SpECial What is ayondo? P. 12 Social Trading Made Easy Goodbye Debit Balance Obligation! So You Can Trade More Calmly. P. 20 alexander s Social Trading Experiment What is it like to Be a Follower of Other Traders? P. 22 Your capital is at risk.
The safety of your money is our highest priority. l Trade with Negative Balance Protection: Your risk is limited to your capital l Protection provided by the FSCS for up to 50,000 l l In addition to the FSCS, there is also free insurance for up to 500,000 per client* Client funds are held separately from the company funds, in separate bank accounts l ayondo markets is authorised and regulated by the FCA * T&Cs apply. Trading with new standards www.ayondo.com
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Lothar Albert Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Social Trading with ayondo The world is becoming increasingly mobile, and social media platforms have become indispensable. This change has not passed by trading. For quite a while, Social Trading has been an important tool for private investors to share expert knowledge with a broad community. ayondo is one of these Social Trading platforms. The concept is simple: with ayondo, you can follow Top Traders. They release their trading strategies on the Social Trading platform and Followers can copy these strategies, and execute the same trades onto their own account. On the one hand, this transparency enables Top Traders to become popular, and their income can consequently increase. On the other hand, Followers can benefit from the success of others. As an experiment, our author Alexander Mantel wanted to learn first-hand how Social Trading works with ayondo, and what possibilities it offers for Top Traders and Followers. He has been involved with the financial markets since the age of 17 and his interests lie in derivative products and new developments in the financial sector, such as Social Trading. For TRADERS, he tested the ayondo platform. Look forward to exciting insights from practical experience, as well as interesting interviews with the creators of the platform. Happy (S ocial) Trading Lothar Albert
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Table of Contents 12 6 Being Successful Together What exactly is Social Trading? We tell you. 8 Interview with ftseprotrader A UK Top Trader talks about his Social Trading experience. 12 Social Trading Made Easy We give a brief overview of what ayondo does. 6 16 Interview with Edward Drake ayondo s director of operations discusses the future of Social Trading and ayondo. 20 Goodbye Debit Balance Obligation! So you can trade more calmly. 34
TRADERS ayondo SpECial TRaDERS media GmbH Barbarastraße 31 a 97074 Würzburg Germany 22 ayondo and Me Alexander Mantel launches his Social Trading experiment. 24 The Teams are Fixed... In the second part of the experiment, it is all about building a personal team of traders. 27 ayondo Answers Frequently asked questions to customer service. 28 The Final Here are the performances of the Top Trader teams. 30 Lessons Learned What you should know before you start Social Trading. 34 Follow the Followers More Followers can benefit from Top Traders. 36 All About Top Traders An insight into the heart of the ayondo Social Trading community. Phone +49 (0) 9 31/4 52 26-0 Fax +49 (0) 9 31/4 52 26-13 E-mail info@traders-mag.com Editor-in-Chief and publisher Lothar Albert Subscription Service E-mail abo@traders-mag.com Phone +49 (0) 9 31/4 52 26-15 Fax +49 (0) 9 31/4 52 26-13 Editors Hannah Barnsdall, Karsten Böhl, Katharina Bötsch, Claudia Heil, Fabian John, Stefan Rauch, Christine Weißenberger articles Edward Drake, Alexander Mantel print westermann Druck GmbH Braunschweig pictures Angelika Zinzow; BillionPhotos.com, ChenPG, Gina Sanders, Halfpoint, Karin & Uwe Annas, Nmedia, ra2 studio, Rawpixel.com, teerayuttae, typomaniac / Fotolia.com Risk Note All of the information is based on sources that we have deemed credible. Despite careful editing we can assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the information. We must also point out that securities trading involve a high risk and a total loss cannot be excluded. You should only speculate with capital which you can afford to lose. Reproduction (including excerpts) of printed material is only permitted with written permission granted from the publisher. General information This publication is a special edition of TRADERS media GmbH on conjunction with ayondo GmbH.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL What is Social Trading? Being Successful Together» Social Trading is now an integral component of the financial sector. Traders and Followers benefit from the transparency Social Trading offers. Exactly how that happens is explained in the following article. «A guiding principle that aptly describes the basic idea of Social Trading is being successful together. Social Trading is based on exchanging experiences and a mutual network makes this possible. Signal providers (Top Traders) and signal takers (Followers) converge as part of an online community. Traders publish their trading strategies, which are fully accessible for Followers and at the same time investable. The resulting transparent and extensive knowledge base makes Social Trading a very special form of investment. Who is Social Trading Suitable for? Due to the trading strategies disclosed by the traders, Social Trading is suitable for both beginners and experienced investors. It offers the opportunity to enter directly into trading without needing to invest lots of time. The Concept of Social Trading Followers determine a choice of traders, who act on their behalf. Traders reveal their trading strategies on Social Trading platforms and in this manner, a network of traders and Followers develops. Followers thus have the opportunity to copy the trading strategies of their favourite signal providers. To select an appropriate trader, who best fits your own trading strategy, Social Trading providers publish various indicators. Thus, the Followers are properly able to assess the performance and investment behaviour of traders. In
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Benefits of Social Trading order to make an appropriate choice for their own portfolio, Followers should consider all available figures. Relevant indicators are: Performance: The performance measures the percentage development of the strategy. Maximum drawdown: This figure details the maximum continuous loss. This number should always be considered in relation to the performance. Volatility: Volatility describes the return fluctuation of the trader. With many providers, it is also possible to consider performance charts from the trader. When selecting traders, Followers should pay particular attention to consistent results. ayondo has also developed a trading career. The trader climbs a five-step career ladder (from Street Trader to Institutional). The respective career level is displayed directly on the trader s profile and is therefore a good indicator for assessing the quality of the trader. The more risk-conscious and sustainable the performance of the trader, the higher their career level. The Follower s Portfolio After selecting a suitable trader based on various indicators, Followers can add the selected trader It is convenient for trading beginners who do not want to invest a lot of time into trading. There is the opportunity of learning other trading strategies through other members. It is a flexible and modern investment. Additional income for traders is possible. People have the opportunity to make a name for themselves as a trader. to their portfolio. ayondo has made this feature easier in order to make trading more convenient for Followers. The traders are simply transferred to the portfolio by Drag & Drop. To spread the risk and to compensate for any losses, it is recommended to include several traders in your portfolio. When executing the portfolio, all trades executed by the trader are also traded on the Follower account. This makes Social Trading particularly flexible for Followers, since their own trading activities do not need to be constantly monitored. What Options Does Social Trading Offer for Traders? Traders have the opportunity to put their skills to the test on Social Trading platforms. To date, a number of traders have already made a name for themselves using various platforms. Moreover, Social Trading provides additional income for traders. The more Followers who follow a trader, the more income which is possible a classic win-win situation.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Interview with ftseprotrader I Had a Look at the Various Social Trading Sites, and Found That ayondo Met My Needs Perfectly» ftseprotrader joined ayondo in 2015 as a Top Trader and is now one of the most popular Top Traders, with around 400 Followers. In this interview, he talks about his trading habits, why he chose ayondo as his Social Trading provider, and his opinion of the platform. «ftseprotrader, you have been a Top Trader with ayondo since 2015. When did you start trading? ftseprotrader: I started trading twelve years ago, in 2004. As most traders I am sure will testify, it is a steep learning curve with many mistakes along the way. I am still learning new strategies and ways to trade to this day, but now have in place a tried and tested trade plan which works for me. Can you tell us a little bit about your regular trading day/schedule? ftseprotrader: I am up studying most days at around 6am UK time to prepare for the 8am open of the FTSE. I plot various key levels on my charts, look at market structure and flow on various time scales and write down ideas for trades for the forthcoming day. I take particular note of what has happened overnight, particularly in the ASX, as this can often be a good guide as to where we are going to head on the day. You are one of ayondo s most popular Top Traders. Why did you decide to start Social Trading? ftseprotrader: Having looked at the results of the top ten traders, I realised that my own personal results were up there with the best, so thought it would be a good idea to try it for myself. As you say I have quickly gained a lot of Followers, despite a couple of early hiccups when getting to grip with the platform and how it works.
