Since this is the first month I'm actually in top 10 in Strategy Contest after I decided to build another strategy because all of the previous strategies weren't performing that good. I've done a lot of backtesting with my current strategy and it had quite some impressive results especially over the last months, posting positive gains after positive gains.

All good so far, and up until Thursday I was in the 3-4 place in the rank and all of a sudden Friday, the last day of the contest I end up being in the 7th place...are you kidding me?....there weren't any major moves for such think to happen so I decided to look at what others from the contest where doing.

Here are my findings:

1) Trader Dream007
a)His strategy only start trading in the last 5 days of the Contest (really now?) is this allowed? Of course that with only 5 days of trading history you'll have better stats, because the longer the strategy runs the higher the probabilities are that it will blow out.
b)But he doesn't stops here, by Thursday he only had 9 trades so he couldn't be eligible for the prize so he goes in the last trading day and is changing his strategy and boom he makes 42 trades in total,so he made 33 trades in the last trading day enough to hit the 20 trades minimum requirement.

2)Trader Chainsaw
Strategy only trading for 5 days. The same thing as I said about trader dream007 in the first part.

3)Trader Marcom13
He was just unlucky as his strategy only made 14 trades and not hit the minimum requirement of 20 trades.

4)fxdealer
In the middle of the month he has a drawdown and just after that happens he change his strategy. I mean he doesn't change his strategy per se, he only changed the trading size from 8M to 11M. If I would have done the same I would have been in the 1st place right now not him. Keep in mind that he only changed his trading size, strategy is still the same. The Fair play rules don't allow it.

5)Trader jyjy
Look at his trading size, here I'm not sure if this is allowed or not. However his trading size is insane and based on the Fair Play rules I think this is not allowed but he is getting an unfair advantage over other Participants. (not allowed based on the Fair Play rules). He wasn't even in the top 10 rank all of a sudden in the last trading day he appears in top 10 rank.

I though that Dukascopy is promoting Fair Play among traders participants in the contest and cheating is not allowed. This is disrespectful in the first place to other traders who have put hard work into their strategies.

I could have done the same thing and change my trading size to maximum only in the last week and I would have been in the 1st place right now, look at my stats if you don't believe me

I hope that Dukascopy will take the necessary action against those who are not fair play and are cheating.

Best Regards,
Daytrader21

PS: Here is a quick reminder of what Dukascopy Fair play is all about for those who may forgotten: (see Figure attached) or follow the link: https://www.dukascopy.com/strategyconte ... ntestrules

Greetings.

1. Will be disqualified. Minimum trades limit not reached. Unfair play.
2. No violations here.
3. Will be disqualified. Minimum trades limit not reached.
4. No violations here.
5. No violations here.

Best regards, Support Team.

How comes that changing your position size is not considered a violation of the rules? You gain a competitive advantage over other players by boosting up your equity. If I would have done the same thing I would have been the one in the 1st place.

You can increase volume or set it as function from Equity. But decreasing volume is prohibited, because it can be seen as hibernation.