Surefire Trading Challenge V5 Rules
Round 1: Registration 1st August 2011
Round 2: Demo 7th August to 9th September 2011
Round 3: Live 2nd October to 4th November 2011
1. Prize Money
Prizes will be allocated to the Top 10 finalists of Live Round 3, that comply with rules, only. No prizes are awarded to Demo Round 2.
2.a. There will be three rounds to the competition. The 1st round will start on the 1st August 2011 enabling entrants to register. In this round, all potential competitors must register to enter the competition in order to progress to Round 2. The 2nd round will start on the 7th August and end on the 9th September 2011. This is the Demo round of the competition.
2.b. Previous winners of any cash prize at any stage in any other Surefire Trading Challenge, are not eligible to take part in this competition (SFTCV5). The organiser's decision(s) on whether such person or others can partake based on their submitted system, method, strategy or EA shall be final at all times.
3. The 2nd round will start on the 7th August and end on the 9th September 2011. The top 30 traders from the demo round will qualify to take part in the 3rd round.
a. Each Meta Trader 4 (MT4) account opened by any entrant on the provided platform, MUST BE REGISTERED IN THE ACTUAL/ REAL NAME OF SUCH ENTRANT (this may be different from the desired name that the entrant uses to register as a username for the competition itself)
b. Each demo account will start with $1000.
c. The maximum lot size permitted, including all open positions, is 0.5.
d. The leverage to be used is 1:500.
e. The maximum Drawdown permitted on the account for any trade or collection of trades is 49% of the account balance. Any higher percentage will result in disqualification. The organiser’s software will close all open orders on the account/platform at the point that 50% Drawdown occurs or is exceeded. Alternatively, the organisers may manually close the orders and disqualify the participant.
f. All open positions must be closed on the last day of round 2.
An Expert Advisor will be provided that will display what you can trade.
The winners of round 2 shall be determined as being the entrants with the greatest percentage gain as calculated by the following formula:
Percentage Gain
= End balance (minus) starting balance (divided by) Starting balance (multiplied by) 100
Example:
Start balance = $ 1000
End Balance = $2,500
$2,500-$ 1000/$1000*100= 150%
As all open positions must be closed on the last day of round 2, there will be no more open positions to calculate.
4. The 3rd round will start on the 2nd of October 2011 and end on the 4th November 2011. The top 30 traders from round 2, the demo round, will qualify to take part in this round. Each of the 30 qualifiers from round 2 will be allocated a $1000 live, real money account to trade.
The Surefire Trading Challenge (SFTC) organizers will have complete and unrestricted access to each live account being traded during the live round 3 stage.
a. Each live account will start with $1000. No further funding of the account shall be allowed at any stage.
b. The maximum lot size permitted including all open positions is 0.5.
c. The leverage to be used is 1:500.
d. The maximum Drawdown permitted on the account for any trade or collection of trades is 49% of the account balance. Any higher percentage will result in disqualification. The organiser’s software will close all open orders on the account/platform at the point that 50% Drawdown occurs or is exceeded. Alternatively the organisers may manually close the orders and disqualify the participant.
e. All open positions must be closed on the last day of the competition.
The winners of round 3 shall be determined as being the entrants with the greatest percentage gain, in descending order, as calculated by the following formula:
Percentage Gain
= End balance (minus) starting balance (divided by) Starting balance (multiplied by) 100
Example:
Start balance = $ 1000
End Balance = $ 2,500
$2,500-$1000 /$1000*100=150%
As all open positions must be closed on the last day of round 3, there will be no open positions to calculate. If there are any open positions at the end of the last day of the round, they will be closed.
The top 10 entrants of Round 3, as decided by the highest net positive gain of 10 % or higher, will be awarded prizes as above.
5. Prizes are denominated in United States Dollars.
6. Each prize will be awarded in cash.
7. Finalists will be notified by email and telephone. If a finalist cannot be contacted within 7 calendar days of the official closing date of the competition, the SFTC organizers may, at their sole discretion, award the prize to the next qualifying finalist.
8. Prize money will be sent to each finalist by regular bank wire transfer within 14 calendar days of the closing date of the competition.
9. It is the sole responsibility of each competition finalist to provide the SFTC organizers with valid bank wire details within 4 calendar days of prize notification.
10. If a finalist is unable to receive their prize money via bank wire transfer within 14 days of the prize announcement, then the SFTC organizers reserve the right to reallocate that prize to the next qualifying finalist.
