Samtrade FX Review: Is This THE Copy Trading Platform to Consider?

About a month back, I was introduced to the world of Samtrade FX… another copy trading platform with a fantastic track record and results.

Funny as ever since I started down this rabbit hole of PAMM, MAM, and copy traders… I’ve started learning of more and more platforms in the market…

Which makes it difficult for a beginner or non-trader to decide how much you can trust these platforms and more importantly… whether they are safe to invest in.

Now, you probably have already heard the age-old adage from experts around the world…

Don’t ever be greedy. Don’t invest in financial instruments you don’t understand.

But let’s be honest…

It’s our human nature to want more.

That’s why the Catholic Church listed Greed as one of the 7 deadly sins because it is such an overwhelming emotion that overtakes even the best of us…

But I digress…

You may remember that I previously wrote my review about a PAMM platform that achieved an amazing 6-10% average monthly ROI.

My goal with this platform was to experiment and see whether it would perform at least on par with CP Markets.

The 1st Month Results

Naturally, the most important thing with any investment is the result.

Can it really make money?

Here’s a screenshot…

I first opened this account on 21 April 2021 and compiled the day-to-day results on 21 May.

Just in case the screenshot is too small… I’ll paste the weekly Profit, Withdrawal and Balance below.

Week 1 Results: 210421-230421

This was a short week as they only approved my account in the middle of the week.

Profit: 87.44
Deposit: 3538.65
Withdrawal: -30.50
Balance: 3595.59

This first week’s result is slightly different from the others as it also includes the initial deposit I made to the account.

All figures you see are in USD, so that’s a deposit of $3,538.65 USD. I wanted to just put 3.5k but with the exchange rate and all that, getting a whole number proved to be a little difficult.

In any case, within that short week, there were daily take profits (TP) and stop losses (SL) and the total profit for the week was $87.44 USD.

So, that’s about a 2.47% ROI for about 3 days. (I’ll get back to this figure again in a bit)

Week 2 Results: 260421-290421

Profit: 106.66
Withdrawal: -37.17
Balance: 69.49

At first glance, the balance is going to shock most people… what happened to the 3,000 over dollars?

Well, let me explain one of the most important things about copy trading…

In return for the trader performing the job of finding winning trades, they take a cut of the profit.

It’s their commission for the work done so to speak.

So, all the “Withdrawals” that I showed from the MT4 app aren’t me drawing the money out of the account but rather… those are their “commission” payouts. (I’ll explain why this is a good thing later)

Once you understand that critical information, then we can look at the gross ROI percentage and the net ROI percentage.

For the 2nd week, the gross ROI was about 2.97% when you take 106.66 divided by 3595.59.

The net ROI, however, works out to 1.93%. (69.49/3595.59)

Let’s use week 3’s results to explain another of my discoveries…

Week 3 Results: 030521-070521

Profit: 139.74
Withdrawal: -48.75
Balance: 90.99

If you look at each individual day’s result, the balance is always shown in Red and it’s always negative.

What I discovered about the difference between the android app version and the IOS version is that on an apple device it shows as withdrawal.

So, that balance you’re seeing is the commission being paid out.

Now, I mentioned that this daily commission is actually a good thing and here’s why…

Understanding The Interest Compound Engine

Anyone who studies the time value of money knows that the more periods of compounding you can get from a financial instrument, the better your ultimate outcome.

Think of it this way…

Calculations Time

If you invested in a fixed deposit that pays out an annual ROI of 2% a year… you’ll receive that 2% increase, once a year.

So, a $10,000 capital becomes $10,000 + ($10,000*0.02) = $10,200.

Now, suppose you found another instrument that pays out that same 2% ROI but instead of each year, it is each month. i.e. 12 times a year.

A $10,000 capital would now become $10,000 + ($10,000*0.02^12) = $12,682.42.

Wait… what?

That’s a huge and significant difference of $2,482.42. How?

Again, that’s because it’s compounded 12 times rather than once in a year.

So, the first month sees the same $200 increase. The second is an additional $204. The third is again another $408.08. the fourth month $416.24 and so on.

I think you can begin to see how powerful a monthly compounding is as compared to a yearly compounding effect.

Essentially, the effective annualised ROI isn’t 2% but it’s a whopping 26.82%!

