Terms and conditions

READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS (the “T&C”) CAREFULLY AS THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN RELATIONS WITH DUKASCOPY

Contest Philosophy

Before starting trading in the Contest it is recommended to read the Philosophy of the Contest. To win the Trader contest a participant needs to achieve the following goals:

  1. To reach the maximum profit within 1 month with the maximum loss limit of 100’000 USD.
  2. To attract other traders to copy trades generated by the contestant’s trading strategies by showing them outstanding quality of trading.
Additionally Dukascopy expects from participants:
  1. To show long-term consistent trading results (6 and 12 months respective).
  2. To explain the idea of the trading strategy and the decision behind each action to other traders.

The Trader Contest should be considered as trading within the monthly limit of 100,000 US dollars renewable each month. The loss of all funds during the contest month should be considered as loss of monthly limit rather than loss of all funds on regular trading account.

One of the contest’s goals is to attract other traders to copy participant’s trades. Number of subscribers is an important factor to win the prize.

Participating in the Trader contest automatically means participating in the Signal Provider Grand Prix with additional prizes! Each month five traders with the highest average profitability in six-month and/or 12-month nomination will compete for additional money prizes. Moreover, the best trader in the 12-month nomination will be awarded a 2,000 USD money prize and the title of the Trader of the Year. Keep in mind that the long term contest (Grand Prix) is based on the two criteria – your equity growth and draw-down.

Scalping and using high leverage are not welcome in the Contest. The set of rules was introduced to encourage predictability, explanations and the ability to reproduce (copy) the trades of the contestants. To ensure this, the rules of the contest contain specific trading conditions and restrictions. Also, one of the main ideas of the rules is to reduce possible cheating.

The Trader Contest is the place where all participants can promote themselves as traders and become popular. Trade, win, create a track record and use it to present yourself. Trader contest is a great place to make a trading career!

Contest Model

Dukascopy Trader Contest (the "Contest") is a forex competition between participants using DEMO accounts for manual trading only (the "Participants"). Any forms of automated trading are forbidden. Several trading limitations are designed to make the competition more fair and analytical.

Participants are expected to keep a register of their trading activity: write blog posts about their deals, trading methods, expectations, thoughts behind the deals, trading plans and other related to the Participant’s trading information. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden. The amount of the quoted text must correspond with the purpose of citing.

The posts of each participant are displayed in “Trader's blog” section on his contest page and also in Community Blog and are tagged “Trader's blog”. The quality and accuracy of these records will be beneficial for obtaining more blog points from Contest’s moderator.

Final ranking of participant represents the sum of points for pure trading performance, copied volume by the signal subscribers, quality of orders and the points for Trader's blog.

Despite the fact the Trader contest leaders table will show participants with less than 60% max draw-down for the current month the traders with higher draw-down can also claim prizes.

The Contest is conducted regularly on a monthly basis. The total prize fund is 28,000$ to be shared among the winners.

Registration Rules

  1. The Contest is held by Dukascopy ('Dukascopy') on DEMO accounts for manually trading on a regular monthly basis.
  2. For each respective month, registration opens on the 25th day of the previous month and remains available until the 25th day of that month. For example, registration for January 2011 is opened from 25.12.2010 till 25.01.2011
  3. Only persons aged 18 or over are eligible to apply for a registration in the Contest.
  4. Participants agree to provide true 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.
  5. Participant must register under a unique 'Nickname' which can not be used by any third person in the future. Among other, multiple registrations and/or use of proxy servers may result in the relevant Participant's disqualification.
  6. Participants shall acknowledge and agree that their trading history, any picture, personal data, and any other information posted on Dukascopy's Traders Blog are accessible to the public and that Dukascopy does not ensure any confidentiality in this respect whether or not participants already have a live account open with Dukascopy or intend / need to open such live account. Consequently, participants shall waive expressly the benefit of Swiss Banking Secrecy and release Dukascopy from any liability in that respect in the frame of the Trader Contest / Traders Blog.
  7. 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, trading history and references. Consequently, participants shall waive expressly the benefit of Swiss Banking Secrecy and release Dukascopy from any liability in that respect.
  8. Participants further acknowledge and agree that should they refuse Dukascopy's request to participate in above-mentioned promotional events, Dukascopy has the right to disqualify such participants and to give the respective prize to other participants.
  9. It is forbidden to use any kind of links in the profile pictures. Any sort of advertisement, restricted sensible content is also not allowed. Dukascopy reserves the right to delete the avatar upon detection of this rule's violation.
  10. Login names containing any trademarks of Dukascopy or its products are not allowed. Words like 'Dukascopy', 'SWFX', 'JForex' and other brand names associated with Dukascopy are forbidden.

