Contest Model

Dukascopy FX Article contest is a unique competition elaborated for participants simultaneously passionate about Forex and writing about it. Unlike other contests held by Dukascopy, the article contest does not presuppose the conducting of trading activities of any kind or coding strategies. On the contrary, the concept of the contest is built around the text content. Any article or publication dedicated to the subject of FOREX is a candidate for participation.

Within the newly emerging Dukascopy Forex Community (DFC), the article contest may equally be a way of sharing Forex-related ideas for new participants and a good applied tool for traders already participating in Dukascopy trading contests.

Every participant is allowed to post up to 4 articles per 1 contest period. By default, contest period is 1 calendar month. All articles are uploaded to Dukascopy Contest webpage and are published only after the moderators check whether they comply with the Rules. The ranking of competitors is based on bulk popularity of their articles (number of views from Unique IP address), their rating ("likes" on Facebook, Dukascopy Thumbs up) and Dukascopy expert evaluation of the best author"s article.

The Contest is conducted regularly on a monthly basis with the total monthly prize fund of 23 000$ to be shared among the winners. Prizes are awarded in form of LIVE trading accounts with Dukascopy.

Registration Rules

1. The Dukascopy Article Contest ("Contest") is held by Dukascopy ("Dukascopy") on a regular basis.
2. Anyone who wants to take part in the Contest (individually a "Participant" or collectively "Participants") must register following the rules below. For each contest period, registration opens on the 25th of the previous month and is available until the 24th of the current month.
3. Registration proceeds via the unified environment of the Dukascopy Forex Community.
4. If the total number of active registrations (number of Participants that have posted at least one article) within each Contest period does not reach 100, the Prizes are calculated using proportions method. E.g. if there are 50 active contestants, the Prizes to be paid amount to 50% of the nominal.
5. The contest is open worldwide but only persons aged 18 or over are eligible to register for the Contest.
6. Participants agree to provide valid information during registration. If a Participant becomes eligible for any prize, information provided during his/her registration will be used for the opening of a live account with Dukascopy in the name of that Participant. In case of information being false, inaccurate or incomplete, Dukascopy may declare the participation in the Contest void at any time and at its sole discretion, and rescind any prizes the Participant in question might have won.
7. Participants acknowledge and agree that their registration data are not covered by confidentiality whether or not Participants already have a live account with Dukascopy or intend / need to open such live account in the future. Consequently, Participants waive expressly the benefit of Swiss Banking Secrecy and release Dukascopy from any liability in that respect in the frame of the Contest.
8. Participants shall acknowledge and accept that, in case they are awarded with a prize by Dukascopy, they may be asked to participate in promotional events, interviews, public announcements in connection with the Contest and that Dukascopy may make use of their names, materials and references. Consequently, participants hereby expressly grant Dukascopy permission to use names, materials and references for such purposes, and release Dukascopy from any liability in that respect.
9. Participants further acknowledge and agree that, should they refuse Dukascopy request to participate in above-mentioned promotional events, Dukascopy has the right to retroactively disqualify such participants and to give the respective prize to other participants.
10. Participants agree that materials submitted for the participation in a Contest may be used by Dukascopy without prior or subsequent notice to the author, free of charge and for an unlimited period of time. Dukascopy reserves the right to translate, rephrase, edit, otherwise modify and use the submitted materials or their parts in other compositions, leaving the mentioning of the author at the sole discretion of Dukascopy. Participants hereby waive all rights of exclusivity with regard to the submitted content and grant Dukascopy full rights to all articles and materials submitted in the course of a Contest.
11. It is forbidden to use any kind of links and third party advertising in the profile pictures, written comments and any other material submitted in the course of the Contest. Participants are required to adhere, inter alia, the Rules for Posted Content, and are strongly advised to acquaint themselves with these Rules. Any sort of advertisement or restricted sensible content is also not allowed. Dukascopy reserves the right to delete the picture/comment upon detection of this rule"s violation.
12. Use of login names containing any trademarks of Dukascopy or its products is not allowed. Words like "Dukascopy", "SWFX", "JForex" and other brand names associated with Dukascopy are forbidden.
13. Multiple registrations by the same Participant under the same or different IP addresses and names, and/or use of proxy servers may result in the Participant"s disqualification (except for unique cases approved in advance by Dukascopy).
14. Dukascopy is entitled to refuse a Participant upon registration or disqualify him/her at a later stage during or after the Contest period due to violation of these Rules and guidelines or other reasons at the sole discretion of Dukascopy. Disqualification may lead to the rescinding of any prizes awarded to such Participant.

