Experts Advice: How to Organize a Trading Contest

Trading competitions are valuable for brokers since they can attract new clients, reduce customer acquisition costs, and reactivate dormant traders. With the popularity of trading contests and prop trading firms, the demand for automating the entire flow of trading competitions has been answered.

In this article, we explore Devexperts’ experience in smoothing the process of setting up a trading competition with technology, how brokers benefit from running trading competitions, and how automation makes it easier to manage the contest once it starts.

But, as usual, let’s go through the basics.

What is a trading contest?

A trading competition is a risk-free simulated environment that allows traders and investors to test their skills without the risk of losing real money. The trading environment is fueled with real live market data and a fully functional trading platform.

Brokers provide such conditions so prospective clients can get hands-on experience with what they might deal with if they sign up for a live account. At the same time, trading competitions are a great way to engage existing clients. Let’s review these benefits in detail.

How can trading contests benefit brokerages?

By bringing in new clients

Trading contest software brings prospective users onto a broker’s platform and encourages them to look seriously at its trading functionality. It can create different types of calls to action on the dashboard pages, such as opening a demo or a live account or marketing an upcoming webinar.

Additionally, leads come into the admin portal as people register for the contest. The brokerage firm can subsequently use those names and email addresses for marketing purposes.

It’s a natural opener for the broker to reach out to those people and ask them about their experience participating in the competition and their needs to open up a self-funded account. This is an excellent opportunity to convert them into an actual client.

“In Europe, not only does it cost about €2000 to acquire a retail client, but prospective clients can quickly become disenchanted and leave. By creating a trading competition with a financial incentive, brokerages can encourage immediate engagement among visitors to their platform, leading to higher conversion rates,” said Justin Hertzberg, CEO of FPFX Technologies.

By engaging existing clients and reactivating dormant ones

The easiest client to get is the one you already have! Trading contests provide an attractive way to keep people engaged and are cost-effective compared with other forms of marketing. Offering prizes without trading risks also motivates dormant clients to return to your platform and revise their skills while getting into a habit of daily trading.

It’s worth noting that brokers should avoid letting people trade in a demo contest in a way that they never would with real money. That’s why brokers implement specific rules, such as max lots, lower leverage rules, or drawdown levels at which a contestant is disqualified. This is an efficient tool to demonstrate the platform and foster good trading behaviors.

By providing insights into how clients use trading platforms

Collecting trading data from the competition helps gain insights into how clients are trading, how long they spend on each screen, and whether there are screens with which no one is interacting.

Brokers can share such data with their software vendors to improve user experience and drive product decisions.

How do you organize a trading competition?

Setting up a trading competition can appear daunting. Still, with some preparation and the right trading contest software, it’s possible to increase customer engagement without creating a heavy workload for the in-house broking team. 

Trading contest software is designed to produce completely automated workflows that don’t put any additional burden on the brokerage or trading firm to operate. Once trading contest software is integrated into a system, creating a competition in seconds is possible.

“Devexperts used trading contest software to design this competition. It was easy to set up, and the built-in automation made it simple for the business and end users to understand,” explained Jon Light, Head of OTC Platforms at Devexperts.

Which aspects of the trading competition process can be automated?

The whole process can be automated: signing up contestants, preparing dealing settings, email communications, organizing a leaderboard, and ranking the best and worst performing traders. This minimizes the broking team’s ongoing workload. For example, when a participant registers, all relevant emails are automatically triggered, saving the marketing team time and effort.

What kind of trading contest can be run with DXtrade and FPFX?

It’s possible to run any kind of permutation: asset class-specific contests that can be held in purely demo or live environments, offering monetary or non-monetary prizes. Brokers can be as creative as they want to.

These contests can be run across different account sizes and start times. With the functionality built into the trading contest software, the competition can be as flexible as the brokerage wants to offer its clients. 

“Different firms with different audiences can attract clients to participate in a crypto-only contest, an index-only contest, or one which includes all asset classes. The scope of the contest can be as narrow or as broad as the broker wants it to be,” said Justin Hertzberg, CEO of FPFX Technologies.

How does Devexperts support brokers looking to run a trading contest?

Devexperts offers the entire platform to any broker or entity wanting to run a contest and provides help at all stages, from onboarding and setup to 24/7 assistance during the contest via DXtrade’s support ticket system. 

“We can help with the onboarding and setting up the platform. If a broker wants specific settings in their contest, one team can set up those specific parameters. That means they can be relaxed about the contest and know it will run smoothly,” said Borislav Alendarov, Trading Operations Manager at Devexperts.

Conclusion

Trading contests are an excellent way for brokers to increase customer engagement and trial conversion rates. By using the right technology, brokers can automate creating and running a bespoke competition tailored to their client base. Trading contest software allows data collection, improves future contests, provides UX insights to brokers’ trading platforms, and generates valuable marketing leads. With trading software like DXtrade and FPFX’s, you can take your brokerage to the next level!