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Why did you decide to trade with ayondo? What was it that set ayondo apart from other investment firms? ftseprotrader: I had a look at the various social trading sites on offer, and found that ayondo met my needs perfectly; some of the others are limited in the instruments that can be traded, whilst others are not very user friendly. I found ayondo to be the best in both of these departments. I was also extremely impressed with the customer service and the support that they have offered, ongoing to this day. What assets do you trade? ftseprotrader: I trade primarily the FTSE, although also most other major indices. I also have designed a programme for me which alerts me to key breakout setups in the forex markets. I currently trade to very small stakes as it is still a work in progress, but the results are encouraging. Can you tell me about your trading strategy? ftseprotrader: I have several different trading setups in my trade plan, which are primarily based upon market action. Reaction to key levels are profitable time and time again on the FTSE, which in my opinion has a "personality" which you can learn the more you trade it. I pay particular attention to where we are going to open up the following day in relation to where we closed; at certain times we will trade back or near to that level depending on where we open. Although on my trading profile it shows a maximum drawdown of 15.94 per cent, this was an isolated occasion early in my ayondo career when I was getting to grips with the platform. The majority of my trades risk between just 0.3 per cent to one per cent of my account, and aim for a 1:1 risk reward ratio at least, often trying to leave a runner for bigger returns. Therefore, even if we had several trades open at once it would be very rare for more than three per cent in total to be at risk. I think the majority of investors on ayondo are not looking for fast flashy returns, as these obviously come at high risk. There have been some examples recently where such high risk traders have blown their whole accounts and therefore the Followers accounts as well, where as I aim to grind out a steady profit month on month. You are at Trading Career level 3 at the moment. What do you think about the concept of the trading career? What are the benefits in your opinion? ftseprotrader: In my opinion this is one of the best parts of ayondo; potential investors can check the track record and longevity of the F1) Trading Profile of ftseprotrader How do you practice risk management? ftseprotrader: I trade what I call "investment style" on my ayondo account, aiming for three per cent minimum growth of the account per month, with very limited risk. In the months between October 2015 and February 2016, I have averaged 6.37 per cent per month which I am delighted with. This figure shows the performance of the Top Trader ftseprotrader on Social Trading provider ayondo, compared with the DAX and S&P 500. Source: www.ayondo.com
TRADERS ayondo SpECial ftseprotrader ftseprotrader is a popular Top Trader at ayondo, and has been trading on the Social Trading platform since 2015. From 1993 to 2007 he worked firstly in retail banking, and then in investment banking. He started trading for himself in 2004, and retired in 2007 to begin trading full-time. He primarily trades the FTSE, but also trades the DAX, DOW, NASDAQ, S&P and CAC indices. profit of each trader. The trading career rewards responsible traders who do not exceed certain drawdown limits and also rewards the trader financially as he gains Followers and moves through the career towards level 5 which I hope to do in the next year. Top Traders with ayondo can trade with both real money and virtual money. You are a Real Money Trader. Why? ftseprotrader: I feel that investors trust far more traders who are prepared to use their own money to trade. The concept of trading with virtual money, or demo mode if you like, has never appealed. What was the best trade you have made so far? ftseprotrader: Nothing in particular stands out in my ayondo career. It has been a slow and steady climb: gaining ten pips to make one per cent is the same as gaining 100 pips to make one per cent. If the risk reward and staking is correct it makes no difference to me. Do you have any tips for any other traders? ftseprotrader: Keep the risk small, do not try and climb rapidly to the top of the "leaderboard on ayondo. A slow and steady climb with good risk control will get you noticed in the end. What do you expect from the year 2016 in terms of trading? ftseprotrader: As far as the markets in general are concerned, I try not to form too much of a long term opinion, although I do like to open small positional trades when I feel the market is overbought or oversold. I love volatility in the markets; this creates many more opportunities for trades in my style. As far as my trading is concerned, my aim is to continue the slow steady growth of the account. T1) Good to Know Term Top Trader Follower Real Money Trader ayondo GmbH ayondo markets Spread Betting Markets Margin Positions Overnight financing costs Spread Social Trading Definition The term Top Trader is used by ayondo for signal providers. Signal providers use the ayondo platform in order to make their trading strategies accessible for interested Followers. The term Follower is used by ayondo for a subscriber of a trading strategy. They are also called signal receivers and use the ayondo platform in order to copy the published trading signals on their own ayondo markets Social Trading account. Signal providers who trade with their own capital. Developer and provider of Social Trading services; operator of the ayondo Social Trading community. Securities trading broker, located in London. Provider of Spread Betting/CFDs. Spread betting is a type of derivative product that allows investors to trade with leverage. They offer the opportunity to benefit from both rising and falling market prices, without actually owning the underlying asset. Tradable financial instruments are sorted into categories. Various instruments in a category can be described as markets. For example, spread betting on DAX, MDAX or DOW JONES is assigned to the Indices market. The deposit of a security for opening and holding a position with a broker. The portfolio of financial instruments clients hold in their trading account. Costs that will be charged when holding a position beyond the end of the trading day. Difference between Bid and Ask prices. A new form of investment, which allows private investors to copy published trading strategies of traders on Social Trading platforms.
Social Trading App: Your Top Traders always in view. Available now! www.ayondo.com
TRADERS ayondo SpECial What is ayondo? Social Trading Made Easy» As a Follower with ayondo, you follow the best experts. Followers simply form their own portfolio of traders and copy the traders performance onto their own account. «F1) The Top Trader Ranking Using the filter function, Followers can filter their Top Traders according to various criteria relevant to them. Source: www.ayondo.com What is Behind ayondo? ayondo was founded in 2008 and is the most used Social Trading provider in Germany. The company philosophy is: ayondo wants to revolutionise trading and investment for private investors. Thus, ayondo acts with the utmost integrity and aids its own customers by enabling them to access innovative, transparent and simple financial products. With the best possible service, unique tools, and a diverse product range, ayondo provides more equal opportunities and helps to ensure that their own customers are satisfied and successful investors. The company philosophy is endorsed by
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Your Benefits at a Glance 100,000 users to date. Furthermore, the success of ayondo has been rewarded by numerous awards: ayondo was chosen in 2014 as the CFD Broker of the Year, awarded an International Financial Award in 2015 and 2016 as best Social Trading platform and, in a study from Horvath & Partners, was chosen as one of the 12 hottest FinTechs. Social Trading at ayondo Invest easily with ayondo an innovative approach, transparent products, an efficient fee structure as well as extensive security measures that safeguard customer funds, characterise investment at ayondo. Followers easily choose suitable experts, and let the experts take over the trading for them. ayondo enables trading with a deposit of just 1,000 pounds, which gives access to trading for beginners as well as seasoned investors. ayondo s customers trade without debit balance obligation. This means that customers cannot lose more money than they invest. The customer s deposits are covered with regulation by the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) for up to 50,000 pounds. With a supplementary cover, client funds are now protected extensively up to 500,000 pounds. This is free for all FSCS-eligible clients. At ayondo, investors trade by spread-betting. Spread betting allows investors to trade with leverage. It also offers the opportunity to benefit ayondo is the most used Social Trading provider in Germany* Extensive security measures in order to protect customer funds With ayondo, investors trade without debit balance obligation, that is, investors do not lose more than they have invested Extensive product range Intuitive trading platform Efficient fee structure Excellent customer service Benefits for Followers: Easily copy the Top Trader s performance Easy access, so that Followers can immediately get into trading Trading without having to invest a lot of time into analysing charts etc. The trading career concept, facilitating the Followers selection of their Top Traders Benefits for Top Traders: Traders can make their track record public and thus demonstrate their success in a transparent manner Great online business, with Top Traders earning additional money and allowing third parties to learn from their knowledge The Top Trader s remuneration increases with each career stage reached *Result of the 2015 broker study from Investment Trends.