11. Each finalist must send a written confirmation by email to the SFTC organizers confirming receipt of their prize funds within 10 calendar days of receipt.
12. All entrants shall have an equal opportunity to win.
13. No entrant will win or be eligible for any prize or progression if just one of their trades makes up more than 50% of their win during any round.
14. There must be at least 3 traders in the positive at the end of round 3, with all three having a net positive gain higher than 10%, in order for the competition to be valid. If not, the entire competition will be, at the organiser’s sole discretion, declared null and void and no prizes may be awarded.
15. Any winner will be expected to participate in the organiser's private member's forum by assisting in answering any question members may have about such winner's trading system, method or EA.
16. On acceptance of any payment of a prize, the winners agree to provide such assistance to the organisers or members as may be required of them, to explain and answer any question the organisers and/or any member of the organiser’s site has, for a period of 6 months from the date of award of the prize.
17. No entrant will ever be asked to buy or pay for anything at any stage.
18. All entrants must register to participate in the SFTC competition in full compliance with any registration and or instruction procedure that may be required by SFTC organisers from time to time.
19. Any taxes related to prize money are the sole responsibility of the recipient.
20. Any charges levied by the recipient's bank for receiving the prize money are the sole responsibility of the recipient.
21. Trading shall be confined only to the spot Forex currency pairs and Gold as offered by the organizer’s nominated broker platform.
22. Entrants may only enter the competition using the nominated broker of the competition.
23. Only the designated MT4 trading platform from the designated broker and the account specified in the instructions procedure that we provided may be used, unless we expressly determine otherwise.
24. At any stage during the competition, the participants must, when requested to do so, provide his Username and Password in order for the competition organisers or representatives to access and verify any information as appears on the leader board including the MT4 competition accounts.
25. A participant may not enter with more than one nominated broker account as provided by us in the live Round. In the Demo round a maximum of 5 accounts may be opened throughout the duration of the Demo round and only one of such accounts, in the organizers’ sole discretion, by percentage gain will be permitted to enable a contestant to progress to the next round provided he or she is eligible to do so. A participant may however, use any combination of more than one strategy, system, method, custom indicator, indicator and EA on the single competition account, provided that he or she is willing to fully disclose each such strategy, system, method, custom indicator, indicator and EA if called upon to do so.
26.1. You must use the exact same system/method and or Expert Advisor you used in Demo Round 2, should you progress to Live round 3, during round 3. Failure to do so will result in disqualification any time during or after round 3, should it become apparent to the Organisers that you have not done so.
26.2. Once an entrant has submitted his/her entry he can not retract that entry including any system/method or EA or any combination of those. Any entrant may be disqualified but the entrant may not withdraw.
27. All entrants must download and install the SFTC Expert Advisor (EA), which will monitor their trading. The SFTC EA shall be installed in order to gather statistical and similar information required by SFTC to oversee and report on the progress of each competition entrant. Both the MT4 Platform and the SFTC EA shall be operational on the nominated broker account for the entrant prior to the entrant trading and must remain operational for the full term that the entrant participates in the competition.
28. No entrant may participate using a commercially available or acquired system/method/custom indicator/EA in any combination of the above and must be the undisputed owner of his/her system/method/custom indicator/EA and not infringe on any intellectual property rights of any other party by entering the SFTC competition. To this end, the SFTC organisers may appoint any person to investigate these matters if it does, in its sole discretion, deem it necessary to do so. Furthermore, the entrant agrees unconditionally to cooperate and disclose all as is required by the SFTC organiser’s appointee to assist in such investigation.
29. During any stage of the competition, each entrant shall make a minimum of 10 trades per stage.
30. Trading robots and expert advisors may be entered subject to the conditions set out elsewhere in these rules.
31. If a trading robot wins, the participant must be the owner of the code and agree to disclose that code.
32. In the event of a tie (draw) the prize will be split equally.
33. Any entrant that has had a margin call due to over leverage shall be disqualified. Your account must be positive at all times.
34. The finalists of round 3 agree that, during the round 3 stage, they will work with a member or members of the SFTC team to explain their system in such manner as the SFTC team direct and to their satisfaction. All 30 finalists must agree to explain in full and in English how they achieved their results. This will take the form of a short written explanation and as many graphs or videos as needed to explain the system or method. The finalists further agree to provide general information about themselves, for example: age, where they're from and how long they have been trading.
35. The top 10 winners also agree to allow a designated person to come to their home or an agreed location to take some publicity shots if requested.
