reports (1 year rolling numbers) and neither do they consider the survivorship bias at work. As a consequence, the real percentage of traders losing all of their money on trading is closer to 99%. I explain and prove this percentage, its principle and process in detail in other publications.
Anyway, many social trading companies and portals have, sometimes quietly, closed operations because of this problem as their signal providers have been a huge risk and liability on their books. In a market with 1000´s of available signal providers, the 99% losers percentage is also here at work of course.
Unrealistic returns
However, it is not always the fault of the trading signal providers that followers lose their money. Signal subscribers often believe and want to believe (optimism bias) extraordinary claims and extraordinary return numbers. Why? Greed and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), powerful mental and psychological influences on someone´s behavior.
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HOW SIPP CAME ABOUT TO BE
The problem
Anyone involved with social trading, copy- and mirror trading will know that it is nearly impossible to find a stable, consistent, reliable trading strategy to copy. There are several reasons for this which I will explain elsewhere on this website.
As a manager of trading teams, I was always on the look-out to attract trading talent to add diversification and de-correlation to the entire team and improve overall trading results of the group. We did this via rigid and systematic analysis of track records of candidate traders.
The same principle I wanted to apply to my own account trading. Why not add the signal(s) of good traders to my own trading and create a portfolio? This would not only improve the overall result, but also reduce risk and volatility.
However, this has proven to be a very difficult if not impossible task, as explained above already. Most, if not all existing trading signals with track records are nothing more than dangerous gambling accounts and as such have a very short life-span, often blowing up in spectacular fashion.
There are literally thousands of signal providers available on marketplaces such as SignalStart, myfxbook Autotrade, Zulutrade, MQL5.com, e-Toro, Tradeo, Ayando etc. Yet, there are only a handful of signals that are worth considering to follow, especially so if you trade a large account. Finding and selecting them is no easy task and requires expert know-how and absence of any conflict of interest whatsoever!
Consider also that in the past, several "specialised" signal marketplaces, with full time dedicated staff, rigid mathematical methods have been forced to close down, as they got it completely wrong and caused the vast majority of their signal-following clients to lose money. Currensee was a major one back in 2014. At the time of writing this ABOUT section (October 2020), Simpletrader.net is the latest to close and will cease its operations on November 30th, 2020.
Just like the overall retail FX market where 99% of traders will lose everything in less than 12 months´ time, the vast majority of signal providers will fail in less than 12-18 months trading. Some of them will die a slow painful death. Others will blow up in a spectacular fashion, losing theirs and their followers entire capital overnight.
I will discuss and explain this phenomenon and its origins in detail elsewhere but for now the conclusion is clear: most if not all existing signals and copy trading offerings are not suitable for entrusting pension money or larger accounts with.
The Solution: SIPP
SIPP is a self invested pension account that I manage entirely myself, manually, and in which all the shortcomings and ills of the retail signal market are eliminated:
no overtrading
no gambling: we only trade when there is a clear opportunity based on fundamentals and/or sentiment and in the case of currencies: contrarian philosophy
no overleveraging. our maximum historic leverage is X3
realistic returns: our average monthly return is between +0.7% and +0.9%
our maximum historic drawdown, after 3 years is -4.81%
capital preservation first, realistic growth second
Other Signals
Generally speaking, we stay far away from anything related to the retail FX market. Because sadly, the retail FX market is really toxic, awash with snake oil salesmen / failed traders who are out to take revenge if you point out and prove the worthlessness of their "tutorials", online trading room memberships, "Expert Advisors" (=automated trading robots). I would happily incorporate additional trading signals better than my own into SIPP, if only I could find them, despite thousands of signals available on the web and on dedicated copy-trading platforms.