Trading Rules

  1. Contest accounts are registered with an initial deposit of USD 100,000.
  2. Trading can be performed using the Java, Android and iPhone/iPad/iPod platforms (no trading possible via web-platform).
  3. The minimum and maximum order size is 100,000 and 5,000,000 currency units respectively.
  4. Only 5 instruments can be opened simultaneously by a Participant.
  5. Only 1 position could be opened at any instrument (if there is already an entry order, there is no possibility to open a market order and vice versa).
  6. The total amount of positions opened during the Contest by one Participant must be at least 10. At the end of the Contest all open positions will be automatically closed 1 hour prior to the settlement.
  7. All positions must have Take Profit (TP) and Stop Loss (SL) orders assigned.
  8. Take profit and Stop Loss levels should not exceed 2% from the opening price for EUR/USD. Limits for the rest instruments recalculating each settlement according to "Pip Conversion Schedule". E.g. Limits for AUD/JPY=(EUR/USD Points/AUD/JPY Points)*2%=1/1.74*2=1.15%; for EUR/NOK=(EUR/USD Points/EUR/NOK Points)*2%=1/0.17*2=11.76%, etc.
  9. TP, SL levels can not initially be set closer than 5 pips either to market price, or to entry price.
  10. It is forbidden to cancel already set SLs and TPs.
  11. All contest trading accounts are subject to the same margin requirements and policies as regular demo accounts. This includes the application of end-of-week leverage (1:30) each Friday, at 18:00 GMT.
Pip Conversion Schedule (by last settlement)
Instrument Rate 1 pip value
$/1Mio$
Points
ADA/USD 0.6555 15256 165.87
AUD/CAD 0.8877 113 1.22
AUD/CHF 0.5824 172 1.87
AUD/JPY 97.84 102 1.11
AUD/NZD 1.0779 93 1.01
AUD/SGD 0.8784 114 1.24
AUD/USD 0.6559 152 1.66
AVE/USD 123.1200 81 0.88
BAT/USD 0.2961 338 3.67
BCH/USD 391.8000 2552 27.75
BTC/CHF 59 803.3000 17 0.18
BTC/USD 67 358.3500 15 0.16
CAD/CHF 0.6560 152 1.66
CAD/HKD 5.7776 17 0.19
CAD/JPY 110.22 91 0.99
CHF/JPY 168.01 60 0.65
CHF/SGD 1.5083 66 0.72
CMP/USD 75.4250 1326 14.42
DGE/USD 0.1435 69686 757.67
DSH/USD 35.1760 284 3.09
ENJ/USD 0.5170 19342 210.3
EOS/USD 0.9744 1026 11.16
ETC/USD 30.9650 3229 35.11
ETH/USD 3 507.9000 285 3.1
EUR/AUD 1.6577 60 0.66
EUR/CAD 1.4714 68 0.74
EUR/CHF 0.9653 104 1.13
EUR/CZK 25.2375 40 0.43
EUR/DKK 7.4566 13 0.15
EUR/GBP 0.8541 117 1.27
EUR/HKD 8.5015 12 0.13
EUR/HUF 394.8280 25 0.28
EUR/JPY 162.17 62 0.67
EUR/NOK 11.5848 9 0.09
EUR/NZD 1.7865 56 0.61
EUR/PLN 4.3220 23 0.25
EUR/SEK 11.3436 9 0.1
EUR/SGD 1.4560 69 0.75
EUR/TRY 35.1621 3 0.03
EUR/USD 1.0873 92 1
GBP/AUD 1.9409 52 0.56
GBP/CAD 1.7227 58 0.63
GBP/CHF 1.1302 88 0.96
GBP/JPY 189.87 53 0.57
GBP/NZD 2.0919 48 0.52
GBP/USD 1.2729 79 0.85
HKD/JPY 19.07 5 0.06
IOT/USD 0.3105 32206 350.16
LNK/USD 18.4255 543 5.9
LTC/USD 83.1500 12026 130.76
MAN/USD 0.6130 16313 177.37
MAT/USD 1.0260 9747 105.97
MKR/USD 3 057.1600 33 0.36
MXN/JPY 8.86 11 0.12
NEO/USD 14.7300 6789 73.81
NZD/CAD 0.8236 121 1.32
NZD/CHF 0.5403 185 2.01
NZD/JPY 90.76 110 1.2
NZD/USD 0.6086 164 1.79
SGD/JPY 111.39 90 0.98
TRX/USD 0.1237 809 8.79
TRY/JPY 4.60 2173 23.63
UNI/USD 11.7850 849 9.23
USD/CAD 1.3533 74 0.8
USD/CHF 0.8879 113 1.22
USD/CNH 7.2062 14 0.15
USD/CZK 23.2047 43 0.47
USD/DKK 6.8582 15 0.16
USD/HKD 7.8193 13 0.14
USD/HUF 363.2135 28 0.3
USD/ILS 3.6543 27 0.3
USD/JPY 149.15 67 0.73
USD/MXN 16.8305 6 0.06
USD/NOK 10.6557 9 0.1
USD/PLN 3.9753 25 0.27
USD/RON 4.5739 22 0.24
USD/RUB 101.8900 1 0.01
USD/SEK 10.4337 10 0.1
USD/SGD 1.3392 75 0.81
USD/THB 35.9895 28 0.3
USD/TRY 32.3134 3 0.03
USD/ZAR 18.9485 5 0.06
XLM/USD 0.1282 780 8.48
XMR/USD 183.5400 54 0.59
XRP/USD 0.6075 16461 178.97
XTZ/USD 1.2200 81967 891.19
YFI/USD 8 884.1000 113 1.22
ZAR/JPY 7.87 1270 13.81

