When we join in a forex trading contest, our rivals came from all around the world, including much more experienced traders. That is why, we also need to arrange special strategy in order to win.

Forex trading contests has long been a part of the forex industry; but as traders' interest lifted, lately its existence has increasingly salient. Forex brokers are not merely holding competition every once in a while, but all year round with numerous attractive prizes. Instaforex, for instance, holds weekly and monthly competition in demo and real accounts with prizes at hundreds to thousands of Dollars that can be added to your account balance.

Forex trading contests enable traders to trade with minimum amount of money (even none at all), but with the potential to gain prizes starting from five or ten Dollars upwards. It gave raise to forex traders that exclusively allocating time and energy to compete in forex trading contests. Beside of the prize itself makes for a lucrative effort, the prestige that comes from winning against worldwide traders is quite tempting for some.

Trader

Yes, when we join in a forex trading contest, our rivals came from all around the world, including much more experienced traders. That is why, we also need to arrange special strategy in order to win. Here is some tips that worth to consider when you build a strategy to win forex trading contest.

 

1. Begin In Demo

Online forex trading contest generally can be sorted into two kinds: contest in real account and contest in demo account. Contest in real account means that traders have to trade with a certain amount of his own funds in order to gain the highest precentage of profit required to win the competition. While contests in demo account allow traders to compete using virtual funds that has been provided by the organizer.

For you that is only starting to compete in forex trading contest, it is better for you to start with demo trading contest first. Competing in real account will make you worried or fretting unnecessarily and consequently disturb our psychological state in opening or closing trades. Therefore, if you want to gain optimum profit from forex trading contests, then the best choice is to fight in demo account: there is a huge balance, and all of them are not real money.

 

2. Understand The Rules

Oftentimes, losses in forex trading contests came from one simple mistake: did not read the terms and conditions thoroughly.

In contests' terms and conditions, there are a number of key rules, such as what strategy is allowed and what strategy is not, the formula used to determine the winner, as well as details on how the prize is granted. If we did not read it thoroughly, there is a huge chance for us to be disqualified or loss because a tiny mistake even though we have been working on it for days.

By understanding the rules, we can also determine whether we can fulfill them or not, and therefore avoid unnecessary disappointment.

 

3. Do Not Cheat

In forex trading contest, there us usually a rule of One Trader, One Account, that implies each trader only allowed one account to be used in that contest. However, many people tried to cheat by registering two accounts for the same contest. It is done in order to execute opposite strategy in two different accounts; like buy GBPUSD in one account and sell GBPUSD in another and leave them alone till the end of the contest. In times of trending market, there is a huge chance for such strategy to succeed, but it is categorically cheating.

Besides of the double account strategy, there are other cheating strategies that are against sportmanship and fairness. They are unethical, as well as potentially become the cause of you being booted out, disqualified, or blacklisted.

 

4. Don't Trade Experimentally

There are proper time, place, and occasion for everything; but forex trading contest is definitely not the proper TPO to try out your newest trading strategy. Untested strategy has substantial probability of failure, and it automatically reduce your chances to win. Because of that, during trading contests, you'd better used tried and tested strategy that you've been using every day.

If you choose to trade using Expert Advisor (EA) or robot too, ensure that the robot you used is already tried and tested.

 

5. Focus On Certain Pairs

Trading by opening a LOT of positions in many pairs might work in daily trade, because positions can floats as long as there are sufficient balance in your account and enough probability to profit from them. But in forex trading contest, the length of time you could float a position is limited by the duration of the contest itseld. By the end of the competition, open position will be automatically closed regardless it is in profit or loss, so that the winner can be determined. That's why, 'guerilla' tactic is unsuitable to be done in forex trading contest.

Rather than that, you would do better by limiting the pairs you are going to trade, that is around 1-3 correlated pairs at the same time. It will ease your way in avoiding 'news time; where market volatility might bring deadly losses.

So, which pairs are they? Choose the ones in which you have deeper understanding at, and the ones you are quite experienced in trading with. As mentioned in the fourth point, forex trading contest is not the place to trade experimentally; therefore it is recommended to trade only with familiar currency pairs.

 

6. Take Bigger Risk

Limited duration of forex trading contest mean that we have only limited time to generate profit more than any other contestants. Hence, the money managemen you have been using during daily trades might be unsuitable to compete with.

Remember the old adage high risk, high return? If in a competition you use the 2% of 3% rule, then it might be extremely difficult for you to win. Thus, it is advisable to apply bigger risk rule in order to gain big quickly. Forex trading contest has different characteristic with daily trading, so the proper strategy and management to succeed is rightly different.

 

7. If Possible, Use Expert Advisor

Competing in forex trading contest needs quite a lot of time; it could even take up the time you usually use to profit from the daily trade in forex market. What's more, trading with different strategies in two accounts or more will mess with the result of your normal trades. So, if possible, consider to use expert advisor for the contests.

That if possible is, of course, in accordance with the rules; whether it is allowed by the organizers or not, and whether you already have a reliable expert advisor or not, as well as the availability of necessary infrastrusture such as strong internet connection.

 

8. Keep Your Cool

Forex trading contest is held at limited duration. Often, the closer it gets to the end of the contest, a trader gives up when he knows that he is not one of the top traders, or else carelessly opening trades to pursue the desired target. It needs to be noted that trader psychology also determines one's possibility to win. You will not win by acting up like that.

Keep cool head, and continue to go on with your trading plan and strategy. There are always opportunity to win if you do not give up; but if you do, then there is where all of your hard work becomes a waste.

 

9. Boost Your Result

As long as the contest go on, anything could happen. Traders that ranked high in the beginning could slid lower and lost, while those that ranked lower at some time after the start might shot out later and win. The fact is, be it winning or losing, they are often determined by positions that are closed near the end of the contest. This is why you should continue to fight even if your result is bad, and also why you should not brag unnecessarily although you have ranked high. Don't be easily satisfied and boost your result as high as you can.

 

10. Never Give Up

When we decide on competing in a contest, there must be 'something' we wanted to win. That 'something' could be the prize itself, the prestige, a simple satisfaction, or others. Because of that, every losses must be an incentive to work harder. The luck where you compete in one contest and instantly win is practically inexistent, so don't give up so soon after failing in one. Most traders that has won big in forex trading contest are those that has been trading for a long time, and not newbies and greenhorns. By employing special trading contest tactics and never give up, surely you can gain an advantage from the many forex trading contests that has abounded.