What to look for when choosing a Forex Managed Account?

There are many traders and systems listed on here.
What due diligence do you do to make sure the trader is right for you?
What properties/traits do you expect from a trader?
What makes you special as a trader/account manager?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and recommendations.

Michael

Talk to the trader. Get them on the phone. Ask about their previous history, and evidence that they can back it up. Ask for an investor password to one of their managed accounts or a client's PAMM account for proof. Use only safe(r) methods of money transfer like bank wires that can be traced.

Traits i expect are a level of professionality and a sense of integrity. The most successful traders are not just nice people to their clients, they are nice people to everyone. Get to know them personally, but not too close, as you are still a client. If their personality or ethics seems to be incongruent with contrast to their professionality, toss them out the door.

Honesty is important, if they are hesitant, non-confident or diversive when talking about risk management or worst drawdown history or any mistakes they have made while trading, then they are only 'half a trader'. A good trader knows how to manage and be responsible for losses as well as profits and will have no problems telling you when they f***ed up, and how they managed it or fixed it.

What makes me special as a trader? Mostly that like everything else in life, i seem to suck at practical elements, but be well informed and communicative in theory. I am not an account manager although I have access to two very successful managers of which both have helped develop my personal integrity as a trader, win or lose. I am not outwardly soliciting managed accounts here as it is against my ethics/professionality, but anyone is free to message me if they are interested in performance.

Hope this helps

first thing: always look for an imprint. No imprint with adress, phone number, management, etc - go away.
second thing: always look for regulation. there are so many 'account managers' that are not registered nor licences and how someone can get the idea of investing in such people, is absolutely stupid to me.

then i agree with Seb. Talk to them. Get a feeling. Ask questions and then decide. A statement is always nice but 90% are probably faked. Investor password is worth a try but many won't and can't do that.

and you should go for a money manager in your country or region. never invest with somebody that is 2000 or 10.000 miles away. if you have a problem with them, you do not stand a chance.

Agree with what most of SCM says - though, I would point out that distance may or may not be a deciding factor - one of my managers lives on the other side of the world, and I trust him more than I trust some local managers here. And he's pulled through. The main thing is to make sure you have accessible contact in a variety of manners. Phone, email, business address, etc.

Unfortunately these days I believe the creation of PAMM style accounts actually means that people can LPOA without necessarily requiring registration - and so every man and his dog are opening PAMMs. This has had no impact on the legitimate fund managers, although it has made them harder to locate. Whether or not a manager is licenced is the same issue as whether or not you should pick a licenced broker - in both cases, broker or manager, licenced or not, they have the capacity to serve you well or do you harm, so all you can do is research, due diligence, and trust your instincts, and build up a relationship, dont just jump in with all your spare change.

yes, both can do you harm, same with brokers. but if i have a licencsed broker/ money manager in a country where they take regulation seriously, i have the chance to contact the authorities if i have a claim. still no guarantee but i have seen brokers/ money managers fold the moment they were threatened with regulators. so it gives you some sort of power. on the other hand,

hm, ... a regulated money manager has a real company. office, maybe staff, tax, etc. and why should a trust an amateur with my money. i have seen amateur money managers, they take half their clients and go long and the other half to go short. of course, the leverage is far too high but on one side they make a huge profit and charge a nice performance fee. i would never give a not-licenced person my account to trade. never ever.

what can make a person an account manager or a trader is the experience. When any one can know when the Foreign exchange market will falldown or when it will rise higher. You can know that anyone is a trader by a statement that shows his performance.

amantrader

I have just went through an investigation process, and in the end I invested 40 000 USD with one manager (https://perfectofx.com/index.php?rid=129647), here comes why I chose them:

First thing is safety: a Swiss bank account with guaranteed capital protection. Capital protection is offered by the Bank and is guaranteed in the contract I signed when I opened my bank account. The account is in my name, money can only be withdrawn to my personal bank acocunt.

