This week we are reviewing FX Junction, a new face in the Forex social networking arena. The current Retail Forex Industry report has a side by side comparison of several players including Currrensee, FX STAT, Myfxbook, Tradency, Zulutrade and eToro’s Open Book to help our readers make a decision on which site to choose based on their needs. While Google+ vs. Facebook plays out in the main stream media, the forex industry too is seeing fierce competition between players in forex social media. Competition means that traders get better content and features delivered to them.
FX Junction caught my attention with its simple interface. Having researched all the major forex social networking sites, I went through a check list of the standard features offered by other competitors and surprisingly FX Junction has figured out a way to offer all those without cluttering up the layout. You can publish your trading stats, follow successful traders, see live activity feed of all members and so on. I can see that the team at FX Junction, who are veterans of the Forex industry, have spent significant time in designing the Performance & Stats page. For example, new traders can analyze the trading styles of successful traders using the “Trading Summary by Instrument” section. This puts actionable trade ideas into the hands of new traders.
What sets FX Junction apart from existing non-broker platforms is the lack of fees for using their Copy Trade function. The copy trade functionality has been embraced by both traders and brokers. Brokers want to improve their client profitability numbers given the difficulty in succeeding in this market. New traders want to rely on the expertise of seasoned traders so that they don’t blow up their account during the learning stage. Other forex social networking sites who offer trade following / copy trader functionalities charge clients through IB fees or credits, and some require that clients deposit funds directly with their associated broker. To use the Copy Trade function, a user simply has to install the FX Junction Bridge on their MT4 platform, which creates a two-way synchronization between the site and the MT4 platform. The Copy Trader function is limited to MT4 brokers only at this time. According to Vishal Bharucha, Managing Partner at FX Junction, “We are an open network. This means a trader can trade with any MT4 broker, and can follow another trader trading at a different broker. Our goal is to be open and transparent which others are not able to provide.”
FX Junction no doubt, will face serious competition and is slightly late to the social networking scene. Other sites have already built up their membership and FX Junction will need to catch up quickly. However, being late to the social networking scene is not necessarily a bad thing. Case in point – Facebook vs. MySpace (we know who came out the winner) and Google+ vs. Facebook (the battle has only begun.)