TRADERS ayondo SpECial from both rising and falling market prices, without actually owning the underlying asset. Finding the Right Top Trader at ayondo Finding the right Top Trader is easy at ayondo. The rankings are always the starting point of the selection. Using the filter function, Followers can filter according to various criteria relevant to them: Period in which the trader has traded Career level Virtual Money Traders or Real Money Traders It is also possible to find traders directly by name. The detailed search provides Followers with plenty of other filter functions, such as filtering by: F2) The Trading Career The more colour bars that are filled, the higher the Top Trader is on the career ladder. Source: www.ayondo.com F3) Relevant Metrics Performance Maximum Drawdown Volatility Number of Followers Using sliders, you have also the possibility to adjust the individual indicators. The Trading Career With the trading career designed by ayondo, Followers can identify how long the trader has demonstrated his knowledge very quickly. The more coloured bars that are filled, the higher the Top Trader is on the career ladder (Figure 2). The career includes five career stages, which range from Street Trader to Institutional. The entire career ladder takes at least 360 days to climb and defined rules must be fulfilled. The maximum drawdown may not be more than 25 per cent in any of the career stages. The traders must achieve a specified minimum performance. Thus, ayondo wants to ensure that only traders who trade sustainably and risk-consciously reach the upper echelons. The Trading profile On individual profiles ayondo also offers an extensive insight into the relevant metrics such as performance, maximum drawdown and volatility Real Money Traders You can gain an extensive insight into the relevant metrics on individual trading profiles. Source: www.ayondo.com With ayondo, signal providers have the ability to trade with their own money. With a deposit of 1,000 pounds they receive a special icon, which marks them as a Real Money Trader. This creates trust on the part of Followers because Real Money Traders are investing their own money, and can therefore be trusted to trade with suitable risk management. Real Money Traders can therefore often accumulate more Followers. As a Real Money Trader you can also gain access to an extensive range of tools from ayondo markets, such as charts and other indicators, using the ayondo trading platform TradeHub.
TRADERS ayondo SpECial (Figure 3). A graphical representation of overall performance, as well as an overview of the trade titles usually traded (can be seen in Figure 4), is also shown. F4) Asset Allocation The Follower s portfolio at ayondo Once Followers have chosen their Top Traders, they can transfer them into their portfolio simply by using Drag & Drop (Figure 5). A total of up to five Top Traders can be included in your portfolio. Once the portfolio is executed, all trades that the trader places are also executed proportionally onto the account of the Follower. If several traders are selected, the transactions are processed proportionately. If individual trades from the selected trader do not develop as desired, the Followers also have the opportunity to follow individual traders only in selected instruments. After the execution of the portfolio, the trades of the Top Traders are automatically placed, i.e. Followers do not have to be either online or logged in to the platform. Of course, Followers have the option of removing traders from their portfolio with just one click, as well as having the ability to add new ones. The Follower account In addition, Followers should always have an eye on their account. They can easily see the balance, profits and losses, as well as figures about the trades. With additional security mechanisms, such as the Loss Protection, Followers always have their account under control. The Loss Protection represents a kind of stop-loss for their whole account. If the open positions move so far into the minus that the account balance reaches the previously defined Loss Protection level, they are shut and no further positions are opened. F5) Compile Portfolio This graph shows the breakdown of the allocation of capital. Source: www.ayondo.com deposits are protected by the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme), which means the FSCS would compensate the customers for up to 50,000 pounds if ayondo markets cannot fulfil its financial obligations. Moreover, ayondo provides free additional insurance that protects customer deposits up to 500,000 pounds. ayondo s highest priority is the safety of client money. All retail client funds are therefore kept in segregated accounts with reputable banks and are completely separate from ayondo s company assets. Your Security at ayondo ayondo markets is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA ) and is subject to their supervision and guidelines. Customer Once Followers have chosen their Top Traders, they simply transfer them into their portfolio by using Drag & Drop. Source: www.ayondo.com
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Interview with Edward Drake Social Trading is Undergoing Explosive Growth» Edward Drake is Director of Operations at ayondo, and sits on the Executive Committee. In this interview, we talked about the future of ayondo as well as the future of Social Trading in general. «Mr Drake, what does ayondo stand for? Is the company primarily a spread betting broker, or has Social Trading now pushed to the fore? What do you think? Drake: ayondo stands for choice, integrity and transparency. We offer retail clients (whether they be longer-term investors or shorter-term traders), the flexibility of going it alone or using our vast network of Top Traders to aid their decision making. In summary, we are both. We provide execution and Social Trading in one place but under a unique and structured regulatory construct, affording our clients maximum protection. Whilst Social Trading is growing at a rapid rate, we have not lost sight of our vision to become a one-stop shop for retail investors and this means the execution arm of our business and future innovative initiatives are given equal weighting in terms of their role and importance within the overall ayondo business. As a Managing Director of ayondo markets, you are responsible for creating and developing pricing and risk management tools. How is ayondo positioned with regards to this area? Drake: A culture of uncompromising and proactive risk management exists within ayondo in all areas and at all levels. What are the main challenges a broker is faced with when dealing with Social Trading? Drake: Social Trading is undergoing explosive growth. It is of the utmost importance that any broker can cater for scalability of execution. Whilst a Top Trader may not trade in a particularly aggressive fashion alone, one has to consider the multiplication effect of having potentially tens-ofthousands of Followers behind one Top Trader. It is essential that the broker is able to preserve the performance of the Top Trader whilst maintaining minimal tracking error between Top Trader and Follower. ayondo invests a great deal of resources in this area in particular. What would you say is the main difference between ayondo and other brokers? Drake: We are not looking to replicate what other industry participants are already doing, thus making an already crowded and competitive space even more crowded. ayondo is a pioneer of Social Trading and is pushing this and other
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL innovative pipeline products forward to create an overall offering that resonates with retail in vestors of all types and one that has true global mass market appeal. We will do this with in tegrity and responsibility towards our customers at every step of the way. Social Trading is very prominent in Germany, and interest in the United Kingdom is on the rise. Do you think that Social Trading will soon reach the same popularity here in the United Kingdom as in Germany? Drake: Absolutely. The appeal of Social Trading is global. The UK market is very mature and forward thinking in regards to retail financial products. We are already seeing rapid growth in the UK arena. The market conditions are not very good for investors at the moment, and this is a real test for Social Trading. How are the Top Traders coping with these conditions? Drake: Different markets present different types of opportunity and the same applies to Social Trading. Yes, we have seen a fairly vicious decline in global equity markets in the first two months of 2016 but we have also seen that many of our Top Traders have capitalised on this period of heightened volatility. The beauty of the proposition offered is that one can see exactly how a particular Top Trader has performed historically and in relation to specific periods and index benchmarks (whether they are periods of asset growth or decline). Therefore, it is easy for a Follower to make an informed judgement about a Top Trader s ability to cope with challenging markets. Do you think that the field of Social Trading is sufficiently regulated? Drake: It rather depends on the regulatory jurisdiction. ayondo is unique in the fact that it offers Social Trading under BaFin (German) regulatory licence and execution via its FCA (UK) licence. As such, it is subject to two of the most stringent and respected regulatory bodies globally. We feel that this affords our clients maximum protection and comfort, and more than is available anywhere else within the Social Trading marketplace. In addition to the extension of your insurance cover, not including the FSCS insurance, to up to 500,000 pounds per client, the introduction of Negative Balance Protection was one of the most important changes in ayondo last year. Drake: That is absolutely right. In order to provide both our self-directed and social clients with additional protection, during early 2015 we removed any obligation for our clients to clear debit account balances if incurred. This now means that clients can trade safe in the knowledge that they can never lose more than their account balance. This initiative has been very well received by all ayondo clients and ultimately gives further weight to our mission to provide the highest level of protection to our clients. The introduction of Negative Balance Protection is likely to be well-received, even by the supervisory authorities. Drake: Indeed. The primary purpose of the regulator is to protect the consumer. We are doing exactly that via the negative balance protection initiative. What other measures has ayondo taken to enhance the protection of Followers? Drake: Followers have access to a wealth of metrics which make it very easy to interpret an overview of the quality, risk profile and past performance of all Top Traders. Top Traders are all subject to an ayondo career process whereby their ranking is elevated only upon fulfilling certain performance and risk management targets. As such, Followers are able to easily identify those Top Traders who are tried and tested and those who are yet to prove themselves. It should be stressed also that ayondo Top Traders are all subject to a stringent set of risk management rules when executing trades. In addition, Followers are able to activate additional risk management features by setting loss protection levels on their accounts and/or by removing exposure to certain asset groups or even individual products if required. On the execution side, self-directed clients benefit from free guaranteed stops in many products (dependent on size of trade and distance of stop-loss).