36. All winners agree to have their trading records, charts, photographs and explanations published and or distributed by surefiretradingchallenge.com, its agents and successors during and after the life of this challenge, and waive their rights as pertains to any intellectual property claims they may have as pertains to information regarding their methods or systems they disclose or use both during and after the term of the competition.
37. It is understood that if a winning finalist chooses not to explain in full how they achieved their results, then they will not receive any prize money. No restrictions apply to entrants who do not win any prize.
38. Only one prize will be awarded per entrant winner.
39. The SFTC organizers reserve the right to at any stage restrict participation in the competition by any individual for any reason they deem fit. In particular for this competition, because of security issues experienced by the organisers recently, in that we have has a high frequency of systems that have been entered with in past competitions, which were not and were passed off as, the system of the entrant, we have made the decision that for this competition no person holding Nigerian citizenship or resident or domiciled in Nigeria is eligible to participate. We reserve the right at any time, in the organizer’s sole discretion, in respect of any country or individual, to restrict in whole or in part, such countries nationals or individuals, from entering or further continuing in the competition.
40. Any entrant who illegally or unlawfully passes off intentionally or otherwise any system method or strategy or EA or combination of any of the above, as his/her/it's own, or any such that does not in fact work, are personally responsible to the fullest extent for doing so. The organisers may decide that any person must forfeit any prize and or be disqualified should such rule or any other rule be breached, which in the organisers sole opinion, warrants such forfeiture of prize or disqualification. At all times the organisers reserve all their rights in this regard.
41. Entrants must be 18+ years of age and considered an adult in their respective country.
42. No one living in a country or territory that would require the SFTC organisers or anyone associated with it to be registered by any regulatory authority is permitted to enter the competition.
43. The SFTC organization is not registered to give financial advice in any country or territory.
44. All participants of the competition must speak communication level English or arrange for a translator to speak on their behalf where required. If it proves too difficult for the organizers to communicate with an entrant then that person may be disqualified at the organizers sole discretion.
45. All entrants understand that they will receive no other compensation beyond the prize money they might win should they be and upon being a finalist.
46. All entrants understand that they will not be entitled to a share in any proceeds gained on the Live accounts funded by the SFTC organization during the live trading in round 3 of the competition other than as may be set out in these rules. Similarly they will not partake in any losses that the SFTC organization may incur on the Live trading accounts.
47. The ownership and Intellectual property rights of any system/method/custom indicator and/or EA of any finalist shall pass to the SFTC organizers on award of a prize.
48. Should the entrant of a submitted EA be announced as a finalist of any prize category, said entrant (as the acknowledged owner), hereby agrees to unconditionally grant to the SFTC organization sole, exclusive rights to market the system and/or method and/or EA as it sees fit and for its own exclusive benefit. Furthermore, for a period of at least 6 months after awarding any prize to a finalist, such finalist agrees to provide positive interaction with the organisers and with the members of their membership site, as regards their system or method or EA or combination(s) thereof by way of further explanations or discussions of how same works.
49. If, at any stage before or after his/her having received any prize, it is discovered that a finalist has attempted to disclose or divulge, in any way, or sell or cede or assign or withhold the rights to their winning system/method/EA; to persons other than the organizer or submitted a false system/method/EA or one that was not owned by them, then the prize awarded to that finalist will be forfeited in total, and must be repaid if already received by the finalist.
50. At the end of the competition period and upon payment of any prize to an entrant, the SFTC organization shall acquire the non-exclusive rights to market the EA/Method/System/Custom indicators etc for its own benefit in perpetuity.
51. surefiretradingchallenge.com reserves the right to change, amend, waive or interpret the challenge rules at its sole discretion at any time.
52. surefiretradingchallenge.com or any person affiliated with the challenge will not be liable for any damages and/or losses of any nature whether directly or indirectly incurred by anyone for either participating in the challenge or using the website.
53. surefiretradingchallenge.com is the property of Old Tree Publishing CC. No person who is employed by or is an agent of or an associate of any of the above may enter the challenge.
54. This challenge is presented as a promotional competition and is based solely on the skill of the participants. The objective of the competition is to award prizes/scholarships to the participants with the highest degree of skill as traders, as adjudicated by
Round 1: Registration 1st August 2011
Round 2: Demo 7th August to 9th September 2011
Round 3: Live 2nd October to 4th November 2011
Yes, the links to the leaderboard and the detailed analysis can be viewed by non members who want to see how the competitors are performing in the competition. Here's the link to the leaderboard:
http://www.surefiretradingchallenge.com/sftcv5/leaderboard.php
As per our competition rules, trading shall be confined to the spot Forex currency pairs offered by the organiser's nominated broker only.
