“Although I’ve witnessed uncountable demo contests the world over, these are the most impressive results I’ve ever seen, despite the vagaries of the markets.”– Analyst75

Honestly, my plan for this week was to post an article about Alan Howard, a self-made billionaire trader, in our Master Traders series. Nonetheless, I’d to change my mind and post what you’re reading today, as a result of outstanding results of a just concluded demo contest.

I don’t like to sound like promoting anyone or any firm, but doubting Thomases need to see this. Perhaps they’d admit that trading success is attainable.

A Trading Firm Announces a Demo Contest

In early March 2016, I unexpectedly came across this announcement:

“Get ready to take part in something new... something different! The starting clock is counting down to the first “(company name withheld)” trading competition of 2016... and the prizes are huge!

This is a demo-trading contest because we wanted anyone and everyone to take part... we just decided to make things more interesting by offering bigger prizes than most live-trading competitions. So... if you have ever thought of taking part in a trading competition, then this is the competition to take part in!

Competition entrants will go head-to-head - each trading a $2,500 micro account with 1:400 leverage. There are no restrictions - competitors are free to trade any strategy... whether manual, automated, or both.

Come early, or come late - you will be able to dive in and join the fun right up until April 15th.”

The competition started in March 13, 2016 and ended on the day mentioned in the preceding paragraph. There are no trading/withdrawal restrictions on prize monies. 

When a Broker Doesn’t Impose Restrictions

Let’s be frank here, the kind of broker you use really matters in your trading success. It’s one of the big factors in your profitability as a trader. I hate FIFO rules. I hate restrictions on strategies, like hedging, automation, etc.

I like a broker that doesn’t interfere with trading strategies and styles, no matter what they’re. I like brokers that don’t trade against me or manipulate my traders. I like brokers that don’t impose restrictions on me. Let me use any trading styles I like and be responsible for the outcome.  Professional traders thrive when they’re uninhibited by unfair restrictions. I saw the most impressive results in my life because a trading firm doesn’t impose any restrictions on traders/competitors.

As far as the trading firm which organized the contest is concerned, their demo accounts are almost similar to live accounts. You receive transactions alerts into your inbox as if you were using live accounts.

The Number One Contestant – A Mad Trader

The contest started, and at the end of the first week, the number one guy had turned 2,500 USD to $63,000 USD. By Thursday of the second week of the contest duration, his equity stood at 106,000 USD. On the following day (Friday), his equity reached 109,000 USD; but he suffered a drawdown that day. His equity dropped to 73,000 USD.

I told my boss in the office: “This guy is an exceptionally good trader. Even if the contest ends now, he’s already made an impressive result by turning 2,500 USD to 73,000 USD just in two weeks.”

My boss nodded in agreement.

In the third week of the contest, the top guy raised his equity from 73,000 USD to 79,000 USD. At the end of the third week, the equity stood at 136,000 USD. In the last week, he raised the equity to 666,000 USD.

On April 14, in the afternoon, I showed the result to my boss. The guy’s equity was already 695,000 USD. Three hours later, I was visiting a friend of mine when I checked the contest results, the guy’s equity was then 1,080,000 USD!

I called my boss on phone to inform him. He was too surprised. Early on Friday – the day the contest was to finish – the guy’s equity had been turned to 1,350,000 USD. At the end of the contest, his closed balance was 1,433,480 USD.

Here is more info about the guy’s results:

Contestant name: A.D.

Position: 1^st

Opening balance: 2,500 USD

Volume traded: 34,230.80 lots

Number of trades: 316 trades

Final balance 1,433,480 USD

Gains: 57,239.20%

Contest duration: 4 weeks

Prize money: 5,000 USD

The contestant who came second turned 2,500 USD into 741,365 (29,554.60%). The contestant who came third turned 2,500 USD into 713,076 (28,423.04%). All within 4 weeks. I’ll not mention astounding results of many other traders in that contest.

Is This Realistic?

Another popular broker in Europe just finished their demo contest on April 15, 2016; the duration was like that of  demo contest detailed here and the person taking the highest position made only 331.78% profits in 4 weeks (though nearly 2500 people registered for the contest).

I can tell you that 331.78% in 4 weeks is an impressive return. But who can argue with 57,239.20% in 4 weeks? It means you could’ve gained at least 57,200 USD in 4 weeks if you invested only 100 USD and got that kind of results in terms of percentage!

Is this realistic? Yes and No.

Yes, because the results are true, and because the trading firm involved allows trading conditions on virtual accounts to be exactly similar to those of live accounts.

No, because contestants used excessive leveraging, which might be too pernicious when trading on real accounts. But I also believe that they would’ve made impressively decent profits even when they risked 1% per trade, using risk control features, and compounding their accounts for one year.

As a professional trader myself, I personally witnessed the vagaries of the markets during the whole contest duration. I witnessed fake-outs, strong trending movements, short-squeezes, false breakouts, reversals, traps, equilibrium phases, random volatility etc. Regardless of these random and unpredictable behavior of the markets, those awesome traders made astounding profits.

Who Is That Mad Genius?

As I said earlier, I’m not advertising anything here. I don’t know the mad genius in person, but I’m a witness to his gargantuan results. I just wanted readers to know that there are talented traders on this planet. I suspect those traders used automated or semi-automated strategies.

The firm that organized the contest might try to interview the top trader or the top three or the top five. I don’t know whether this would be done, but I can guarantee you that if the top trader (that mad guy) is interviewed, the interview would be included in one of my future articles; the Master Traders series.

Conclusion: There are many, many traders who can speculate successfully. If you’re one of those doubting Thomases who think success is impossible in the markets, this article was written to prove you wrong. Can you now see that, while there are losing traders, there are also hugely successful traders? Do you want to be like them? You can be like them if you really want to!

To be candid, I’d no intention of using any link to prove my point, owing to the fact that I don’t want to appear like promoting anything.  On the other side, if I don’t show any links, readers who easily come in and say: “You know that blogger/forumer is a smart liar.” I don’t want to claim something that got no proof.  It’s sad that many readers wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t make any reference. Nevertheless, if you were curious enough, you might want to see the proof here: www.tallinex.com/leaderboard

As from next week, I’ll resume posting my usual articles. This article is ended with the quote below:

“People lose money for various reasons, mostly they are not ready to compete against the best, it is like a five year old playing basketball against a seven footer, people think it is a even playing field, it is not, MOST are BAIT and the few are WHALES, Whale doesn't have to attack any of the bait, whale just opens his mouth and swims. Some of the brightest people come to the markets thinking their brain will overcome experience, I certainly can't bend microwaves, but I know the probabilities of swing distance of ES in first hour of ES. And there are differences when it comes to bending microwaves, YOU are working for someone and I work for myself.”– Handle123 (Source: Elitetrader.com)

Source: www.tallinex.com