Key Limitations

  1. Every Participant should have only one unique nickname and email linked with his/her personal details, which will be used for the account opening with Dukascopy in case of awarding of a Contest prize.
  2. Only Participants who have a positive balance more than 100,000 may claim to be awarded by any of the prizes.
  3. Trader’s blog posts should not be shorter than 50 words and may be written in any language. In case post contains picture or chart the limitation lowers to 20 words.
  4. Use of offensive or abusive language may cause disqualification from Dukascopy Community and Contest.
  5. Official results of every month will be published during 2 weeks.
  6. Dukascopy reserves the right to set a 1-day ban to any contest participant or community user in case of continuous breaches of contest rules. A permanent disqualification can be applied if a serious violation is detected.

Ranking Calculation Rules

Each month, the score table is formed on the basis of 4 criteria, with a maximum total score of 303-306 points:

  1. Performance - real increase of capital. Maximum - 200 points.

  2. Signal subscribers - nomination consists of 2 components:

    • DEMO - cumulative traded volumes copied by the DEMO signal subscribers active in Social Trading contest are taken into account. Restriction: the copied volume is counted if signal subscriber has subscribed to at least 5 providers. Maximum 15 points.
    • LIVE - cumulative traded volumes copied by the LIVE signal subscribers are taken into account. Maximum 10 points.

  3. Orders quality - volume-weighted share of trades made with conditional orders. It is calculated as a ratio of the traded volume made with conditional orders to the total traded volume. Conditional orders include pending Entry orders, SL and TP orders. Maximum – 50 points.
  4. Trader’s blog - The score entered by a moderator for the quality and accuracy of the posts with "Trader's blog" tag. Maximum 28-31 points (depends on the number of days in the current month).

According to the places in nomination 'Performance' ,the Participants will gain points from 200 till 1 in the following sequence: (1) 200, (2) 180, (3) 170, (4) 165, (5) 160, (6) 159, (7) 158, ... (164) 1.

For 'Signal subscribers' points are assigned linearly.

  • DEMO: (1) 15, (2) 14, (3) 13, ... (15) 1.
  • LIVE: (1) 10, (2) 9, (3) 8, ... (10) 1.

The 'Order's quality' evaluation is obtained from the volume-weighted share of trades made with conditional orders. The percentage of such trades is then multiplied by the maximum score – 50 points. E.g. 90% of conditional volumes – 45 points, 50% - 25 points, etc.

Moderators are checking the Trader's blog for all participants, that shall not post more than 1 time per day. 1 post per 1 day is counted and the maximum points depend on the number of days in the particular month. The Contest moderator decides whether to assign points for the posts or not. Posting of spam, senseless posts, plagiarism and over-citing will be punished by assigning -1 point for each post. The rule “1 post per 1 day is counted” is not applied for spam-posts.

Please notice: At equal quantity of points, the preference will be given to the trader with the latest date of registration in the Contest.


Only Participants with real positive increase of capital can be treated as Contest nominees.
The winners with higher than 60% of max draw-down can also claim prizes.