Profit: Their profit for 2011: +52%

Costs, liquidity: There is no volume fee, so they only get money if they make profit! Also no account opening fee, managing fee, etc. Only a performance fee on new profit above the high watermark. And the money can be accessed any time, and also be totally withdrawn with a few clicks if I ever need to get to my money fast.

These are what count, other factors are unimportant.

Cheers,
Chris

Yes, you are correct in making contact with the trader personally, and asking questions. A regulated manager is not significant evidence he/she is competent to trade profitably. The most important thing is to verify the live account track record and make sure you understand the risk management scenerio used to trade the account funds. Ofcourse so many other details go into a safe and profitable managed trading scenerio, broker, spreads, risk,execution,VPS service, etc... that most people looking for a trading manager just 'assume' this is all in place properly.

I have been trading as a private forex trade for over 7 years, and have just about seen it all. If you are serious about working with a seasoned and professional forex trader, then contact me.

Live Account: https://www.myfxbook.com/members/nasco/live-account/186575

Serious Enquiries Only Please!

not regulated managers often brake the law by trading on behalf of other people. i would never invest my money with not regulated brokers and i don't understand people doing this.

oh, and serious and honest brokers never allow a not regulated person to trade on behalf of clients with a PAMM because they could become liable for clients losses.

Check the law on this, I think you are incorrect..

if you trade in germany on behalf of clients and take money (e.g. profit share) for it, you need to be licenced. if you trade in switzerland on behalf of clients (a certain amount of clients/ funds applies) and take money for it, you need to be licenced. and if you want to open an account with e.g. british/ german/ swiss brokers and trade clients from these countries resp. you are located in these countries, they will only allow you to trade on behalf these clients with a licence.

if you as a trader accept logins from s.b. and you do not have the licence required by your laws, you personally could even be held liable for losses. only a lunatic would do this. laws become a lot tighter on this and people don't know the risks by trading on behalf of others.

and if i am not wrong, in the states you need to be a CTA (commodity trading advisor) licences with the cftc in order to trade on behalf of clients.

i am sure with regards to germany and switzerland but i could be wrong with the states.

on the other hand: a licence requires money, a registered office, knowledge and experience. otherwise the authorities won't give you a licence. so this means more security for clients. therefore i come to the conclusion that i would never give somebody my account for trading, without them having a licence.

If you are using a regulated broker most times the Money manager will indeed have to be registered or licensed in order for a broker to give them a PAMM setup. There are exceptions depending on the broker and some of the unregulated brokers may still allow PAMM to 'anybody' but I think even those are decreasing.
One benefit to FX managed accounts is that the client never sends the money to the trader directly and could cut them off anytime they wish.

Personally i believe experience counts.Findout how long such person has been trading personally and commercially.Being registered commercially or getting licensed isn't a bigdeal(I manage accounts big time) and have very successful results.without any registration of any sort.It depends,Give people the benefit of the doubt attimes,the gain in it is that if you find good trader,it goes a long way and there's a lot to benefit from as time goes by.Hope this helps.

Ask for statements look out for consistency risk exposure profit margin/time. it would be better you make the conditions for your election poll wide..the wider it is,the more people you can have to choose from.Distance isn't important,LPOA,PAMMS,it's just like making friends.take time,sort through the entire heap,you'll find.

WRONG ! , the license depends in winch country the account manager live , and most country doesn't requires that to be an account manager .

Being 'registered' means absolutely nothing. Experience, trade history, employed strategies, max drawdown/reward, honesty and integrity are the things you need to look out for.

The best traders aren't busy with registration, their education or try to 'sell' this to clients. Guess what, they focus and spend their time on TRADING because that's what they like to do and are being good at.

well, when i am sick i go to a doctor or somebody with a proper medical education. when my car needs new brakes, i go to a garage where the mechanic got a proper education and when i give somebody my money, i go to s.b. who has the licence.

i understand that this does not necessarily means that my health improves, my car does not brake down and my investment generates a plus but i am sure that all of my decisions improve my chances.

good luck for everybody who goes to a sangoma, to a backyard garage and a not licences money manager.