TRADERS ayondo SpECial ayondo stands for choice, integrity and transparency. We offer retail clients the flexibility of going it alone or using our vast network of Top Traders to aid their decision making. and vice versa: What do you expect from the Followers themselves in terms of risk management? Drake: The rules enforced upon our Top Traders provide an environment where the Followers can be confident in making decisions. Nevertheless, we continually encourage Followers to take note and use the wealth of information and features that the platform has to offer when making decisions. We encourage users to diversify (a Follower may follow up to five Top Traders at any point in time) and to behave sensibly, never risking more than they are willing to lose. It should be stressed that when joining ayondo, a Follower must demonstrate a necessary understanding of the product and associated risks. ayondo is due to offer a new remuneration model for Top Traders. What does it look like, and what are the benefits? Drake: Indeed, ayondo is set to roll out a new performance and management fee remuneration Edward Drake Edward Drake joined ayondo markets at its inception in 2008. He is responsible for operations, including the creation and continuing development of many internal systems and business processes. He brings over 15 years of experience in the spread betting and CFD industry. After graduating from Durham University where he studied chemistry, Edward Drake started his city career at IG Group before moving on to Cantor Fitzgerald where he was responsible for the Options and Financial Fixed Odds trading operation of Cantor Index. He has extensive experience in the creation and development of pricing and risk management tools and is key to ayondo s fully automated risk management system. model for its Top Traders in Q2 2016. This will complement the existing volume based remuneration structure which itself is currently undergoing an overhaul. Top Traders will have the ability to directly benefit by receiving a percentage of their performance, thus benefitting those Top Traders who are perhaps not as active as others and whose focus is more geared towards longer term steady growth. By introducing this more traditional asset management type method of remuneration, ayondo will open up the field of Social Trading to a different breed and style of Top Traders, ultimately benefitting Followers and opening up Social Trading to a multitude of risk appetites. What other new things can customers look forward to in the coming months? Drake: ayondo is in the final stages of implementing a brand new, leading charting package which will be rolled out to self-directed clients, Top Traders and Followers. In addition to this, in order to further enhance client protection and make the Top Trader selection process for Followers much easier, ayondo will be releasing a new Top Trader Risk Score ; essentially an in-house built metric which provides an instant overview of the level of riskiness of an individual Top Trader. Rest assured, there are also many top secret initiatives planned for 2016 and beyond, all with the aim of enhancing the ayondo experience for our clients.
ayondo is the main sponsor of FSV Frankfurt 1899. ayondo CEO Robert Lempka wearing FSV Frankfurt s jersey. International Bankers Forum Issue 01.2016, p. 50, www.bankers-forum.net
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Easy-Going Trading Goodbye Debit Balance Obligation!» Losses can exceed your initial deposit. This or similar information can be found in many CFD brokers small print. This refers to the obligation to have to compensate for negative account balances. The CFD broker and Social Trading provider ayondo has waived this. «Experience Rich... and asset-poor is something that some traders began to feel in January 2015 as a consequence of debit balance obligation in CFD trading, after the decision from the Swiss National Bank and the subsequent EUR/CHF turbulence. This obligation to settle for negative balances on CFD accounts i.e. to lose money over the account balance is a key reason why some traders still shy away from CFD trading. Some brokers offer guaranteed stops, to ensure that the position is liquidated at the specified stop price even in the case of price gaps. However, complete waiver of any negative balance is still the exception rather than the rule in the industry. All the better that ayondo, a broker that not only offers pure CFD trading, but also the
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Through our safety offensive, modern forms of investment, such as Social Trading, are also made attractive to customers, who want to invest large sums. Sarah Brylewski, responsible for sales and marketing at the ayondo group now very popular Social Trading, has waived the debit balance obligation. It can be assumed that the decision to waive this liability is also motivated by the experiences of other industry representatives. Especially after the event just mentioned in January 2015, some CFD brokers realised that their claim to compensation for negative account balances brings little in terms of customer solvency if it is ultimately not enforceable. Since the (retail) clientele of CFD brokers is mostly not made up of millionaires, many brokers will have realised that they ultimately deter more customers with this rule than being able to meet compensation claims. additional Security for Customers Another issue, which also bothers many investors, is their broker's deposit guarantee the question of up to what limit customers' money is protected in case of broker bankruptcy. Again, ayondo has good news for its customers. With supplementary insurance from QBE Under writing Limited and other participating syndicates of Lloyd's of London, customer deposits are secured free-of-cost up to 500,000 pounds and thus secured above the capital threshold guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Even large accounts can be safeguarded above this amount, for a small fee. a Signal to the industry This step from ayondo is likely to put other CFD brokers in a tight spot. Ultimately, the risk of losing more money than is available in the account is perhaps the last remaining disadvantage of CFDs as opposed to leverage certificates. The abolition does not mean that traders do not have to develop a profitable trading strategy but instead provides peace of mind that at least they will not lose more money than is in the account. Furthermore, at ayondo you can leave developing a trading strategy up to other people. Using the Social Trading section you can follow a number of Top Traders and have their trades executed on your own account. With the removal of debit balance obligation, enhanced protection of customer funds and the existing Loss Protection function, ayondo Social Trading offers a high degree of security.