Your browser's pop-up blocker may be preventing the chat window from opening. Please disable your pop-up block. You may also contact us using skype or email instead.
Yes, you are welcome to enter with an EA provided that it is not a commercial EA. You will need to be the creator of the EA, or have permission to use it if not your own, in order to participate with it in the Challenge.
No, not exactly, you see if you have modified these method to be different from the original then we can accept it but we cannot allow another person/vendor's system...
It has to be different enough to pass as an original.
You can still participate with them if you like to see how they perform but if you finish in the top 20, we cannot permit you to continue with another person's system.
Enter you email address and password then hit the Login button and you will be taken to the SFTC Trading Zone immediately.
The account leverage increased has been increased from 1:100 to 1:500 to replicate 'real world' trading conditions. Only 1:500 leverage can be used by all competitors for a more controlled or even playing field.
The next challenge will be scheduled for after the current competition. After each challenge, we take some time to learn from it and prepare for the next one as we usually get a lot of feedback and also since we need to find areas improve on specific areas related to the challenge.
Yes, you're welcome to install the platform on another computer. Just be sure to also install the MQL Defender and Arbitro EA as well. You can then login with the same account username and password on both machines.
No, a participant may not enter with more than one nominated broker account as provided by us.
A participant may, however, use more than one strategy/system/method/custom indicator/indicator/ and EA on the single competition account, in any combination, provided that he or she is willing to fully disclose each such strategy/system/method/custom indicator/indicator and EA if called upon to do so.
You may have to create a new account and use that to sign in:
(http://www.surefiretradingchallenge.com/)
Follow the steps as guided by the installation wizard. Click next until you reach the end of the installation process.
Note: If you already have the Rous Technologies MT4 platform installed on your computer, you will need to choose a different folder location under My Programs in order to install a second instance of the Technologies MT4 platform.
Alternatively, you may choose to overwrite your existing installation, but it is not necessary.
There is an issue on a small number of virtual servers which seems to be related to a combination of the server's security settings and the way MT4 is installed.
The following steps should solve the problem:
We've enabled the download links as scheduled, on Friday, the 10th of September 2010 at 22:00 PM GMT.
Please try disabling your firewall or adjusting its settings to allow the file to be downloaded.
You just need to open a new account to start all over. Open the Navigator window by clicking on CTRL + N. Right click on "Accounts" in the Navigator Window and select "Open an Account". Then, delete the old account by right clicking on it also then select "Delete".
The Arbitro EA is used for submitting your stats to the leaderboard and detailed analysis tabs of the member's area. It also acts as a referee to inform the traders of any violation of the competition rules and automatically disqualifies them.
Every trader participating in the competition has to have Arbitro running in one of the charts for the stats in the leaderboard and the statement page to be updated every 5 minutes. You can use Arbitro and another EA provided that they are not installed on the same chart.
Please try disabling your firewall or adjusting its settings to allow the executable file to work. If this doesn't help, you may need to delete the file and download again.
Kindly see which part of the steps in installing the Arbitro EA after it is downloaded may have been missed:
1. Save it and double click the file to run it. Remember to close down all your MT4 platforms before you begin.
2. Click the "next" button to begin.
3. Read the "License Agreement" and accept it if you want to install the EA.
4. The installer will automatically look for all the Metatrader platforms installed on your computer. Click on the check boxes next to the MT4 platform you just installed in step 2. If the installer does not detect the MT4 platform, you can then add it manually by clicking on the "Add a MetaTrader folder" button.
5. Click "Next".
6. Review the information and then click "Next" again.
7. Wait for the installation progress to complete. It will display the "Done" message when complete.
8. Click "next". At this point, the installer gives you the option to open the MT4 platform that the EA has been installed on.
Once you have downloaded and installed the Arbitro EA, you can apply it on your chart using the steps below:
1. Double click/Drag and drop the Arbitro EA from the "Expert Advisors" section of the Navigator window onto any chart.
2. Enter your username and password in the "Inputs" tab of the dialogue box.
3. Click on the "Common" tab and make sure that the 4 main categories
have been ticked. Make sure that "Allow live trading" and "Allow DLL imports" are checked. The installer should have set them for you already so usually there's no need for intervention here.
