How to Use Zignals Trading Signals

If you are a subscriber to a Zignals trading strategy there are a number of different signal categories to consider. This post will tell you how to utilise them.

Buy Signals

When a position is initiated in a stock or forex pair it is triggered after the market close. These orders are listed in the end-of-day email delivered to subscribers and strategy previewers. In the case of strategy previewers these signals are delayed. Buy Signals refer to entry signal triggers for stocks which are already 'owned' in the strategy portfolio. Because Zignals strategies do not support compounding of positions, these additional Buy Signals are ignored. In effect, the Buy Signal is a confirmation ("Confirmed") order for an existing position.

However, new subscribers to a strategy will have portfolios which don't own stocks for which Buy Signals are triggered. In such cases, Buy Signals are used to time entries in strategy portfolios of new subscribers. The "Trigger Price" is then the price at which the order is filled and the earliest "Trigger Price" available is the next market open price. The caveat to this is performance of an individual strategy subscribed-to after inception will differ from strategy performance from inception.

Entry Signals

The difference between a Buy Signal and an Entry Signal is an Entry signal is a buy trigger for a stock which is not held in a strategy portfolio. All Entry signals are "Initial" positions. Because Entry Signals are generated after the market close the earliest price point to start a position is the next market open price. So the "Trigger Price" is considered as the next market open.

Short Signals

Short signals are split into "Confirmed" and "Initial" positions. As with Buy/Entry signals, a "Confirmed" short signal are for stocks already held short in a strategy porftolio. An "Initial" signal is a new short position opened at the next market open price. A "Confirmed" signal will act as an intial signal for new subscribers to a strategy for which the stock is not held in the portfolio.

Initial Buy/Short Update Signals

After a position is initiated, the first round of Target and Stop prices are calculated off the Market Open price. This information is delivered in the end-of-day email the day after an "Initial" entry or short position is triggered. For example, if a new stock trigger is intitiated after the market close on Monday, the stock will adopt a fill price at the next day open and calculate an initial Target and Stop price from this price. This information will be delivered in the Tuesday Signals Summary email (after the market close) and appear in Portfolio Positions (it may be necessary to rearrange the column order to view these prices).

The Target price represents the price at which the stop price rolls higher for a bought position or lower for a short position. The Stop is the initial protective price at which the strategy exits the trade if the market moves against the position.

Subscribers can track the current Target and Stop for any open position in the Portfolio of a purchased strategy.

Exit Signals

When a stock or forex position is closed the trade exits. Exits can either be at the "Stop", "Profit Target" or "Trailing Stop".

An exit at a "Stop" occurs when an initial position fails to reach its initial Target. An exit at a "Trailing Stop" occurs after the position reaches at least one Target price. A "Trailing Stop" may close for a profit depending on how many times the trailing stop has rolled forward. The "Profit Target" is the ultimate goal for a trade and is triggered as soon as the price is reached.

The majority of Exit signals come in two forms; an intraday email and end-of-day confirmation email. The intraday trigger occurs when the real-time price hits either stop, trailing stop or profit target. The end-of-day confirmation trigger occurs when the closing price qualifies to hit stop, trailing stop or profit target. This is an important distinction. Strategy trades only operate off the closing price, so a successful intraday stop, trailing stop or profit target trigger which fails to meet the trigger condition at the market close will not register as a trade in the strategy.

Updated Signals

Open positions which reach their Initial or Trailing Target price are updated with a new trailing stop and target price. This continues until the Profit Target is reached.

Unacted Signals

All strategies employ a Delay Between Trades to limit whipsaw signals. The length of this day can vary from strategy to strategy, but any stock or forex pair triggering an entry before the cool-off period has expired will have a listing under 'Unacted Signals'. The length of time to the "Last Exit" is also provided.

Leave any feedback or questions in the comments section of this post.

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Dr. Declan Fallon, Senior Market Technician for Zignals.com, offers a range of stock trading strategies via his Zignals home page. Each Zignals member has an unique home page which they can share with friends and clients to sell their strategies.

Zignals offers a full suite of financial services including price and fundamental stock alerts, stock charts for Indian, Australian, Frankfurt, Euronext, UK, Ireland and Canadian stocks, tabbed stock quote watchlists, multi-currency portfolio manager, active stock screener with fundamental trading strategy support and trading system builder. Forex, precious metal and energy commodities too. Build your own trading system and sell your trading strategy in our MarketPlace to earn real cash.

