Managed FOREX account question

I was thinking of opening a managed forex account and came across one that seems promising but there is a dearth of reviews online. It is Atuan Capital out of Toronto and claims 140%+ returns the last three years, with over 200% and 300% the last two years. The fees are 25% of returns and 2% of capital annually, which seems in line with the rest. The things that give me pause are, first, a dearth of reviews on the web other than several reviews at forexpeacearmy (which are easily manipulated, just as with forums), and second, they use FXCM, which seems to be a good broker with good capitalization, but compared to other seemingly financially sound brokers charges significantly higher spreads. I asked them about this and the reply was that with average profit per trade of 100-300 pips, the higher spreads don't matter. To me this makes little sense, especially given that they trade frequently and do not generally hold positions overnight, i.e., lots of trades=lots of spreads paid. I am of a mind that if you watch your pennies your dollars will take care of themselves, and given the trade frequency, the extra wide spreads of FXCM will add up to a lot of dough each month and especially each year.

So I am wondering if anyone knows anything about Atuan Capital, good or bad or neutral? Would also be interested in any recommendations for other honest managed forex outfits.

i am actually a client, great results. in January they got a hit (it was almost -16% but are recuperating , so far -8) great service. i asked them about FXCM as well and got the same reply. but Mr Atuan told me he is looking to switch and is evaluating other brokers.

easyForex007

Just an update on this thread, I have discovered several people now who have used this person to manage their forex account and the results are not good. He apparently does not subscribe to money management/position sizing rules and trades way more lots than he should according to the account size. Stay away from Atuan Capital if you value your... capital. And don't believe the posts like the one above. I submit that even if one has a good month or several months in a row, consistently risking up to 35% of the account, or even just doing it once in a while, will result in failure sooner or later.

its normal, even top traders sometimes they do gamble big. have loss and win as well

98% chance that people will lose money via a managed FX account.

face facts, your money is being used to make them money first and you second. You have all the risk, they have none and even if you lose you can bet they're going to get paid.

Anley,

I think you are correct. I think it is a very rare thing indeed to find a managed forex outfit that makes money for you.

As far as top traders sometimes gambling big, I can buy that, though I do so with some trepidation. But Atuan's trading style is to gamble big on nearly every trade, and we all know that losing 50% of your account means you then have to make 100% just to break even. So again, if you value your capital stay away from Atuan. Much better off learning how to trade yourself. Try out the James16 thread at FF for that.

Another thing to watch out for is people coming into these forums pumping up an EA, indicator or manager. If their posts total is under 100, ignore them. Your pocketbook will thank you.

Someone told me that his daily signals are ok as people only complain about his managed accounts. How true is that ?

I was receiving his free weekly signals, about four or five of them, and they were mostly good. However, this is a very small sample size and has no statistical significance. I don't know how many signals he sends out to paying customers or what his success rate is, though, but when he was trading my wife's account his success rate was certainly no better than 50% if that, so how great could his signals be?

My advice is that if you want to trade forex, learn how to do it yourself. This may take 1-5 years of strong effort and dedication, but will be worth it I am sure. There are no free rides.

Have a look at Advanced Currency FX.... I have money with them

Jack

I am so thankful I found this post. I was thinking about considering this company but I won't now.

I have reasonable one if anybody is interested but i wont lable it on here as i dont want it to be treated as advertising, if anybody is interested then PM me.

fxmorgan said:

Hi.

Profit - 30/70

you are the owner of your account as it's registered to your name
you can close your account and withdraw money from it any time without notifying me
you can always be in control of the state of your account
you can be sure of your money's security as nobody including myself will have access to them

Click to expand...

5% ? do you really think peolpe would invest to get a return of that ?

fxmorgan said:

Hi.

Profit - 30/70

you are the owner of your account as it's registered to your name
you can close your account and withdraw money from it any time without notifying me
you can always be in control of the state of your account
you can be sure of your money's security as nobody including myself will have access to them

Click to expand...

Anyone who trades with no idea about risk is going to blow the account up. Risking 20% - 50% on each trade is asking for trouble. Stay well away. There are not many good traders out there.