Participation rules

1. Participant creates an account in the DFC (Dukascopy Forex Community) if he/she doesn"t have any up to this point.
2. User shall join current contest in order to confirm his/her participation. During the first subscription, he/she is required to enter precise, complete and true contact information. For further subscriptions, one only needs to confirm his participation by clicking on the respective button.
3. Participants submit no more than 1 article per week. Voting and commenting statistics are calculated separately for every of the texts and summed to determine his/her total rank. Unique IP visits are counted based on the number of visits to the personal page of the participant and, hence, are equal for all the articles uploaded by the user within the registration period.
4. The calculation of points is based on all the articles of each Author for every Contest period. Dukascopy Commission will give its subjective evaluation of each Author"s one best article.
5. The texts are submitted directly to Dukascopy Forex Community website via the special interface. All articles confirmed for the Contest are published on the page of the participant. However, the texts are not only subjected to the pre-moderation, meaning that they might not be approved for the contest, but are also closely monitored after the publication and can be removed from the contest at any time at the sole discretion of Dukascopy. The publishing of an article does not imply its endorsement by Dukascopy.
6. Each participant can only be granted one single position and prize per Contest period even if he posts several articles during that Contest period.
7. If a Participant submits several articles within one Contest period, the position of the participant is determined on best of the points scored among all his articles.
8. Participants agree that all articles submitted to the Contest may be used by Dukascopy for any kind of promotional activities, free of charge or royalties, without any limitations and without prior or subsequent notice to the author.
9. Participants agree to provide for free the source materials used for the creation of the article at first short notice from Dukascopy.
10. Only trading platforms developed by Dukascopy (JForex, Java, iPhone, web) can be used in the submitted article (screenshots, etc). The usage of other platforms for analytical descriptions and other purpose is forbidden.
11. Participants assume full responsibility for the legality of the content they submit. Without limitation to any of the above, each Participant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Dukascopy and its employees, directors and affiliates from and against any damages, losses, costs, claims, including immaterial and indirect damages, attributable to or sustained in connection with the content submitted by such Participant.

List of requirements for the text

1. The text shall be composed in any language available on the web-site (including the attachments such as graphic materials).
2. The length of the text shall vary between 400 and 1500 words.
3. The text may contain images, charts, trades and other embeddable elements from Dukascopy Forex Community. When using such a graphic element from the Dukascopy Forex Community that contains a copyright notice, this notice may not be omitted (cropped out or otherwise) by the Participant.
4. Any registered member of the Dukascopy Forex Community who is admitted to the Contest is allowed to submit a total of 4 articles per 1 Contest period, not more than 1 article per week.
5. The main requirement for the participating article is its relation to FOREX. It can be either a description of strategy or trading system, either analytic overviews, predictions or even some fun stories about the FX trading. Be creative but stick to the topic!
6. The text must comply with the Contest rules and the guidelines. Dukascopy holds the right to disqualify any Participant from the Contest at any time, at its own discretion, without prior or subsequent notice.

Rules for posted content

We sincerely hope that the contestants do themselves have an understanding of the social "taboo" topics not tolerated on any respectful website or Internet resource. However, before passing to the creation of your contest article, please make sure that you are familiar with the major restrictions allotted to the texts:

