Many traders start trading forex but quickly discover that they haven't really got what it takes to become a profitable trader. Therefore they will often turn to forex signal providers in an attempt to generate some decent profits. The trouble is that many of them will perform just as badly as you did, so you have to be careful about which providers you go with.

There are two main factors to consider if you don't want to choose a signal provider that will destroy your capital. Firstly you want to choose a provider that actually trades their own signals. Any idiot can market themselves as a forex trading expert and start selling signals to the public, but you do of course want to avoid these people because you have to question their motives if they're not actually trading their own signals.

If they are as profitable as they make out to be then they would obviously be maximising their gains by trading themselves as well. So always take this into consideration when looking for someone to provide you with reliable trading signals. The best people to go with are often those that run their own trading rooms or those that provide clear evidence that they actually trade a live account using their own money.

The other main factor to consider is their actual style of trading. You will generally find that there are some really aggressive traders who take big risks but also capture some big gains, whilst there are other more cautious signal providers who target small but consistent points gains.

It's up to you to decide which kind of signal provider you are most comfortable with but I always think you should look to grow your capital slowly over time. This means that you want forex signals that deliver consistent results on a long-term basis.

It's always worth looking through their previous results in order to determine what kind of trader they are. Whilst the winning trades are of course a major consideration, you should also pay close attention to the losing ones as well. For instance they may well have lots of winning trades in the 20-50 point range, but if they also employ huge stop losses and therefore suffer the occasional 500 point loss, for instance, then you could be looking at some big losses in the long run, particularly if they provide a few consecutive losing trades.

So to sum up, the best forex signal providers are generally those that trade their own signals and have a firm grasp of money management. They will keep their losses small and let the winning trades run. The worst ones, however, are those that simply sell their signals without actually trading them, and those that target small gains whilst using substantially greater stop losses. It's these ones that you should avoid at all costs.