It is a dream for more than a thousand traders all over the world every month to win Dukascopy demo trading contest. Duka evaluation points play a significant role after pips and equity in deciding the final ranks. Equally the guidelines have importance in real trading success .so I investigated on duka evaluation points and how they are affecting the rankings. here is my report

I, provide my understanding and my analysis on dukascopy evaluation points. My intention is to bring this topic to limelight so its importance in demo trading contest and in real trading be realized and understood properly. I request my co participants and    the expert traders   to share their opinions on this topic.

I took the stats from September (from here, duka reduced evaluation points to 50)& I left September month winner cause that months winner did exceptional performance...duka awarded him some extra points. I left the Jan &fib  winners conditional order part (the reason below)

I think everyone knows   how dukascopy evaluation points are calculated

Here is the link " http://www.dukascopy.com/tradercontest/?action=contestrules#methodology"

Notice that duka says not to take the evaluation points as a measure of  participants trading quality..

Analysis of dukascopy demo trading contest winners with respect to   dukascopy evaluation categories


Some conclusions;

Avg dukascopy evaluation points gained by top traders is 36.4

Avg proportion of duka points in total points is 15.77%

 Max draw down ranges from  8.63 to 82.63…avg is about  29.87

Avg pip gain ranges from 24 to 134   avg is 65.63

Avg pip lost ranges from   -20 to -167  avg is -60.5

%conditional orders range from  44 to 82 avg is  66.6

Winloss ratio ranges from 48 to 91 avg is 68.1

Though the  duka points largely depend on one’s own style of trading and system they  are executing..and vary  from winner to winner,  the avg stats helps you to roughly estimate where you stand in the crowd with respect to duka points.

Many traders  have doubts on how the points are being calculated and awarded .here is the most probable way ,

"http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/forex/jforex/forum/viewtopic.php?p=64748#p64748"

(thanks furion for your efforts)

Some bugs and tweaks with respect to duka points that had effect over dukascopy evaluation points

I bring these issues here cause they had impact on dukascopy points  and in good hope that it may help duka team in their continuing efforts to make the contest  unbiased

1)Whatever the program it be ,its common that few bugs be found in the course of time..so is with jforex contest platform, there is bug where  a kind of market order is taken as conditional order

Here  I raised the topic "http://www.dukascopy.com/swiss/english/forex/jforex/forum/viewtopic.php?p=64486#p64486"

Few traders used it to get some advantage including the Jan & Feb. winners

2)There is  a probable area to tweak .avg loss of pips.. if there is big avg loss of pips ,few traders  are creating orders intentionally with small stop loss so the avg loss of pips will get reduced.

Though above said bug/tweaks  may not impact ones score  drastically,but that can make difference between place 1 & 2.

Forget about  the contest do they help in real trading..

Simple answer is yes.. definitely they do..

It does not matter whatever you follow  as long as you get descent realistic profit. But in the long run its the discipline and money management that  make one to get profits consistently  .I believe keeping one’s self to trade along these lines automatically induces the discipline and good money management

Each category itself explains its importance, I will say few lines about each category ,so it may help the novice..

Conditional orders;

Conditional orders help  one to protect the capital and lock in the profit. So  they form important role in the concept of ‘trade the plan’.

Max draw down;

Keeping the draw down to minimum is necessary to succeed in the long run. .here the mantra is keep   the risk to minimum..this parameter  reflects your money management, asks you to have good mm plan

Avg pip gain &loss and win ratio;.

These three constitute soul of one’s trading plan..if avg pip gain /loss is big then a low win ratio is enough to make you profitable and vice versa.

a good win/ratio and big avg pip gain and low avg pip loss together  indicate a sound trading plan.

Conclusion.

A better understanding of the contest will  better the chances of winning..and following guidelines in a view to get advantage in real trading with good understanding, instead of blindly aiming to get them(evaluation points)is necessary. A good  trade plan itself contains  a good number of duka evaluation points. 

thanks for reading .

wish you a good luck in your endeavors to get success.