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Alexander s Social Trading Experiment part 1: ayondo and Me» Up until now, I have been the one who made the decisions when trading. In Alexander s Social Trading Experiment I would now like to experience what it is like to be a Follower. «a "personal Experiment" I will say it openly: I had great doubts about whether putting my "trading luck" in other people's hands is really something for me. On the other hand, I am quite impressed by the performance and strategies of some of the Top Traders at ayondo. It caught my eye when researching my cover story that ayondo's platform is really well thought out and intuitive to use even if the lack of possibility to put trailing stops in TradeHub makes me take off a few marks. A plus point is that I can still be in control. So I decided to build two portfolios, each made up of five Top Traders. A kind of Top Trader team, where I am the coach. At ayondo only one portfolio can be had per Follower account. Therefore, for my two portfolios I had to open two accounts. preliminary Considerations My Top Traders should have achieved a good performance in the four weeks prior to the experiment meaning that they have a good feel for the market. Because each of my portfolios had over 1,000 euros starting capital, 50 euros of
TRADERS ayondo SpECial my capital would be risked in the case of a simple order size, when the Top Trader risks five per cent of his account with a position. Because I distribute my starting capital of 1,000 euros per portfolio between five Top Traders respectively, this reduces the effective risk to ten euros (effective risk factor 0.2). In addition to the allo cation of capital to several Top Traders, you can use the ayondo platform to assign each of these traders a different "order size" (Figure 1). So if I allocate a double order size to one of the five traders, the Follower rela tionship would change, meaning that their profit or loss of five per cent would give me an alteration of 20 euros. This quantity can be defined separate ly for different asset classes. In addition, the platform provides the ability to set an absolute loss limit on your account balance, at which trades are immediately terminated. But I initially do not use this. In my portfolio I control the risk using the measures that I am describing here, and by using regular adjustments and regroupings. Important: My following always begins only with the next position opened by the respective Traders already open positions will not be caught up on. The portfolios The portfolio should consist of five traders who have already delivered a strong performance and whose previous maximum drawdown was not more than 17 per cent. I consider only Real Money Traders, i.e. Top Traders using at least 1,000 pounds of their own money. I only consider traders who have reached at least the third stage of the ayondo career stage model. Not always, but often, it is the case that traders who have not opened any positions for long periods have given up trading (for example, after a drawdown). I F1) Changing the Order Size and Effective Risk Factor Figure 1 shows setting options in relation to how proportionally Top Traders are followed. Source: www.ayondo.com F2) Finding Top Traders Figure 2 shows the search form on the ayondo website, with which Top Traders can be found according to various criteria. Source: www.ayondo.com ignore Top Traders who have not opened any positions within the last seven days, to ensure that I allocate my capital to active traders. It only took me a few minutes to find the Top Traders I wanted using the ayondo website search function (Figure 2). First, no trader receives an allocated order size higher than 1x: this corresponds to a risk factor of 0.2. Although this (basic) setting is intended to ensure proportionality between the signal provider account and the Follower account, there may be differences in order execution due to slippage. My experiment starts with one portfolio. If things go well, I will create another portfolio so that one of the two has increased order sizes. adjustments and Redeployments I will consider adjustments or redeployments in the two portfolios if a trader has incurred a drawdown of more than 17 per cent.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Alexander s Social Trading Experiment Part 2: The Teams are Fixed...»... and already have the first round behind them. After Alexander Mantel described the system, he tested ayondo Social Trading with various Follower accounts. Here is now an overview of the Top Trader teams that he put together, and their performance up to now. «Portfolio 1 I started trading with this portfolio on 27th July 2015. Especially against the background of markets sliding sharply into negative territory in August, my Top Trader team from portfolio 1 delivered a remarkable performance after just one month, with an increase of around 2.5 per cent. This illustrates the advantage of a diversified portfolio and a form of investment in which you can benefit both from price gains (long) as well as price falls (short). The positions that the Top Traders open for my port folio are by no means just long positions. They also use strategies which greatly benefit from price declines. This has paid off in the past few days. An interesting example is the trading approach of the Top Trader simplytrader. His system trades bursts from the span of the previous day on the Germany30 both long and short. Here, the traded volume is adjusted according to losses and profits. This is what happened on 20th August: Due to the increased capital factor, the falling DAX gave simplytrader a new all-time high. Following this excellent starting performance, I had already decid ed to experiment a bit with the order sizes. If you look at the performance in the first month (Figure 1), notice that simplytrader and MrDACHS largely ensured my portfolio s profits. The performance of QMAXX, however, was relatively weak in this period. AceTrading hardly traded at all. Based on these observations, I decided to increase simplytrader and MrDACHS order size to 1.5 (Table 1) and in return reduce the order size for AceTrading
TRADERS ayondo SpECial and QMAXX to 0.5. This gives me the opportunity to change the focus of my capital allocation without having to separate myself from AceTrading and QMAXX. By increasing the order size of two traders and corresponding the reduction in the order volume of two other traders, the total leverage of my portfolio remains unchanged. Considered in terms of figures, my adjustments do not lead to any expansion of risk. portfolio 2 In order to compare how the performance of the Top Trader team with a changed order size behaved, relative to the performance of the Top Trader team with a basic order size, I started a second portfolio on 12th August 2015 with an identical team formation to portfolio 1, in which the order sizes remain unchanged. F1) Strong Start Performance The dashed blue line in the chart shows the performance of portfolio 1 after about a month. The best performances were achieved by simplytrader (light green line) and MrDACHS (orange line). The weakest performance in this period was delivered by QMAXX (dark green line). Source: www.ayondo.com want to follow have achieved their performance not just because of individual lucky trades but because of a proven strategy. past performance On 4th September 2015 portfolio 1 had a plus of around two per cent, while the second, younger portfolio has earned approximately one per cent since its launch (Table 1). Time will tell whether the changes in the order sizes in portfolio 1 lead to a better performance than portfolio 2. The Career Stage Model as a Quality Filter In my Top Trader team it seems that it is not necessarily the Real Money Trader quality that makes the difference, but the higher career level. If you look closely at this ingenious system (Figure 2), it is clear why. With each new level, the demands on the trader increase. Ultimately, only those traders who manage to fulfil all success criteria within the individual stages achieve the highest level in the ayondo career. The highest level can be achieved after twelve months at the earliest. The two most important parameters in the ayondo career model are drawdown and performance, which motivate traders to trade in a disciplined manner and achieve continuity and sustainability. A higher career level as a search filter can ensure that the Top Traders that you T1) The Portfolios (as of 4th September 2015) portfolio/top Trader Order Size Effective Risk Factor previous performance portfolio 1 2.02% AceTrading RM 0.5x 0.1 exxo-trades_com RM 1.0x 0.2 MrDACHS RM 1.5x 0.3 simplytrader RM 1.5x 0.3 QMAXX RM 0.5x 0.1 portfolio 2 0.86% AceTrading RM 1x 0.2 exxo-trades_com RM 1x 0.2 MrDACHS RM 1x 0.2 simplytrader RM 1x 0.2 QMAXX RM 1x 0.2 Comments: Each portfolio is equipped with 1,000 euros start-up capital. Start of portfolio 1 on 27th July 2016. Start of portfolio 2 on 12th August 2015. RM = Real Money Trader (this Top Trader generates signals with a Real Money account.) Source: www.ayondo.com
