Hi David,
I've already replied to your post in a different forum, but I'm posting it again here so that other users can use this info too.
First of all, congrats on your decision to take your finances into your own hands. From what you wrote, it seems that you have exactly the kind of resources and mindset that can lead to long term earnings through low risk responsible investment in the forex market.
I'll answer your second question first. We do not offer managed accounts at eToro because we offer free social trading facilities that eliminate the need for paid managed accounts.
As for your first question, here are a number of tips for developing a social trading strategy. Please note that these tips apply to eToro's social trading network alone because of the specific stats generating algorithms we use. Other social trading providers may use other algorithms and definitions.
1. Use the Guru Finder feature on eToro OpenBook (Rankings page) to find the traders that match your criteria. I would advise searching for traders to copy according to Risk Level (leverage), Winning Weeks (the ratio of profitable weeks the trader's had as opposed to losing weeks), Weekly Drawdown (biggest loss over one week) and Gain. Other stats such as Win Ratio can be misleading because it doesn't teach you about how profitable the trader is in absolute terms.
2. Check the trader's profile and portfolio. It's better to choose traders who mostly trader instruments that you're relatively familiar with so you can monitor your copied trades and intervene if necessary with some confidence. For example, if a trader is trading mostly indices, which you're not familiar with, you will be less able to control your copied trades.
3. Check the comments on the trader's wall - this way you can gauge the level of satisfaction of the trader's other copiers.
4. Check if the trader's portfolio is made up of autonomous trades or copied trades. If he/she's a copy trader, check who they're copying and consider copying them too, rather than the copy trader.
5. Don't start copying traders immediately. Add them to your Follow list first and monitor them carefully for at least 2 weeks. If you see that they're relatively active and consistently profitable then start copying them with a small percentage of your margin. As your confidence in the trader grows increase the percentage (or vice versa).
6. Diversify - try not to copy too many traders that are trading the exact same currencies, it elevates the risk of copying trades that cancel each other out (e.g. a long EUR/USD position and a short EUR/USD position). Also monitor your copied trades and if you see that you're selling and buying an instrument at the same time close one of the positions (you can base this decision on your own knowledge or on your confidence in the trader who's position you copied).
These are the basic tips I can give you, but I'm sure you'll pick up many other tricks by heading over to the OpenBook platform and checking it our for yourself, or talking to other users. I definitely recommend getting in touch with our support team if you're considering opening an account to see what kind of VIP benefits you're eligible for. You can also check out the premium accounts page on our website to get an idea of what we can offer you besides our standard professional services.
Happy trading!
Andy, eToro Team
