Hedgemere Group
The question we get most is not how much a strategy returns, but why that one and not another. The short answer: because most do not get through. The long answer is this article.
The funnel: from hundreds to a handful
Every candidate passes through three consecutive filters. They are not an average score: they are eliminatory. An excellent track record does not offset an opaque process, and an impeccable process does not offset a short track record.
Filter 1 · An audited track record, long enough to matter
Before looking at anything else, we require a real, verifiable and long track record. Real means live-money accounts, not simulations or backtests. Verifiable means an independent firm can reconstruct it from the broker statements. Long means it spans different market conditions, not one favorable stretch.
One extraordinary year is, almost always, insufficient information. We prefer a multi-year track record with mediocre years in it to a short, spectacular one.
Filter 2 · Risk behavior
This is where most of the candidates who clear the first filter fall away. We do not just look at how much they made, but at how they behaved when they were losing.
We check whether position sizing stays stable or spikes after a bad run — the classic pattern of trying to win it back quickly. We check whether losses are closed or left open to flatter the curve. And we look at whether maximum drawdown is consistent with the stated style: a strategy that calls itself conservative and has 40% drawdowns is not conservative, it is something else.
Filter 3 · Process and traceability
The last filter is the least numerical and, over the long run, the most decisive. We look for managers who can explain what they do and why, with rules that existed before the results and have not been rewritten since.
In practice: defined entry and exit criteria, written risk limits, and the ability to explain their worst periods without falling back on bad luck. A manager who cannot explain why they lost does not really know why they won either.
The review does not end with selection
Being in is not permanent. Active strategies are tracked live on a continuous basis and reviewed against their own track record. If risk behavior drifts from what was audited — sizes that change, drawdown that breaks its range, trading that stops resembling what was declared — it is reviewed and, where appropriate, withdrawn.
It is the least eye-catching part of the process and probably the most important: most problems in copy trading do not show up in the initial selection, but afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
How many candidates get through the process?
A very small minority. The first filter removes most of them for an insufficient or unverifiable track record, and the second discards a good part of the rest on risk behavior.
Can a strategy get in on strong returns alone?
No. Return without an audited track record, without coherent risk and without an explainable process is not an admission criterion on its own.
What happens if a strategy deteriorates?
It is reviewed. Live monitoring is continuous and a sustained deviation from audited behavior can lead to its withdrawal.
Can I see the results before deciding?
Yes. Every available strategy publishes its independent audit and its live tracking, with return and drawdown in plain view.
The ones that passed the filter
These are the strategies available right now, with their audited track record and live tracking published.