Zulutrade is one of the leading names among fintech companies. It is a Trade CFD established in Greece in 2007. Specializing in cryptocurrency trading and forex trading, it allows less experienced traders to copy the tactics of the pros. This is called copy/mirror trading.
The traders whose strategies are being followed are called “signal providers” on the ZuluTrade trading platform. Signal providers make an important part of the userbase and also make automated trading possible.
Currently, ZuluTrade is owned by the Chinese Formax Group, which had acquired it for $12.4 million dollars. The same group owns Dayo and AAAFX. It has 64 global partners, which assist it in expanding its multinational presence.
This online trading platform can undoubtedly help you earn profits, but that will not be quite so easy. To make proper use of this site, users need practical knowledge of forex and much effort. Another website named “Zulu4me” has experts that offer invaluable advice on ZuluTrade trading. When it comes to social trading, this unique platform holds its own against the likes of eToro.
What is ZuluTrade?
ZuluTrade is an online trading platform, where you can create an account and share your trading strategies with others. To understand what this company’s about, let’s take a brief look at its history.
Its foundation was laid in 2007 by Kosta Eleftheriou and Leon Yohai. Although the former left the firm in 2008, the latter stayed and became the creator of the ZuluTrade trading platform’s mirror trading software. This program is connected to FXCM’s API.
The copy trading software entered beta testing in 2008.
After rapid growth, the site had acquired 4,500+ signal provider portfolios till 2009.
The Daily Telegraph listed this online trading platform in its Start-Up 100 list in 2011.
In 2012, the developers at the site redesigned the site’s layout and increased the features of the interface.
The company expanded at a rapid rate and had employed 120 workers by 2013. Of these 120 employees, 40 are in customer support only.
ZuluTrade acquired Market Crew Investment Advisor, a Japanese company, in 2014. This was its attempt to further its progress in the Asian market.
The EU granted an EU Portfolio Management Licence to the group in 2015.
After joining Formax in 2017, ZuluTrade transitioned into a fintech company during the 2017-2020 period. It has now become a prominent site for cryptocurrency trading too.
Much of the ZuluTrade trading site’s allure lies in how it operates. In this part of our ZuluTrade review, we’ll focus on its working.
Step 1: Clients create an account and have it verified. After registration, they are free to copy others’ techniques or share their own with them.
Step 2: Users are ranked routinely. This ranking is based on the following factors.
- Signal provider age
- Trading activity
- Login frequency
- High profits, low drawdowns
- Sharp ratio
- How long the trader stays open
Step 3: A trader can take another's rank, risk, and total capital when deciding whether to follow them or not.
i According to statistics obtained in 2014, this online trading giant had carried out trades worth 800 billion dollars through its one million+ users – a surprising feat
Experience with the ZuluTrade Platform
It must be mentioned in our ZuluTrade review that ZuluTrade does not provide any unique trading platform. Rather, users need to link their MT4 accounts with their ZuluTrade trading accounts.
After using this online broke for some time, it comes clear that its following features add to the trading experience.
- Lock Trade
Once a signal has been sent, this option allows you to confirm your willingness to carry out the trade.
- Automator
Introduced in 2016, this feature is essentially a personal assistant. You can create rules for it to follow and it will execute the actions automatically if the conditions are met. It sends you a notification when it performs such an action.
- Calculators
Online trading, especially forex trading, relies heavily on calculating estimates to predict changes. For this purpose, ZuluTrade has accurate calculators you can use to determine pips, margins, and profit.
- Margin Call-o-Meter
This is also a sort of calculator, which calculates the probability of your accounting exhausting its balance. It is used to predict the risk involved in a trade. Still, it is only a vague indicator and not a replacement for polished monetary management systems.
- Simulator
This feature shows investors the past performance of a signal provider. It then gives an overview of what the user can expect from them in the future.
- ZuluGuard
Introduced in 2017, it is ZuluTrade’s highly effective risk-management software. It can be activated by entering the “Advanced Mode” from the Settings menu. ZuluGuard monitors the trading habits of each user and blocks those suspected of unethical practices.
Furthermore, you can set a limit for max loss, I.e., if a signal provider loses more than a certain amount of money, your account automatically unfollows them.
- ZuluScript
It is a tool that lets you make outlines and parameters of “expert advisors” or the ZuluTrade trading platform’s auto-trading bots. This AI helps you execute more trades than a person can manually.
- Calendar
This economic calendar is well-researched and shows all the major events that are likely to affect the market.
- Cryptocurrency
It is a new addition to the portfolio. For traders who are interested in cryptocurrency trading, this broker provides an opportunity to learn whether crypto has potential or not.
- Training Resources
The website has numerous tutorials, videos, and PDFs to guide novice traders and ease them into forex trading. These educational resources are a good way to build a strong, informed community on the platform.
- Customer Support
Customer service is available via the following means.
1) Live chat and hotline are available all day.
2) Phone and email support exists in 10 countries only.
3) An online form or the Contact Us option can be used to send feedback.