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Profit with Zignals for free - Create and sell your own trading strategies

Why should I create a strategy on Zignals?

Let's be clear, by creating a strategy with Zignals you are essentially creating a sellable product. This product, which is a strategy that generates email trade signals for your subscribers, when sold, can generate new streams of revenue and income.

Create Managed Strategy - A realtime strategy. Your ongoing virtual trades in Zignals are used to generate realtime trade signals for your subscribers.

Create Rule-Based Strategy - An automatic strategy. Define the rules for your strategy and publish it once. The strategy is on 'autopilot' then and will generate trade signals into the future when your entry/exit criteria for a trade are met.

Apart from having a polished, professional, and reliable new product to sell, there are several other reasons for creating a strategy with Zignals:

• It costs nothing to build and sell rule-based strategies
• Strategies can be set up and published in minutes
• Potential subscribers can find your strategy using the Zignals marketplace
• There is a very transparent 50/50 revenue share structure in place
• You don't need programming experience to use our strategy builder
• Zignals manages everything for you including the delivery of strategy trade signals
• There is no limit to the amount of money you can make from subscriptions
• You receive the trade signals also! So that you can trade your strategy
• Subscription money goes directly to your paypal account
• Use our extensive range of expert investor tools

Sounds far too easy. I'm quite skeptical and generally pessimistic about fantastical promises made on the internet...

A very welcome observation!

Zignals is not a 'get rick quick' site. Quite the opposite. It's a site that offers you the opportunity to sell your own strategies to as many people you want at the price you want. Zignals offers you every tool necessary to create and sell expert trading strategies. We offer you a genuine and feasible way to increase your monthly income.

However, we cannot guarantee sales - that's your job! It's no secret that goods and services need to be promoted to attract buyers and drive sales. Strategies are no different. Luckily for you, it won't be hard. Think of the extensive networks of friends, family, and colleagues that you have built up over the years. If you have a website, you have a strategy selling platform. If you have a blog, you have a strategy showroom. If you have a few hundred followers and friends on social media sites (and the ability to type), you have a plethora of potential subscribers at easy reach.

In essence, your Zignals strategy can encapsulate your trading talent, knowledge, and industry experience in a single sellable product. A product that enables your subscribers to mirror your strategys' performance.

Leverage your connections to maximise your sales. You could create a great strategy for $5 and offer it to friends and family, or you could create a strategy for $100 and sell it to your existing clients/investors. You can package strategies in any number of ways to achieve your sales targets. Keep in mind that the strategy you are selling, if it's a good strategy, has real value to those who buy it and act on its signals.

How do I promote my strategy?

Websites and blogs are excellent places to start. Your goal is to make your strategy as visible as possible - especially if your strategy returns are great! Websites allow you to create your own promotional material so you should take advantage of that flexibility. Maybe create a strategy section on your site, describe your strategies, outline what investors they will suit, and ultimately offer links to subscribe to the strategy.

Get Social!
You've probably got hundreds of friends and followers on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, MySpace and Linkedin. These are fantastic channels to use when promoting your strategies. From your the strategies on your Zignals homepage, you can click the Tweet or Like button to begin showcasing your strategies.

 

How do I differentiate my strategies?
Think - how are you going to reach people who need a great strategy to invest in? Get imaginative! Why not set up a dedicated Facebook page for your strategies? Why not create a video to explain and promote your strategies? Free resources such as the below offer ample options to showcase your strategy and reach a market of potential subscribers:

Example of a dedicated facebook page:

Find your USP
Ask yourself, 'why should someone choose your strategy when there are hundreds on Zignals'.
Have you got special expertise in a particular industry?
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Have you had previous successes with a personal portfolio?
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Have you years of experience?

These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself to determine what makes your strategy different and valuable to others. It's then up to you to let everyone know about it!

You can do it! A little effort could pay significant dividends. As there is zero financial risk and you probably don't manage a billion dollar portfolio - it makes sense to see if you have the skill and drive to create a successful strategy selling business.

Zignals will gladly be your new business partner.
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