i i i i i TRADERS ayondo SpECial Figure 2 shows the rules that Top Traders must follow in order to climb up. Source: www.ayondo.com Roundturn 1 = one open & one closing trade min. 1 Roundturn within 30 calendar days # 5 Trade activity maintenance criteria 5 10 20 35 Roundturn 1 = one open & one closing trade 15 30 10 5 5 # 4 Total number of Roundturns 1 per career level 0,5% 1,5% 3,0% 6,0% success criteria Performance to be achieved per career level 3,0% 6,0% 1,5% 1,0% 0,5% Downgrade to prior level only when PnL negative # 3 Performance PnL (total) = PnL (realized) + PnL (unrealized) 30 90 180 360 30 days 60 days 90 days 180 days 365 days time criteria period 30 days 90 days 180 days 360 days 365 days # 2 Next level after Drawdown criteria equal in all career levels failure criteria max. 25% max. 25% max. 25% max. 25% max. 25% # 1 Drawdown level STREET TRADER ADVANCED TRADER PROFESSIONAL TRADER RISK ADJUSTED TRADER INSTITUTIONAL TRADER ayondo Trader Career Level System F2) The ayondo Career Level System
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Frequently Asked Questions to Customer Service ayondo Answers» The customer service representatives at ayondo answer questions from Followers and Top Traders every day. Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions. «Is there debit balance obligation at ayondo? No, at ayondo there is no obligation to compensate for losses exceeding the account balance. Both in the case of Social Trading as well as trading on TradeHub, you can never lose more money than is available in your account no matter what happens. Can I close positions that were opened by signals from the Top Trader myself? Yes, that is possible. When you are logged in, you can see all open positions by clicking on "My live account" or "My demo account". You can close the respective position using the red X. If the market is not open, the position is closed once the market reopens. How many Top Traders can I follow simultaneously? You can follow a maximum of five Top Traders simultaneously at ayondo. In principle, it can be said that spreading the investment sum reduces risk. You should always consider distributing your capital amongst several Top Traders. Is there a minimum investment for Social Trading? At ayondo you can use Social Trading with 1,000 pounds or more. All functions can also be tested with a free demo account. Why can CFDs not be traded on stocks from very small companies with Social Trading? In order to protect the customer, ayondo has de cided to only offer stocks with a very liquid market when it comes to Social Trading. Is my money safe with ayondo? In addition to the FSCS cover of 50,000 pounds, your deposits with us are protected for up to 500,000 pounds. Details can be found at www.ayondo.com/en/trading/client-money Your personal customer representative can also help you further individually: By e-mail at support@ayondo.com or on the telephone at +44 (0) 20 / 33 30 08 65.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Alexander s Social Trading Experiment Part 3: The Final» Alexander Mantel has put together two ayondo Top Trader teams in order to find out what options the ayondo platform offers to Followers. In this section he gives an overview of the performance and analyses the results of each team. «Clear First Place The team of portfolio 1 is the clear winner. With a performance of 3.21 per cent, it has gained almost three times as much as the second portfolio. To hedge gains or limit losses, I used the Loss Protection feature of the ayondo platform (Figure 1). I set the Loss Protection to 800 euros. This corresponded to a margin of about 20 per cent for the current portfolio value. In the case of a poor performance, automatic execution would be ended at this amount. If the value of the portfolio continues to rise, the amount of Loss Protection can be raised in order to then use the function as a sort of trailing stop. Good Second Place The team from portfolio 2 has turned out a performance of just over one per cent during the term of my experiment and has therefore seized second place. Bearing in mind that this performance was achieved in just four weeks, this is also quite a good performance. Redeployments Throughout the experiment it was not necessary to exchange any of the Top Traders. This is due to the fact that the performance of Top Traders in the higher career levels is often less volatile and with smaller drawdowns than the performance of
TRADERS ayondo SpECial Despite the difficult environment during the term of my experiment, my portfolios could stand up with a good yield. traders in the lower stages of their careers. The composition of portfolios 1 and 2 thus remained stable. I only made changes to the order size (in portfolio 1). The composition of the portfolios and order sizes at the end of trading can be seen in Table 1. analysis and Evaluation As coach of my Top Trader teams, I had to give some thought to the result after the competition was over. Despite the difficult environment during the term of my experiment, my relatively conservatively-oriented portfolio was able to stand up with a good yield. The crash of the markets in China also significantly increased volatility and uncertainty in other markets. When selecting the Top Traders, only those whose previous drawdown was less than 17 per cent and who had F1) Loss Protection Settings Figure 1 shows how a Follower at ayondo can set an amount after which you can have no more losses. Source: www.ayondo.com reached at least level 3 within the ayondo career stage model were considered. The performance of both portfolios shows that the basic idea of focussing on traders with a good 4-week performance is not wrong. In particular, the allocation of capital to several Top Traders for diversification especially in challenging times seems to be sensible. Using a (moderate) lever by using slightly above-average order sizes with strong Top Traders led to an outperformance of the identical portfolio with unchanged order sizes. It should be remembered, however, that the weaker portfolio 2 was also launched later. T1) The Portfolios (18th September 2015) portfolio/top Trader Order Size Effective Risk Factor previous performance portfolio 1 3.21% AceTrading RM 0.5x 0.1 exxo-trades_com RM 1x 0.2 MrDACHS RM 1.5x 0.3 simplytrader RM 1.5x 0.3 QMAXX RM 0.5x 0.1 portfolio 2 1.09% AceTrading RM 1x 0.2 exxo-trades_com RM 1x 0.2 MrDACHS RM 1x 0.2 simplytrader RM 1x 0.2 QMAXX RM 1x 0.2 Comments: Each portfolio is equipped with 1,000 euros starting capital. Start of portfolio 1 on 27th July 2015. Start of portfolio 2 on 12th August 2015. RM = Real Money Trader (this Top Trader generates signals with a Real Money account.) Source: www.ayondo.com
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Alexander s Social Trading Experiment Part 4: Lessons Learned» If you are thinking about becoming a follower of one or more Top Traders, Alexander Mantel has some tips ready for you. After his social trading experiment finished with ayondo, he talked about his experiences. «Review With my experiment, I wanted to find out what opportunities I have as a Follower of other traders, and how the performance of my portfolio is influenced. For this purpose, I put together two portfolios consisting of five Top Traders with Social Trading provider ayondo. Even if the performance of the Top Traders during the four weeks prior to the experiment was decisive when putting together the portfolios, there is also different selection criteria to be considered. Particular consideration was paid to whether they were Real Money or Virtual Money Traders and how high the previous drawdown had been. Looking back, I can now say that there are quite a few ways for Followers to choose their own portfolio. This brings me to address a few points in more detail, which could be important for potential Followers in this part of the article series. What Social Trading Can and Cannot Do Fundamentally, Social Trading offers a convenient way to benefit from the experiences of other traders both by the "click of a mouse" and by having the opportunity to learn by "looking over people's shoulders, consequently improving their own trading. Professional trading strategies are often possible with a low stake (from 1,000 pounds at ayondo). Due to being able to see the trades and positions of the Top Traders in real time, there is a high degree of transparency. Apart from the option of terminating the following at any time and being able to change or close positions, there is still no possibility of directly influencing the strategy and investment decisions of Top Traders. Although some asset managers now offer their strategies as Top Traders, Social Trading is not "real" asset management. As with other forms of investment, there is no profit guarantee
