Strategy providers create strategies that investors copy, resulting in strategy providers gaining performance fee. This article is your guide to everything you need to know as a strategy provider.

About Social Trading

Social trading is a service where investors copy strategies set up by strategy providers while they all earn on profit together.

The Social Trading platform is packed with features to share strategies with investors.

Exness clients can start using the app with their existing accounts or register as investors, while strategy providers create their strategies in their Personal Areas.

Download Social Trading

Getting started

To start using Social trading Strategy providers can use existing Exness accounts or create a new one. If you want to create a new account Visit the Exness homepage and click Register. Follow the steps shown below to start using Social Trading as a Strategy provider.

1. Log in to your Exness Personal Area.
2. Select Social Trading from the main menu on the left and My strategies in the menu there 
3. Click Get started, and then follow the steps required to verify your account. Read the guide to verifying your account. 
4. Click Create a new strategy. 
5. Click Verify my identity. 
6. Set your strategy visibility: Public strategy or Private strategy then click Continue.
7. Choose your account type: Social Standard, Social Pro, or Pro. 

Note: Social Trading availability will depend on the country of residence.This also affects the availability of account types. Read more about Social Trading country availability.

8. Now select the performance fee rate, and max leverage then key in the account password. Once done, click Continue. 
9. Add your Strategy name and Description. Click Continue.
10.  You can add a profile picture. Click Browse to attach a picture. You may skip this step. Once your profile picture is uploaded, click Continue.
11. A new strategy has been set up with an option presented to make your first deposit.

Trading accounts return a “trading disabled” error in the trading terminal if trading is attempted before making a qualifying first deposit; make deposit to fix this error.

Setting up and trading with your first strategy

How to deposit and withdraw funds

To deposit:

1. Log into your Personal Area and select Social Trading.
2. Find your strategy under the Your Strategies tab and click on the 3-dot icon to bring up its options, then choose Make deposit.
3. Select a payment method and follow the prompts to complete.

To withdraw:

1. Log into your Personal Area and select Social Trading.
2. Click the 3-dot icon on your strategy and choose Withdraw money.
3. Select a payment method and follow the prompts to complete.

Breakdown of a strategy

Let’s take a closer look at how a strategy is presented within the Social Trading app, to better understand what an investor may see.

Each strategy has the following information:

• Nickname of the strategy.
• The name of the strategy provider.
• A risk score out of 10 (based on the last 30 days) for Social Standard and Social Pro accounts.
• A return rating.
• The number of investors currently copying the strategy
• The performance fee rate.
• The chosen leverage.

What can be set by the strategy provider?

A strategy provider can initially set only the strategy’s account type, performance fee, and leverage. After the strategy is created, the name, description, performance fee rate, and minimum investment amount can be edited in the Personal Area by clicking on the 3-dot settings menu.

When the performance fee rate is changed, only new investments will reflect the updated rate. Existing investors will continue with the original performance fee rate.

Statistics present the return and equity for the strategy with the cumulative return graphs.

The return shows a specific strategy’s equity change due to trading activity from the first opened order until now. It is calculated as the time-weighted rate of return, which is used to evaluate the strategy provider’s returns and eliminates the distortion of return rates by deposits and withdrawals.

This is a return graph. For Social Pro and Social Standard accounts the return value after a stop out equals 0. For Pro accounts the Return value after a stop out equals -100%.

• Return shows a strategy’s past performance.
• Equity is the total amount of funds available in the strategy account.

Deposits, withdrawals, and internal transfers divide the entire period into sub-periods. The rate of return for each period is calculated and multiplied to produce the final rate percentage. Whenever a strategy provider makes a deposit or withdrawal, the return calculation is not influenced to prevent artificial results.

All of these statistics can be set to defined periods of time for your convenience.

The News Feed lists any updates made by the strategy provider to their investors currently copying the strategy.

Finally, Orders show all open orders as well as a history of orders made on the strategy. Tapping any item in the list will expand its details.

Note: The close by feature for orders is not available for strategy providers due to allocation.

How performance fee works

When you create a strategy, you are able to set the level of performance fee that strategy will use. When your strategy starts to become profitable, investors will pay a certain percentage of their earnings to your account. However, no performance fee will be rendered from investors for loss and any profits made subsequently will not garner performance fee until that performance fee exceeds the amount of the loss.

Performance fee is calculated at the end of a typical billing period and takes a number of aspects into calculation. Here is the technical formula that is used to calculate performance fee:

Investment Performance fee = (Investment Equity - Invested amount) × Performance fee rate  

• Investment Equity - current investment equity.
• Invested amount - investment’s starting balance
• Performance fee rate - performance fee rate set by the strategy provider

All results from the formula are rounded down.

We recommend reading our more in-depth article about how performance fee is calculated to find out more.

To help you manage all performance fee-related details, a performance fee report feature is available in the Personal Area. This tool is useful for tracking your strategy’s fee performance and monitoring any incoming performance fee.

To access the performance fee reports:

1. Go to your Personal Area > Social Trading tab.
2. For Social Standard and Social Pro accounts, click on Fee Report. For Pro accounts click View details.

Performance fee reports are updated every 15 minutes for active strategies and are no longer updated once archived.

Boost your strategies

There are a number of things you can do to make your strategies more attractive for investors to copy.

Here are a few tips:

• The name of your strategy should be clear, eye-catching, and spelt correctly to garner trust from potential investors.
• Carefully consider your strategy’s settings (leverage, performance fee, minimum investment amount etc.); the better they are for the investor, the more likely they will invest in your strategy.
• Upload a profile picture that stands out, the more professional the better.
• Add a Bio to your profile which is a brief introduction about yourself, your journey into the world of trading and your interests and hobbies in general. This is a way for you to connect with investors.
• The About section is your opportunity to show investors that you’re the winning strategy; use it wisely. More tips for the about section:
  1. Base your strategy’s About section your strategy’s primary focus. For example, is it focused on specific trading instruments, or a specific currency symbol?
  2. Is your trading style long-term or do you prefer day-trading? Tell investors as much as possible so they are better informed and more willing to copy.

The better you are able to describe your strategy, the more likely you will find investors most suited to you.

Social Trading partner link

Your Social Trading partner link is another way to generate performance fee from both investors and strategy providers who sign up using it. To find it, open up the Social Trading app and navigate to the Investment Wallet tab.

When you share this link with someone, you will start to earn performance fee for every completed trade they make after their initial deposit. This link can be shared easily with others on social networks, so don’t be shy about sharing it.

For a more in-depth look, read more about your Social Trading partner link.

Investing is risky. A strategy provider’s past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Exness assumes no liability for any losses resulting from investment activities, the validity or reliability of the content or forecasts in the “About” section.