5% return? haha, forget about it. A waste of time.

I trade for myself so do not think about finding managed fund traders as all of them are full of crap and cannot trade consistantly. I have a friend who has been through so many managed fund traders and out of 15 odd trial and tested fund managers, only one has made him money and the other lot have failed.

I heard my friends managed fund trader who has been successful sticks to simple rules. He risks around 2% - 3% on position and max drawdowns clients have to agree on are 30%. If account is hit 30% then trader stops trading with immediate effect and apologises. Better than losing all of the account. Its so much safer from what i could see couple years ago when checking out the trading the guy was doing.

My friends trader expresses that clients should think long term investment and keep funds in account for 3 years so that in the first year he could grow the account to something that is profitable and then in the second year the trader will agree on making sure there are no losses on the starting balance. So for example if client had invested 1million in the first year, then max drawdowns would be 30%. By the end of year there should be a decent amount of profit. Then in the second year, say account grew to 1,400,000USD including deduction of traders profit share, then managed fund trader would say to client that if the account falls 1,100,000 or 1,000,000, fund manager would stop trading in the second year. But the aim is to grow account as you could see and if account is in profit second year, then you could have an agreement for third year and say that account cannot fall to 1,900,000usd.

Just an example. This is following set of rules. This is what my friend had told me at that time and this is something new investors need to think about rather than listening to bullcra*p from so called fund managers who give pie in the sky beliefs.

A little home work doesnt hurt.

Besides, i do not know if i can get hold of this trader for anyone interested as it has been a while. But the trader from my understand would not accept anything lower than 1 million USD investment.

In regards to spreads, under FXCM's no dealing desk model, spreads are variable as prices are provided to FXCM from multiple global banks. The prices you see on the platform come directly from the interbank market and not through a proxy market like those offered by market maker firms. Additionally there are no re-quotes so you can see the best bid/ask price being quoted. Here's where you can see a list of the spreads .

During peak trading hours is when you will see spreads at their tightest. Spreads can widen during volatile market conditions and periods of less liquidity. What I would recommend is registering for a demo to view the spreads for yourself. The demo uses the same spreads as live accounts.

johnnyonspot said:

...they use FXCM, which seems to be a good broker with good capitalization, but compared to other seemingly financially sound brokers charges significantly higher spreads. I asked them about this and the reply was that with average profit per trade of 100-300 pips, the higher spreads don't matter. To me this makes little sense, especially given that they trade frequently and do not generally hold positions overnight, i.e., lots of trades=lots of spreads paid. I am of a mind that if you watch your pennies your dollars will take care of themselves, and given the trade frequency, the extra wide spreads of FXCM will add up to a lot of dough...

Click to expand...

Jason Rogers said:

In regards to spreads, under FXCM's no dealing desk model, spreads are variable as prices are provided to FXCM from multiple global banks. The prices you see on the platform come directly from the interbank market and not through a proxy market like those offered by market maker firms. Additionally there are no re-quotes so you can see the best bid/ask price being quoted. Here's where you can see a list of the spreads .

During peak trading hours is when you will see spreads at their tightest. Spreads can widen during volatile market conditions and periods of less liquidity. What I would recommend is registering for a demo to view the spreads for yourself. The demo uses the same spreads as live accounts.

Click to expand...

I've viewed their spreads, and while they are variable, at their lowest they are higher than many other forex brokers, e.g., Alpari last time I checked.

You'd better learn and trade yourself except you don't have much time.

fxmorgan said:

I want to build long-term trustful relations with my clients. All operations are carried out with minimal risks.

Click to expand...

Really? Can we see your P/L statement for the year, please. The proof is in the pudding, after all.:cheesy:

I use FXCM as a broker and let me tell you they really offer you an outstanding service, everything you need can be provided, i really dont know Mr Yuan but i have been offered several times to let someone else to manage my investments, they offer and guarantee some returns and bla, bla, bla, no one can do that, not in forex, you have a bad moment or made a bad desition and you can have a storm in your account and that can also happen to a superexpert, think about it.