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL I am a Follower with ayondo because I feel secure with ayondo. There is no debit balance obligation looming over me, and I feel that my money is with a reliable broker. ayondo Follower in Social Trading. My experiment has shown that Social Trading works, but it is not a sure-fire success for Followers. What You Should Ask Yourself in Advance Even before you start looking for suitable signal providers (Top Traders), you should answer the following questions for yourself: 1. Am I willing to, at least for the most part, give up the reins and let others trade for me? 2. Am I willing to keep being involved even after I have chosen one or many signal providers and, if necessary, make adjustments? 3. How much money am I willing to risk? 4. How can I participate? Opening a broker account? Processing via CFDs? 5. Does the provider suit me? Can I get along with the platform? Is there Negative Balance Protection? With the fifth question you should especially consider the following: A good aid for Follower success is when risks are limited from the outset due to the business model of the Social Trading pro vider. Unlike other models, the remuneration of the Top Traders (the signal providers) at ayondo does not solely depend on volume but also depends on the performance and (even more strongly) on the drawdown of the signal provider and the continuity of the performance due to the inclusion of the "career stages". This ensures that the signal providers do not simply trade in order to produce the most transaction volume possible. Instead, they are encouraged to improve or maintain their career stage, and thus the level of their compensation, in order to keep a continued good performance. Moreover, the platform gives the Followers a few options to limit risks and to optimise performance. Another point in favour of ayondo is something that sounds self-evident yet is still an exception in the industry: Clients do not have to pay the money back if their account balances fall into the negative. ayondo waived the debit balance obligations no ifs, no buts. Finding the "Right" Top Trader Whether a Top Trader is "suitable", is always calculated according to objective and subjective criteria. So you should first consider what return expectations you have and how much risk you are willing to take. Another important question is whether you can understand the strategy or trading system, at least in principle, of the possible signal provider. On the basis of objective criteria it is possible to filter out a large number of signal providers that are a possibility for your Follower port folio. The ayondo search form offers many helpful setting options. Some key figures are explained in the information box. First, you can specify whether you want to search for Real Money or Virtual Money Traders, or both. Real Money can be but need not be a "seal of quality". In my opinion and experience, however, the career levels seem to be more important. Caution should be exercised in particular when selecting traders who have not reached or are no longer on at least career stage 3. Details about the career stage model can be found in part 2 of the experiment and on the ayondo website. After taking into consideration these basic settings when searching, you can choose settings that suit your personal risk-taking style with a variety of (risk) indicators such as drawdown, sharpe ratio and volatility.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Important Figures Drawdown: Maximum fall in value within a certain (historical) period, based on the maximum asset value reached in this period. The extent and length of a drawdown phase provides information about the loss potential of a strategy, and the period until these losses are recouped. Profit Factor: The profit factor provides information the number of profitable trades in relation to the number of losing trades, multiplied by the ratio of the average profit to the average loss. Hit Rate: This provides information about the percentage of positions that were closed with profit. Sharpe Ratio: Excess return compared to the interest rate of a risk free investment, taking into account volatility. Greater than 1 means an excess return was achieved with moderate risk when compared to the risk-free investment. A negative value indicates that the performance was worse than that of the risk-free investment. Benchmark Comparison: Investment gains are quantified as active, targeted acquired surplus (excess return) of the portfolio against a benchmark (for example indices). The Detailed Check Once you have found traders, you should take a closer look at some details of the "candi dates". You should only focus on signal providers that are still trading actively. This is possible, for example, by considering only those traders who were active in the past few days. Is it possible to recognise systematic trading or do their extremely high profits simply consist of some (random) "lucky trades", taking advantage of the maximum risk? Look for indications of structured risk and money management! Check whether the trader often works with stop-loss and/or take prof it, and how great the risk per trade (RPT) is in their transactions. Incidentally, the ayondo platform has a function that limits the capital risked by the signal provider. Try to find something about the mentality and psyche of the signal provider. Check in the transaction history whether the trader realises many small profits, but lets losses escalate or even uses Martingale-like strategies (doubling the stake after a loss). To assess the performance, it is also helpful to compare the returns generated by the signal provider with the index development from the same period. Can you identify outperformance or does the trader perform worse than the index in the corresponding period? However, remember that Top Traders who perform worse than the index need not be unappealing. It may be possible that the performance of a trader is somewhat worse than the DAX, but on the other hand, their maximum drawdown is substantially smaller than the maximum index setback. Not only performance, but also stability, may therefore makes a Top Trader attractive. When selecting the Top Traders, go into detail and do not allow yourself to be dazzled by high profits or a large number of followers. Compiling the Portfolio Once you have found one or more Top Traders, you can transfer them into your portfolio. In principle, you should be aware that you limit your risk when you follow not just one signal provider, but instead divide your capital amongst several (up to five at ayondo) traders. A "smooth" performance curve can be achieved frequently if you do not just put Top Traders in your portfolio who overwhelmingly go for rising prices, but also those who are looking specifically for short opportunities. For each individual trader, you can determine the order size, i.e. how proportionally you follow them. You can even make this setting different for each traded instrument (for example DAX or gold). If you notice, for example, that a trader in DAX trades almost always wins, but almost always loses in gold, you can increase the order size for DAX and/or reduce the order size for gold. When a Top Trader has open positions, you can decide whether these positions are "caught up on", or whether your following begins at the next position that opens.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL I am a Follower with ayondo because I can profit from trading without having to sit in front of a screen for the whole day. ayondo Follower Keep in mind that when replicating existing positions, you usually have a different entry price to the Top Trader namely the currently prevailing market price. Once you have put together your portfolio, you can now see directly what performance your combination would have had in differ ent historical periods. Then, you can start to run the portfolio on a live account, or first on a demo account. Stay in the Game Even after you have put together your portfolio of Top Traders, a certain degree of initiative can still be advantageous. Even experts sometimes have dry spells and even the most profitable trading system may no longer work after a certain time, if it is not adaptable to a changing market environment. A recent example was the crash of Chinese stock markets and the subsequent significant increase in volatility and uncertainty. Such situations may serve well as a test for Top Traders. It should be taken for granted that Followers take a regular look at their portfolio and make any necessary adjustments. ayondo offers Loss Protection. You can compare this with the functionality of a stop-loss. They can be both used to limit the risk of loss as well as to secure accrued gains. Loss Protection may thus also be used as an indirect "take profit" or (manual) trailing stop. However, this is not a guaranteed stop. There may be overrunning as well as shortfall of the set amount, for example, if at the time of closing the position a counter movement is employed. It may also be the case that the Loss Protection is triggered in late trading (USA/Forex), while there are positions in the portfolio whose trade time has already passed. The instructions to close these positions are active, but the closure itself is carried out only at the beginning of the next trading day and thus possibly after the occurrence of a price gap. What Else is Important? Although ayondo does a lot to minimise slippage, it is still an issue in Social Trading. This can sometimes be explained by the fact that some signal providers often operate news trading or are particu larly active at times when a lot of movement in the markets can offer opportunities. An extreme event that many Followers likely remember was the decision of the Swiss National Bank to remove the fixed exchange rate between the Euro and the Swiss Franc. Not being executed at the same price as the signal provider can be contingent on the fact that it is an inherent part of the strategy that a large proportion of the trading transactions are executed during strong market fluctuations, often with a strong trend in one direction. Those who have such "heavy traders" in their portfolio must expect that there may be differences due to the number of transactions. Currency components also play a role. Suppose we take as an example a day trader who invests in periods of market volatility on the US dollar markets. The "scalping" of a Dow Jones contract may cause slippage on the US dollar which, due to a possible changing exchange rate of the US dollar (trading currency) against the Euro (account currency), either increases or decreases.
