Here is my feedback to Dukascopy regarding the article contest with my suggestions for improvements.

I wrote this with good intentions because I like the article contest idea. However, the way it is positioned now with existing rules I doubt it will evolve to its potential.

1. The interface for preparing articles
a. It has a very limited functionality. This is hard to comprehend in this day and age where free software with all the bells and whistles is available for free. It takes ages to prepare an article because if I prepare it in say Word and copy it into the interface it simply doesn’t work. So one needs to go through a tedious process of formatting everything again.
b. Suggestion: Allow us to submit articles as HTML. There are many free HMTL editors around. Word also created HTML documents. Allow peeopel tocerate their article swith whatever tool they have and then simply copy and paste.

2. Imposed limitations
a. I am not sure why there are so many imposed limitations in regard to the look and feel of articles. Why cant one use whatever font they like, different colours etc? We use this daily when using other tools. Why only 9 images per article? Today everything is going towards visual interaction. Etc.
b. Suggestion: Allow people to submit what they think is their best work and let the public decide what is good and what not.

3. The title
a. The title is limited to 10 words. Sometimes this is not enough to convey the message of the article. So one needs to create titles that don’t tell the potential reader what the article is about thus lowering the potential readership. Anyone who has read any marketing materials knows that the title is the grabbing point. Without a good title any good article goes unnoticed.
b. Suggestion: Increase the number of words in the title to at least 15.

4. Quality vs quantity
a. There are many more participants in other contests than in the article contest. The reason is that not every trader has the will, the knowledge, the skills and the talent to prepare good articles. While traders can compete with trading every month on the FX market (so the opportunity is limitless) with articles the contest will eventually run into a situation that people will have nothing more to contribute. The theory of trading is limited. It is already obvious from some articles that people simply copy information from various manuals which can be seen from the images that they insert.
b. The rule of 4 articles per month forces people who don’t have enough material to simply create a long article of 1500 words, split it into 4 articles of 375 plus add a bit at the front and at the end. Voila! They have a 4 part article series for that month. Wouldn’t it make more sense to read it al in one piece if it is useful?
c. The rule of 4 articles per month also repels people who have something to contribute but don’t have enough material.
d. Suggestion: Remove the rule of 4 articles per month. You can re-introduce it later if you get swamped with a deluge of articles but right know there is a draught. But make only the best article count. This way people who have something to contribute can submit only one article and still have a chance to win the first prize.

5. Popularity
a. This is a sad topic. I see many participants generate false traffic and comments from bogus users just to prop up their rankings. I could activate an army of supporters (everyone has friends and family) and they would all create an FX Community account and they would vote for me. And I would win the popularity contest. What is the point? This is pathetic but participants do it because rules are such that allow them to do so. So in the end we don’t have good articles raising to the top but those of crafty marketers. It is true that the Dukascopy assessment in the end creates some order but by then it is too late to have a true indication of the merit of articles.
b. Suggestion: Remove the popularity mark. Focus on quality and originality. The public will read and watch what they decide is good materials. Why doesn’t Dukascopy send to the FX community users or even to all their clients the best articles from each month? This way the contest would be popularized and there would be some use from all the stuff in the article library. Otherwise it will simply gather dust.

6. The prize
a. The prize amount is proportional to the number of participants. The idea is OK. However, I predict that this will eventually backfire. People will run out of ideas what to write about and the quality and/or quantity of submitted will drop. You may end up with a flood of copied stuff from elsewhere or a trickle of materials each month. So the number of participants may drop as well. Assume a theoretical scenario. A person prepares 4 articles for the next month’s competition. S/he puts in a lot of work. Then s/he submits them but finds out that there are very few participants enrolled. S/he wins the first prize of a few hundred dollars. She may decide it the reward wasn’t worth the effort. So you lose another good contributor and the next month the number of participants goes even lower.
b. Suggestion: Define the minimal prize which applies regardless of the number of participants. Then it rises proportionally to the maximum with the number of participants. This way anyone who takes this seriously knows that this amount of money is available and doesn’t depend upon who enrolls. So the person could be the only one enrolled and if the article merits the award then it should get it.

7. The turnover
a. While the prize is proportional to the number of enrolled participants, the required turnover isn’t. So one wins say $1500 as the first prize but still needs to create 10 million of turnover. Assume the person has less than $5000 in their trading account. They will end up paying $48 in commission per 1 million traded. By the time they get to 10 million they have paid $480 in commission. A high tax!
b. Suggestion: Make the required turnover also proportional to the prize. So if the 1st prize is $2500 and not the maximum $5000 then the required turnover should be 5 million and not 10 million.

Overall I believe that:
• The article contest will flourish with more natural rules. Don’t make so many limitations.
• Don’t make so many rules for deciding the winner. People exploit the loopholes anyway. If Dukascopy wants a certain level of quality for the articles then simply reward those articles that meet the criteria.
• Why do you need to award all available prizes? Award only those that meet your criteria for quality.