4. Click OK
The Arbitro EA has been applied properly if you see the "Authentication Successful" message at the left side and the smiley beside the name that you see on the upper right corner of the chart.4.
To see if the Arbitro EA is applied correctly, check for the "Authentication Successful" message at the left side and the smiley beside its name that you see on the upper right corner of the chart.
Kindly see which part of the steps in applying the Arbitro EA after installation may have been missed. If already applied but an error occurs, you may need to remove it from your chart and reapply using the steps below:
1. Double click/Drag and drop the Arbitro EA from the "Expert Advisors" section of the Navigator window onto any chart.
2. Enter your username and password in the "Inputs" tab of the dialogue box.
3. Click on the "Common" tab and make sure that the 4 main categories have been ticked. Make sure that "Allow live trading" and "Allow DLL imports" are checked. The installer should have set them for you already so usually there's no need for intervention here.
4. Click OK
Make sure to use the right username/password or the EA won't be able to authenticate itself online and will not work. In this case you'll have a message telling you that the authentication has failed.
All you need to do is to right click on your chart then remove the Arbitro EA under the Expert Advisors submenu. Reapply it to your chart and be sure to enter your username and password on the Inputs tab. Also, tick all the 4 main categories in the Common tab. Click OK and you're ready to go.
You can also watch this video for a better illustration:
http://www.youtube.com/nextgentraders
The Arbitro EA has been applied properly if you see the "Authentication Successful" message at the left side and the smiley beside the name that you see on the upper right corner of the chart. With it running properly, the leaderboard and the statement page will be updated every 5 minutes. Keep Arbitro running in a chart with the lowest time frame (1 minute). You may need to wait approx 10 minutes initially to make sure.
If otherwise, please right click on your chart then remove the Arbitro EA under the Expert Advisors submenu. Reapply it to your chart and be sure to enter your username and password on the Inputs tab. Also, tick all the 4 main categories in the Common tab. Click OK and you're ready to go.
You can also watch this video for a better illustration: http://www.youtube.com/nextgentraders
That should be normal only when the markets are closed. However, when the markets are open, the Arbitro EA should show the "Authentication Successful" message at the left side and the smiley beside the name that you see on the upper right corner of the chart.
If otherwise, please right click on your chart then remove the Arbitro EA under the Expert Advisors submenu. Reapply it to your chart and be sure to enter your username and password on the Inputs tab. Also, tick all the 4 main categories in the Common tab. Click OK and you're ready to go.
No, you do not need to install the EA on every pair you trade. Just install it on one of your charts and that is all you need.
Yes! You can install Arbitro on a chart with other indicators and custom indicators. Remember that you will always need to have Arbitro installed and running on at least one chart in order to have your results updated on the leaderboard.
If this happens, you can install Arbitro on another PC and use the same account number. If your computer is off for a few hours, your stats will not be updated by Arbitro until you login to the platform again.
The maximum volume permitted during the competition, meaning all open positions at one time, is 0.5 lot or 5 minilots. Otherwise, you'd be disqualified and would have to create a new account to join in the challenge again.
You can trade with increments of microlots should you prefer, as the platform allows this. You can type in the lot size that you want if it is not provided in the drop down choices of the New Order window.
Hedging is allowed, also, opening as many positions in as many currency pairs you want but you have to ensure that all open positions do not exceed 0.5 lot or 5 minilots. Otherwise, you'd be disqualified and would have to create a new account to join in the challenge again.
Yes, open positions that exceed 0.5 pips has disqualified you from continuing. You now need to open a new account to start all over. Open the Navigator window by clicking on CTRL + N. Right click on "Accounts" in the Navigator Window and select "Open an Account". Then delete the old account by right clicking on it also then select "Delete".
Please note that the maximum volume permitted during the competition, meaning all open positions at one time, is 0.5 lot or 5 minilots. You can trade with increments of microlots should you prefer, as the platform allows this as well. You can type in the lot size that you want if it is not provided in the drop down choices of the New Order window.
Hedging is allowed, also, opening as many positions in as many currency pairs you want but you have to ensure that all open positions do not exceed 0.5 lot or 5 minilots. Otherwise, you'd be disqualified and would have to create a new account to join in the challenge again.
The demo account to be opened is a $1000 account, which is a mini account. The maximum allowable volume to trade at a time during the challenge is 0.5 lots, which is equivalent to $5, as the standard 1.0 is one contract and one contract is normally $10.