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL More Followers Can Benefit from Top Traders Follow the Followers» By using Social Trading it is now possible to leave the real trading to successful Top Traders. However, they are not always easy to find. Therefore, it will soon be possible at ayondo to leave even the selection of suitable Top Traders to others. TRADERS was allowed to take a look at the plans for its readers. «Background On Social Trading platforms like ayondo there are not only successful Top Traders, but also many Followers who achieve considerable returns due to the skilful compilation of a portfolio of several traders. Therefore, it makes sense to let people participate in the performance of successful Followers, and ayondo would like to implement this idea with the Follow the Followers function. In the future, as a Follower at ayondo you will be able to rely on the skill of other Followers instead of selecting the Top Traders yourself. It will now be even easier and more convenient to use Social Trading, especially for beginners. The best Follower portfolios are to be listed in a ranking list. You can "follow" a portfolio with "a click of a mouse". Conditions and Options In principle each Follower will be able to follow other Followers. However, only those Followers who are granted consent by ayondo can be followed. Not every Follower portfolio will be able to come into consideration for Follow the Followers. To be approved, certain minimum requirements apply. The portfolio must be executed in a certain time period, the performance over the evaluation period must be positive and the drawdown
TRADERS ayondo SpECial With the Follow the Followers function at ayondo, Social Trading will continue to evolve one step further. within the assessment period must not exceed 25 per cent. Those who want to share their portfolio with others should also note that manual adjustments of positions opened by the signal provider are no longer possible after beginning Follow the Followers. Positions that were initiated by Top Traders can no longer be independently closed and no positions may be opened by the Followers themselves. What at first glance would appear to be a limitation, is at second glance completely reasonable. This regulation is intended to ensure that all performance metrics are due solely to the signals of Top Traders and are not diluted due to the Follower's own trades, or their risk and money management. For each of the enabled Follower portfolios there will be a profile page similar to that of a signal provider. to benefit from the successes of others. With Follow the Followers, this will be made easier, since this eliminates having to select a suitable trader. Stay Up to Date Do not miss the launch of the Follow the Followers function: Stay constantly up to date. At www.ayondo.com you will be informed about all the latest news. F1) The Follow the Followers Principle Follower Follower Follower Follower Conclusion and Outlook With the Follow the Followers function at ayondo, Social Trading will continue to evolve one step further. The basic idea of Social Trading is therefore reconsidered: even if you do not want to go deep into the subject of trading, it should be possible Top Trader Top Trader Top Trader Top Trader Top Trader This graph shows how Follow the Followers will work: The Top Traders ensure a Follower s performance (blue). Through their participation in the Follow the Followers function more Followers can benefit from the performance of their portfolio. Source: TRADERS graphic
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Social Trading Community All About Top Traders» Top Traders, or signal providers, are an integral part of the Social Trading community. With ayondo, Top Traders are challenged to trade sustainably and with good risk management. This article takes a closer look at this role and how they are rewarded. «Top Traders are the lifeblood of the ayondo Social Trading community. They are the signal providers who send out trading signals to the rest of the community; the leaders who allow Followers to copy their trades. Thousands of ayondo Followers rely on their trading signals. Social Trading is a relatively new, exciting concept which embraces openness and transparency in the financial world. Those who do not have enough time to dedicate to charts and statistics, for example, can copy the trades of others easily. This is invaluable for those who are new to the financial markets, and for those who want to learn more. Social Trading really does open up the entire trading world to a new group of people. Social Trading is a two way street, however, and it is not just the Followers who benefit from this new system. The signal providers themselves are rewarded by this concept, both in monetary and non-monetary terms. They can gain recognition for their trading; they can prove themselves to a third party perhaps, as well as getting re munerated for their efforts along the way. Before registering for an account, Top Traders must first choose between two different types of account: a Real Money Trader account and a Virtual Money Trader account. Real Money Traders Real Money Traders, as the name suggests, trade only with their own money, and achieve this status by depositing at least 1,000 pounds into their ayondo account. Real Money Traders have a perhaps more trustworthy reputation after all, Followers are more likely to trust traders who have the responsibility of looking after their own money, and who will not perhaps be tempted to gamble it away. Real Money Traders are visible
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Social Trading is a relatively new, exciting concept which embraces openness and transparency in the financial world. as such to potential Followers, meaning that they are more likely to accumulate Followers. Real Money Traders also get access to Trade- Hub, ayondo s award-winning trading platform. TradeHub has a simple yet intuitive design which lets traders trade confidently, tapping into the markets straightaway. As opposed to Virtual Money Traders, they get the full experience of TradeHub, with features such as trading indicators and our charting package. Another advantage that Real Money Traders have is that they can access the world s financial markets wherever they are with the ayondo markets app. This is available for both iphone and Android phones, and enables traders to monitor their positions at all times, with a quick glance at their smartphone. Virtual Money Traders Virtual Money Traders trade only with virtual money and therefore trade with absolutely no risk. They receive 100,000 pounds in virtual currency to begin with and the lack of risk means that Virtual Money Traders can try out alternative trading strategies or techniques: they do not have the same amount of pressure as Real Money Traders. However, this lack of responsibility can reflect negatively in their Follower numbers. Fortunately, an upgrade to Real Money status is always available. Virtual Money trading can be useful, especially because Social Trading is such a new concept. Even seasoned traders will potentially want to try out Social Trading without risk before putting large amounts of money on the table. However, Virtual Money Traders can only use a simplified trading platform for their trades, without tools or charts. Remuneration Methods There is currently only one method of remuneration for Top Traders with ayondo. Both Real Money Traders and Virtual Money Traders have access to the volume-based re muneration method. Volume-based remuneration is well-suited to high frequency traders. It simply links your remuneration to a percentage revenue share of the gross income generated by your Followers. Real Money Traders do get a higher revenue percentage, however, meaning that with the Real Money account you will be better rewarded. Virtual Money Traders can also participate with this remuneration model, allowing them to gain a taste for the Social Trading rewards system. For Virtual and Real Money Traders, the higher the Career Level, the better the reward. At some point soon this year, there will be a second remuneration model available. Only Real Money Traders will have access to the second method, called the Performance and Management Fee. This is best-suited to the more conservative traders who hold onto their positions for longer, and who have a less frequent trading style. The Management Fee is calculated from the account balance plus unrealised P/L of each Follower, and is debited from the Follower. In addition to this, 20 per cent of the daily total amount
TRADERS AYONDO SPECIAL Top Traders are the lifeblood of the ayondo Social Trading community. of profit from each Follower is debited from the Follower s account, and then a portion is credited to the Top Trader the portion size dependent on Career Level. Trading Career All Top Traders, regardless of being a Real Money Trader or a Virtual Money Trader, automatically become part of the ayondo Trading Career, a concept unique to ayondo. The Trading Career rewards the risk-averse and sustainable traders, not the risky traders with high results. The Trading Career ensures that ayondo Top Traders do not become too reckless with their money, which is important as the account balances of thousands of Followers are connected to theirs. However, it is also beneficial to Top Traders as well. The higher up the Trading Career you get, the more likely Followers are to trust you with their money, as you have proven yourself, essentially. Traders also get higher commissions the higher they climb, meaning that it is definitely within a Top Trader s financial interests to climb to the top. All Top Traders begin first at Street Trader level, and aim to reach the top level Institutional level. Traders need to complete a certain amount of trades to progress through each level, all while not exceeding a maximum drawdown of 25 per cent and having a positive overall performance. The Trading Career can have an unforgiving element. If your performance is ever hit badly, you will be sent down one level. If your maximum drawdown ever exceeds 25 per cent, you will be sent back to Street Trader level, and will be unable to advance from there. The ayondo Trading Career was developed to test traders and allow them to prove that they can provide sustainable, long-term, positive results, rather than high yet extremely risky results. ayondo's Top Traders are a respected facet of the ayondo community, and those who have reached the higher levels have done so purely on merit. We have put together some tips for Top Traders who aspire to reach Institutional level or who want to accumulate more Followers: Get more attention from potential Followers by completing your Top Trader profile. Choose a profile picture and write down what your strategy is. Followers are more likely to trust you with their money if they get a sense of what your personality and goals are. Keep up to date with financial news in order to identify potential trends and patterns. This lets you make quick and well-informed trading decisions. Trade frequently and consistently: you are more likely to get noticed. Put risk management into place, and apply a stop-loss for every trade. Trade with real money and you are more likely to be noticed by potential Followers. When you start trading with at least 1,000 pounds, you will be marked as a Real Money Trader with a mini R next to your name. This icon will remain next to your name until your account drops below 500 pounds. Social Trading has developed from a niche area into something which is truly revolutionising the financial investment world. The signal providers in these Social Trading communities are an integral part of the system, and they are in a perfect place to watch the revolution take place.
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