I would appreciate some feedback from Dukascopy in regard to this topic and future plans for the contest.
It would be also great to hear from other participants in the contest so we can see whether I am alone with this kind of thinking or there is support for the presented ideas.

Wishing you the best with the contest and overall
Robert Bric

I have been told that:
Re 6. There currently is a minimal amount - 25% of the maximum.
Re 7. Turnover is proportional. The rule is 0.2 mio for every won 100$!

I thought I had read all rules and regulations but I obviously didn't. I apologise for raising a moot point on those two issues.

Hi RobertBric and Dukascopy community:

I agree whith some of your points but some will dificult the contest evaluation as we have more factors to take care about. Having some more "media" and formating facilities maybe disrupt the aspect of the site. But some more freedom and choices are welcome. I agree with you when you refer the reformating problems when you paste the content done somewhere else. Because of that i create articles on web platform or i create them outside just as text and do the formating after. Other aspect i totally agree with you is about popularity and i have commented that in other threads.

About the prize values, i think they are fair... In article contest you "play" with few contestants and in other contests you have a lot more to care about. And on other side, for example, in trader contest you have to stay all month playing with to get some results... or you need some programming skills for strategy contest. What needs more effort ? It's hard to tell.

Other thing is copyright. The rules don't allow the use of "material" from other sites (owned or not). I have seen some articles that are almost a true copy and paste and others with little alterations from other places (can't say if are owned or not)... And some wins prizes!

Just my toughts...

Trade well and good luck

In my view, the only root of cause is Popularity point. If it will have minimum weight like 5%, or 2% or none. Then participants will not try to get popularity point. Because, I have seen in lots of article, community member writes comment as :

Good Luck, +1.
Nice article, +1,
Good article, etc.

Where is review? No where.

And due to popularity point still able to get expert review and win the contest.

Therefore, in my view, all rules are perfectly fine, however there need some modification.

1. Popularity point should be decreased to 5% or no popularity point.
2. DFC member review should be counted, but not a comment like Good luck, Nice article. I think, Dukascopy experts understand this fact very well, about comments.
3. A visitor, who is not DFC member can also comment on article or provide their reviews.

However, expert evaluation would have final decision to make any article WINNER.

Thanks,
Santosh.

What I really liked was Robert's idea of sending some articles to Dukascopy clients or forum members. That would be great way to promote FX article contest and what more - the articles would have some real use instead being available in constantly increasing library only.

As for comparing to trader contest - well it is true that trading every day in contest can be a lot of effort, but in my opinion, trader contest isnt serious thing. Well for few guys can be, but those do not win. It is a game of luck, coin flip for most of the participants. How the hell can you pretend serious trading and trade 5m positions on 100k accounts? That means 50 standard lots where hitting for example 100 pip SL means washing 50% off you account off? I tried it for fun too and very early became aware that
if you want to be high in this contest, you must be earning tons of pips - doubling, tripling your positions on pairs with high positive correlation and also your pips must have some weight in increasing your balance - you have to trade millions to double or triple your equity in a week or two.

On the other hands, FX contest is serious. There are certain rules to be followed and we have to give the best from us to contribute to a high standard of articles. How can somebody copy and paste other's ideas I will never understand.

What would be completely fair - before expert's evaluation simply all articles of TOP 20 or all articles with quality xx or more will start again from zero. And then only marks
from experts will be counted and all points gained from popularity will be erased, so the standings can be completely independent on previous popularity.

I like Andrew's idea of erasing points before the last stage and then the experts decide. While we may personally not always agree with the final decision (this is human) at least it will be the same starting point for everyone. Surely none of us has connections in Dukacopy to be favoured??!! And all fraudulent activity will be useless which is what I like the best with this idea. People will then focus on quality, give feedback to others, write comments…

Two thumbs up for Andrew’s idea. I hope Dukascopy will take in on board.

Hi all...

I agree with last posts... i spoke about that in other thread sometime ago: "I think Dukascopy is trying to do their best for the contest to be fair to all contestants... To be honest, i think the only way is all classification be made by Dukascopy evaluation experts taking care of all aspects of quality, views, comments, etc and only know after the contest ends."

It's good to see the community discussing aspects to try to make all things better.

Best regards

Trade well and good luck

JL

Greetings everyone,

It is great to see that the Dukascopy Community is strenghtening more and more.
I only hope that more traders would participate in the Article Contest with trading ideas,
educational information and quality articles.
We all have to play fair and respect one another to make this contest more pleasant
and fun to participate.
Anyway I think that the Dukascopy Team always makes the difference in the contest
standings at the end of the month.

Good luck everyone and Trade well,
To your success,
Doctortyby