1. The article should be created exclusively for the Dukascopy FX Article Contest by the same person who submits it for the Contest.
2. Dukascopy FX Article Contest is not for advertisement purposes. Contestants are not allowed to include any information that directly promotes their professional activity, even if it is related to Forex. Neither are they permitted to promote or popularize any third parties in their texts. This restriction applies also to all kind of Forex industry-related products as trading robots, strategies etc. commercialized by individuals or legal bodies.
3. Do not create misleading descriptions of your texts or allocate inappropriate headings (captions) with the purpose of increasing the article"s popularity.
4. Do not make derisive and specific references to any of the existing articles posted for the Contest, whether directly or indirectly. Any indications or appeal for certain actions with respect to the Contest participants (commenting or evaluation particular articles) is forbidden.
5. Existing partners of Dukascopy (Introducing brokers and Money Managers) are not allowed to promote themselves in the articles. This refers to mentioning any reference numbers, stressing the link with Dukascopy etc.
6. Respect copyright. Do not submit texts you didn"t compose or use content that someone else owns copyright to, such as snippets of copyrighted programs, pictures, photos, tables, charts or articles created or owned by other users or any third party without necessary authorizations. Note that breach of this rule may lead to your personal liability towards the author.
7. No use of trademarks. Do not use the names or trademarks of established brands in a way that might suggest that you are endorsed by or otherwise affiliated with such brand. Consider also that the excessive use of brand names may violate the rule against direct or indirect marketing.
8. Do not include content that violates any of the sensible areas described in the guidelines on restricted or sensible topics.
9. Do not post any links to viruses, Trojans, worms, time bombs, malicious code or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, data, or personal information in or connected to Dukascopy FX Community.

Please take these rules seriously. Dukascopy warns participants against trying to look for loopholes or trying to circumvent the guidelines in any manner. Sticking to the rules is in the interest of the contestant himself/herself, as an article that does not comply with the requirements will not pass the pre-moderation and will not be accepted to the Contest, may be removed at a later stage and even lead to the disqualification of the Participant, thus making the invested efforts senseless.

Reminder: Please note that all articles pass through the Dukascopy compliance examination before being accepted to the Contest and published. This might cause a delay before the article is accepted for the competition and is published. Dukascopy does not warrant the publishing of an article within a certain timeline, although it shall use its best endeavours to place all articles online within the shortest possible time.

Guidelines on restricted or sensible topics

Please familiarize yourself with the list of topics you should stay away of or be maximally cautious when composing your article. When scanning the article for compliance, Dukascopy will pay special attention to ensure the following issues are avoided:

• Pornography or sexually explicit content
• Racism or sexual discrimination
• Hate speeches
• Shocking & disgusting content
• Unlawful acts
• Infringements of intellectual property
• Harassment
• Threats
• Violation of privacy

COPYRIGHT ATTENTION: Please be especially careful with the use of 3rd party materials for your articles. All the legal risks lie solely with the participant. Although Dukascopy experts examine submitted articles for infringement of intellectual property during pre-moderation, the Company does not take any responsibility for participants violating the intellectual property laws.

Also note that any visitor of the website can press the "report abuse" button to complain about a possible infringement of intellectual property. The article can be disqualified from the participation at any time. The contestants that do not respect copyright might be banned from the Dukascopy Contests forever.

Evaluation & rankings

The ranking of the submitted articles is determined based on 3 factors that may totally give a maximum of 300 points:

1. Popularity - Summary of articles" and participant"s popularity. Maximum 100 points, up to 4 articles. Popularity is measured as follows:
   • Numbers of unique IP visits to the profile page and articles - 30%, 10 external views have the same weight as 1 view of a registered DFC user.
   • Number of comments made to the Contest articles - 35%
   • Number of votes for the Contest articles - 35%
2. Quality comprises of the following and is the marks that are put by the Moderators before the article is published online:
   • Formatting Formatting should only be used to emphasize a certain point. Using bold or other style for whole paragraphs is unacceptable. Avoid underlined words if possible to avoid confusion with links. We evaluate the relevance of use formatting tools and the looks of the article.
   • Paragraphs Articles should be well-structured, and divided into paragraphs by sub-topics.
   • Titles, subtitles, tags A title should be a reflection of the essence of the article, and not a string of hype of attention grabbing words. If your text has sub-heading, they should be styled accordingly. Tags are they index terms that point at the most important pieces of information in your article.
   • Relevant pictures Any text looks nicer with illustrations, but they should be close to the topic and relevant. We evaluate the quality and relevance of pictures.
   • Basic grammar We don"t expect articles to be grammatically perfect, but there are some unforgivable things. Many tend to forget that sentences start with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark. Also, one dot, question or exclamation mark is sufficient most of the times. So please avoid things like: "i started trading..... and... it was good!!!?!?!??!?!" or "y U nO pUt Me gOoD mArK dukascopy????"
3. Expert opinion - Expert"s opinions of the most popular article submitted by the Participant for the Contest period. Top 20 Author’s articles chosen by criteria 1 and 2 will be evaluated by the Dukascopy committee. Maximum 100 points

According to the places in each nomination the Participants will gain points from 100 till 1 in the following sequence: (1) 100, (2) 95, (3) 90, (4) 89, ... (92) 1.