But it gets better…

Remember I was talking about how we’re paying out the commission every day?

Well… that’s because, on Samtrade FX, we’re essentially compounding that starting capital… Every. Day.

That’s about 22 trading days in a month… multiply it by 12 months…

Honestly, the maths at this point is just crazy…

The Flip Side of Things – The Risks of Daily Compounding

Before we start getting too excited… it’s important that I point out the risks of daily compounding as well.

If you had scrutinised the screenshots I had shown earlier, you may notice that there are days when the returns weren’t as high as others.

The lowest of which was 18 May.

While it was still overall profitable, that day’s amount was only about $1 USD.

Ultimately, investment always carries a level of risk.

No doubt my first month was superb, but if it ever had a negative day or a few consecutive negative days, the compounding effect hypothetically could run in reverse.

Honestly, this is an extreme scenario, but I think I should still point it out.

Speaking of which, do remember that I’m not a licensed advisor or anything, so don’t take anything I’ve written here as financial advice. They’re just my personal experimenting.

Other Considerations about Samtrade FX

Here’s the thing about this type of copy trading platform…

Most of these companies are not Singapore companies. And they are NOT licensed or verified by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The funny thing about Singaporeans is that we love to complain about the government and our authorised institutions and how they’re not looking out for the people… but at the same time… we only trust the companies they approve.

But I digress again…

Samtrade FX is an Indonesian company registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. They have a whole bunch of authorised representatives and licenses and regulations by different financial institutions around the world… which I don’t think I want to write about as it is honestly a rather boring subject…

Though you should still do your due diligence and read up about it.

But at the end of the day…

I don’t have any method to verify the claims or their certs, licenses and all that…

I had received a comment from my other post asking about my views on whether these sorts of platforms are legal… are they legit… are they a scam… are they safe etc…

Honestly, I can’t give a definite answer as I do not know at this point.

However, when it comes to any type of financial instrument… they always involve risks. No exceptions!

Even a financial giant like Lehman Brokers with over a century of reputable experience filed for bankruptcy because of the subprime crisis in 2008.

In life and in finance, I guess there is no guarantee except for death and taxes.

What I decided to do is therefore only “risk” with the money I can afford to lose… all 100% of it.

Remember only ever risk money you can afford to lose.

This way… even if my worst fears are realised… I would only lose the money I had already discounted.

But supposed the reverse comes true… if it achieves everything I hope it would… then I won’t be thinking about wasted opportunity cost or fear of missing out (FOMO).

My Personal Opinion?

You can scour the internet, read every Reddit and forum thread, and the truth is…

At this stage of the platform… there’s no way to access whether every opportunity is “real” or not.

Just like cryptocurrency… when someone asked me to mine for bitcoins back in 2012 I had ignored it because my mindset then was… will I lose the money I invest?

And needless to say… we all know how bitcoin has turned out since.

That’s why today whenever I look at any opportunity I’ll ask myself whether instead…

Can I afford to lose my invested capital and not be terribly affected?

If I find myself saying yes, then I’ll go in with an amount I’m comfortable with.

So, with regards to Samtrade FX, the minimum amount is $1,000 USD.

That’s all… plus, this same amount is the capital the trader will use for trading.

I can’t say for everyone but for most people…

1K USD is not a big sum of money.

Sure, it may delay some “luxuries” for a couple of months… but for the majority of people with a stable income, it shouldn’t be life-threatening in any way. They won’t have to resort to eating vegetables only if they lose that capital.

But on the flip side, the potential rewards make it worth taking the risk.

Still Want to Find Out More Before Deciding?

Ultimately, the choice of whether to invest or not is yours.

After about a month or so, I’m positive about the results.

When you compare their user interface to Cooper’s it’s way better, it’s intuitive and responsive.

For example, when I had first made my transfer… it didn’t go through as I had linked to the wrong bank account.

The website instantly reflected that the transfer wasn’t successful… this small detail in my opinion was a much better user experience than when I did my transfer with Binance… I had no notification for a few days and Binance has already been growing in popularity for a while now.

In any case, another key point about investing is to always diversify your portfolio…. the only time anyone should go all in is when they have complete control over the company or asset.

So, if you are interested to find out more or perhaps register for a Samtrade account… do drop me a message or an email and I’ll be happy to share more.