- Available Platforms
This trade CFD platform can be accessed on both a PC and a mobile phone. The website and app are optimized to run smoothly on multiple platforms, making for a nice user experience.
- Traders Combos
These are ZuluTrade’s managed trading services. Users can use them to minimize risk and increase diversity in their portfolios.
- Language Option
The website supports 26 different languages to cater to a wide, international demographic.
Any ZuluTrade review would be incomplete without mentioning the autotrading features the broker offers. These features are diverse and allow customization.
Trading Conditions
ZuluTrade, as mentioned before, spread rapidly and on a global scale. This expansion would not have been possible had it not enforced strict policies. In this section of the review, we will discuss their trading conditions.
Regulation
The ZuluTrade trading platform is trusted by many major brokers, and rightly so. It is regulated by the following authorities in their respective nations.
1) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of the US has registered it as an IB, and the Office of Foreign Assets'’ Control (OFAC) regulates its role as a commodity trading advisor.
2) Kanto Financial Bureau (KFB) of Japan has listed it as an investment advisor.
3) Hellenic Capital Markets Commission (HCMC) of Greece
Partnership with Forex Brokers
This online trading platform partners only with reliable brokers, which are themselves regulated by top-tier authorities.
Commissions and Fees
As far as commissions go, the brokers charge them on a per-trade basis, as compensation for their services. Other fees also exist, but whether or not you need to pay them depends on your particular case. For example, there is a swap/rollover fee that depends on the currency pair being traded.
However, day-traders need not worry about these charges as they rarely encounter them.
Spreads
The spread size will depend on the broker you engage with. The minimum spread is 0 and is offered by AAAFx, owned by the ZuluTrade Group itself. The upper limit can be as high as 3 pips, as offered by many other brokers.
Leverage
Higher leverage does help in increasing free margin and possible profits, but this comes at a cost: Risk is increased, and your account might experience a high drawdown. To trade in a balanced way, consider keeping the leverage around 1:100.
Bonuses
This forex trading platform offers no bonuses – not even to long-term clients.
Minimum Initial Deposit
This threshold varies from broker to broker. Still, it is relatively low for nearly all brokers available on the ZuluTrade trading site. The MID can be as low as one dollar.
These trading conditions are really helpful for new customers with limited capital to invest.
Broker Products
This part of our ZuluTrade review will be quite interesting because this company once offered no investment instruments of its own. But, in 2015, they added many CFDs to their product list.
Before 2015, ZuluTrade acted as merely an extension to your existing account on another trade CFD broker. The former ensured the provision of mirror trading options and high-tech support systems (discussed earlier), but you would open or close trades mainly through the latter.
Therefore, the markets you could trade in and the CFD selection you had depended entirely on your main broker. You could still try out forex currency pairs, cryptocurrency, commodities, and other assets – essentially anything the broker supported.
Today, things are much different. The site offers the following tradable instruments.
- Contracts for difference
- Commodities
- Exchange-traded funds
- Gold
- Indices
- Metals
- Oil
- Stocks
Binary options were also made available in 2015, but were later removed in 2017. This happened even before the 2018 ESMA ban on the distribution of binary options among retail clients.
ZuluTrade is attempting to incorporate cryptocurrency trading in its systems as well; however, much work still needs to be done to improve the user experience in this part.
Although it does not provide the wide selection of instruments other brokers do, ZuluTrade’s automation program for forex trading and crypto trading is one of the best in the industry.
Account Types
Before elaborating on the account types in our ZuluTrade review, we should first take a look at the general features all of them have.
On the ZuluTrade trading platform, there are three main types of accounts.
- Demo Account
New users can use this platform to trade with demo/fake money. It is very similar to a “real” account and is meant to be used for practice. Customers can get a feel for cryptocurrency or forex trading without putting any real money at stake.
- Classic Account
It is a real account with relatively higher spreads. It means that the platform gets a bigger cut from the profit.
- Profit-Sharing Account
It is also a live (not demo) account, but owners of such an account must pay a fixed fee of $30 every month. An additional 25% performance fee may apply provided that certain criteria are met. It is suitable for traders, such as most signal providers, who have huge portfolios.
Traders on ZuluTrade can get compensation based on trade volume. The rate is $5 dollars of compensation per $100,000 worth of trade volume.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Simply put, deposit and withdrawal options depend on the broker used by the investor. The ZuluTrade trading platform does not assist in payment processing.
For most brokers on this site, the minimum deposit is quite reasonable, going as low as one dollar. Thus, new investors should not have any trouble when they start working in a trade CFD firm.
There is little that can be said further about deposits/withdrawals on ZuluTrade specifically because it plays a minimal role in determining them. You should visit the website of your broker to find out more about this aspect of your online trading venture.
Advantages and Disadvantages
A ZuluTrade review would be incomplete without analyzing the pros and cons of this platform. So, let’s delve right into them.
After our lengthy discourse, we can conclude that the ZuluTrade trading platform gives pro traders some much-needed flexibility. They can perform under conditions they find most suitable. However, this “flexibility” can be a bit confusing for novices. So, it is recommended that beginners opt for this platform after they have tried out online trading on a safer alternative.