Please note: In case of equality of points, the ranking will be based on the chronological order of registration time.

Prizes and Awarding Rules

1. The total prize pool of USD 23 000 is distributed among the top 10 Participants in the Contest in the following manner:
   • 1st place - "grand prize" of USD 7000
   • 2nd place - "golden prize" of USD 5000
   • 3rd place - "golden prize" of USD 3000
   • 4th-5th places - "silver prize" of USD 1500
   • 6th-10th places - "bronze prize" of USD 1000
   Please note that if the number of active Participants does not reach 100, the total prize pool will be calculated of the basis of proportion - "n/100", however the prize fund cannot be less as 20% of the default USD 23 000. That is, if there are 50 active participants, the prizes to be paid will amount to 50% of USD 23 000.
   
   The prize amounts are rounded up or down to the nearest hundred USD. That is, the prize of 150 USD or more is rounded to 200 USD but 149 USD or less is rounded to 100 USD.
2. The contest winners may withdraw their cash prizes and the profits generated from their cash prizes on their respective sub-accounts after meeting the minimum turnover requirement. The minimum turnover requirement constitutes 2.5 million USD for every 100 USD won in the contest.
3. Participants are allowed to withdraw funds in full only when there are no blocked prizes on the account. Profit can only be withdrawn when there are no blocked prizes on the account.
   
   If there are both blocked and unblocked prizes:
   • participants are only allowed to withdraw the sum of unblocked prizes;
   • only the positive difference between equity and sum of blocked funds can be withdrawn;
   • the sum of withdrawn funds can"t exceed the sum of unblocked funds.
4. LIVE accounts which are credited with prize money are considered LIVE Prize accounts. LIVE Prize accounts can be credited only with cash prize money. Clients are not allowed crediting their own funds on this type of account.
5. Top-3 position winners are required to take part in one broadcast of Dukascopy Community TV. Broadcasts are open-format and users have the opportunity of presenting the trading strategies and principles that lead them to success in the particular contest, taking part in the discussion of one of the open discussion of the Live TV or suggesting another topic of their interest related to Forex/Economics/Trading psychology etc.
   
   The broadcast is to be carried within one calendar month after the end of the contest month. Dukascopy representatives will be in contact with every of the winners to appoint a commonly convenient time for the broadcast.
   
   The only device one needs to take part in the web-broadcast is a microphone and a web-cam. Broadcasts are held in English. Cases when the prize winner does not master English at a sufficient level will be solved on an individual basis: either by outsourcing an interpreter or via other individual solutions.
6. Cash prizes are credited to a Live sub-account not linked to any Business Introducer in the name of Participant with Dukascopy. The Participant who is awarded a prize is not allowed to demand crediting of the prize to any other account, including, inter alia, an account that is not in the name of this Participant.
7. If Participant does not have a live account with Dukascopy, then he/she should proceed to the live account opening procedure in a regular way. If Participant does not comply with live account opening requirements, Dukascopy reserves the right to rescind the cash prize.
8. If a Participant already has a Live account but has not yet any open sub-account, Dukascopy opens a sub-account in the Participant’s reference currency and credits the prize(s) on this sub-account.
9. Save contrary and valid preliminary written instruction of the Participant, Dukascopy converts the prize(s) into the currency of the sub-account on which the prize(s) shall be credited in application of the present “Prizes and Awarding Rules”. Such conversion is subject to fees as per the fee schedule posted on Dukascopy website.
10. In case of Participant"s refusal to participate in promotional events, interviews, public announcements in connection with Contest, Dukascopy has the right to disqualify such Participant and award the respective prize to another Participant.

Other rules and policies

1. Dukascopy reserves the right to change the Contest rules, requirements and awards without prior notice and at any time at its sole discretion.
2. Dukascopy reserves the right to use any kind of information posted by Participants within the framework of the Contest for its own purposes without prior coordination and approval from the authors. These purposes may include without restriction any kind of promotional activities or publicity campaigns, statistics collection etc.

For feedback, questions and comments please send an email.