In this latest edition of my new copy trading series, I’m looking at a service provider that labels itself as one of the world’s largest open social trading networks - FX Junction. The provider offers traders the opportunity to collaborate with other traders to “learn, share, follow, and AutoCopy.” They want to give traders not only the opportunity to work with other traders, but to discuss the market and work on shared ideas.
Owned and operated by Bel Air, s.r.o, private holdings in IT development company based in Slovakia. They can be contacted directly via team@fxjunction.com. Likely, the best way to get in touch with the copy trading team is to fill out their contact form directly on the website.
While there are certainly a handful of social trading networks available, the FX Junction team believe that traders should join their service because they have attracted some of the best Forex traders in the marketplace. They believe that this gives traders an edge, and allows them to “benefit from the wisdom of the crowd.” The team also suggests that it’s a natural progression for traders to get involved with trading networks in general because the days of utilizing a single asset manager are numbered.
With technology giving traders access to thousands of different trading approaches and strategies, they feel that there is no reason why you should be limiting yourself to a single opportunity.
No Conflicts of Interest
Unlike other "social" trading networks, FX Junction is not a broker, asset manager, or introducing broker. You are free to link your own brokerage account giving you full control over your trading environment.
Another aspect that sets this trading network apart from the others, is the fact that they advertise no conflicts of interest whatsoever. They are not associated with any Forex brokerage or asset manager. Traders can link their current brokerage account to this network, and they don’t have to sign up with a new brokerage to do so. This is very different from any copyFX which is owned by brokerage companies, which requires traders to register through them. This is certainly a different proposition to what we’ve seen thus far.
Breakdown
- Type: Signal Copying
- Price: Fee Model
- Strategy: Multiple
- Timeframe: All
- Pairs: All
While many copy trade services have a fixed commission, the FX Junction service gives the signal provider the option to choose their own fee model. Signal providers are able to charge traders on a monthly basis, on a per-trade basis or per lot basis, or all of them simultaneously. The majority of the most followed signal providers are charging anywhere between $10-$20 per subscription while offering a 14-day trial.
These types of rates give traders flexibility on both ends, as they can decide whether or not they want to choose a rate based on their comfort level with a specific Signal Provider.
The fee structure is quite favorable to Signal Providers who retail 70% of paid commissions - increasing to 80% for commissions paid by Copy Traders referred to FX Junction by them.
Another interesting and distinguishing feature is that FX Junction users can link their existing MetaTrader accounts and thus are not forced to open a new account with unfavorable terms with the vendor selected broker or brokers. In addition to that, all account connections are hosted by FX Junction, meaning the user doesn’t need to spend additional money on VPS or similar services to keep their terminals running. Once connected, everything is taken care of on the provider’s side.
The community consists of over 26k registered members, however, I feel like it provides a good number of Signal Providers and Copy Traders to make the service interesting.
Trading Results
Even though this vendor is not using a statement sharing service, I am fairly confident that the FX Junction accounts are connected directly to MT4 and MT5, and reported as so. The reason I am confident about this is that the majority of the accounts aren’t overly impressive, and none of the numbers are obviously exaggerated.
The results for this service are much more in line with CopyFX, as the accounts don’t really do much to make me jump out of my seat.
Traders have the option to sort the accounts by return on investment, return this month, drawdown, pips, win ratio, total trades, and even followers. When filtering by followers, we can see that the most popular accounts are approaching nearly 500 followers, and these accounts are the most impressive on the website with monthly returns averaging around 3% to 15%.
Business to Business offerings
The vendor has a B2B offering which consists of a White Label service to brokers and advertising services.
Conclusion
Despite its smaller size, FX Junction provides an interesting proposition. The openness/ no conflict of interest feature is certainly refreshing in the world of Forex. Likewise, the possibility to use their own brokerage account and let it be hosted by the provider are good options. I am intrigued to the point where I want to hear more from the Forex community. If you have anything you would like to add to this review, or you would like to share your experiences in this marketplace, I would appreciate hearing from you greatly.