Prizes and Awarding Rules

  1. The total prize pool of USD 28,000 is distributed among 30 winners of the Contest in the following manner:
    • 1st place and nomination 'The Trader of the Month' - 6,000 USD.
    • 2nd place - 3,500 USD
    • 3rd place - 2,500 USD
    • 4th place - 2,000 USD
    • 5th-6th place - 1,500 USD
    • 7th-10th places - 1,000 USD
    • 11th-20th places - 500 USD
    • 21st-30th places - 200 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.:
    • 1st place - 150 million USD
    • 2nd place - 87.5 million USD
    • 3rd place - 62.5 million USD
    • 4th place - 50 million USD
    • 5th-6th place - 37.5 million USD
    • 7th-10th places - 25 million USD
    • 11th-20th places - 12.5 million USD
    • 21th-30th places - 5 million USD
  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. Top-3 position winners are required to take part in one broadcast of Dukascopy Community TV. Broadcasts are open-format and Participants 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 Participants need 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.
  5. 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 cancel the cash prize.
  6. Cash prizes may be credited only to a live sub-account open with Dukascopy in the name of the relevant Participant.
  7. 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.
  8. Prizes may only be credited to sub-accounts which are not linked to any Business Introducer. If needed, Dukascopy opens new sub-accounts not linked to the Participants’ Business Introducers, if any, and credit the prize(s) on such new sub-accounts.
  9. 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.
  10. 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’s website.
  11. In case of Participant's refusal to participate in promotional events, interviews, public announcements in connection with the Contest, Dukascopy has the right to disqualify such Participant and give the respective prize to another Participant.

Fair Play

  1. Participants acknowledge and agree to make efforts to respect the principles of Fair Play.
  2. Participants must refrain from any dishonest and unfair conduct even if these activities are not fully described within the framework of the Contest rules.
  3. Such activities include, but are not limited to:
    • Registration of persons that are directly or indirectly related to other Participant
    • Various team tactics that include consolidation of Participants into a group with a purpose to get a statistical advantage on one of the accounts
    • Trading in opposite directions within one or more accounts
    • Spamming in private messages and comments
    • Any kind of manipulations with Orders quality points and other statistics
    • Other activities used to get an unfair advantage over other Participants

6/12 Statistics for Signal Provider Grand Prix

  1. Total pip-points gained – The number of pip-points (EUR/USD pips equivalent) scored during the given statistical period.
  2. Avg. pip-points outcome from all positions – The average number of EUR/USD pips equivalent points gained/lost on all positions opened during the given statistical period.
  3. Most profitable trade – The number of EUR/USD pips equivalent points gained on the most profitable position opened during the given statistical period.
  4. Worst trade - The number of EUR/USD pips equivalent points lost on the most detrimental position opened during the given statistical period.
  5. Avg. pip-points gain on positive positions - The average number of EUR/USD pips equivalent points gained on all positive positions opened during the given statistical period.
  6. Avg. pip-points lost on negative positions - The average number of EUR/USD pips equivalent points lost on all negative positions opened during the given statistical period.
  7. Number of trades – Total number of trades conducted during the given statistical period.
  8. Avg. position size (USD) – The average size of a position opened during the given statistical period, in USD.
  9. Avg. trade time – The average duration of all positions opened during the given statistical period. From opening to closure.
  10. Maximum drawdown (%) – Maximum equity's depreciation, calculated as the percentage between the highest equity value and the lowest one during the given statistical period.
  11. Number of drawdowns – Total number of consecutive equity contractions during the given statistical period.
  12. Volume-weighted share of trades conducted with conditional orders – calculated as a ratio of the Traded volume made with conditional orders to the Total traded volume. These include entry pending orders, Stop-Loss and Take-Profit orders.
  13. Win/Loss ratio – Ratio of positive vs. negative positions opened during the given statistical period.

Charts

  1. Cumulative Profit/Loss dynamics - The chart is based on the continuous sum of periodic profits & losses. Starts from zero although traders actually start their trading with an initial deposit of 100,000 USD every month.
  2. Contest standings – Current rank of the trader in the respective period’s (1 month, 6 month or 1 year) standings of the Trader contest.
  3. Performance – Historical profit & loss results along a selected statistical period. Shown in pip points (EUR/USD pips equivalent).
  4. Traded volumes – Volumes traded historically during a selected statistical period. Shown in USD.
  5. Instruments – Distribution of instruments the trader uses for trading.

Other rules and policies

  1. 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 any kind of promotional activities or publicity campaigns, statistics collection etc.
  2. Dukascopy reserves the right to disqualify a Participant, to change the Contest rules, requirements and awards, without prior notice and at any time and at its sole discretion.

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