- No $1,000 guarantee payment policy anymore?
- Why there is no one existing C2Star Stategy under the C2Star section now? No one can survive under your requirements?
- Why don’t you allow options can be used in the C2Star program? Too risky (if so I doubt it)
I think that most options strategies are probably way too volatile to succeed long term in the C2Star program.
The following explanation is probably much more than you were looking for in your tidy 3 point list:
The removal of the $1,000 guarantee payment changed the risk/reward of the program for many but it was most likely a healthy change. For a while there were a lot of systems in the program that were specifically tuned to frequently achieve star certified status but were’t actually good systems to subscribe to as strategy followers. In my opinion this was a form of “gaming the system” as it missed the real heart/purpose of the program.
The C2Star program is, actually, a really good idea that probably needs a little fine tuning to work best on the Collective2 platform. However, even in its present form I am sure that there will be some new entrants to the C2Star program, in time.
Personally, I had success for a time in the program (while absolutely refusing to game it) and, for the past couple of months, have been looking at launching at least two unique systems dedicated to (hopefully) long term (years?) success in the program. But here are just a few of the trade offs and concerns I am considering:
- I want to link my live trading accounts (Interactive Brokers) for each C2Star system via BrokerTransmit (as having to manually trade a separate account is awkward and tedious and thus the manual web trader results might not actually reflect live, professional accounts).
- Interactive brokers requires $10,000,000 net worth for traders in the USA to trade Forex which, I expect, is beyond what most followers on the Collective2 currently qualify for. This isn’t Collective2’s fault, it’s just how the trading environment is right now and we always have changes to deal with. However the reality is that the pool of potential followers is thus more limited. Based on my calculations then, it often the most sense to trade futures on Interactive Brokers as there is likely the greatest potential investor pool. There is also a specific tax advantage in the USA for short term trades in Futures vs all other trading instruments available in Collective2.
- Collective2 offers reduced fees for C2Star certified systems: 75% to trade leader instead of the usual 50%. This is a good advantage but for Collective2 also offers 60% to trade leaders who trade their own system. There is no special advantage to having a C2Star program that is also TOS.
None of these concerns are “deal breakers” and quality traders can definitely have a high likelihood of “surviving” the C2Star requirements, even over a long period of time. However, for the reasons I discussed above and other reasons trade leaders have had to deeply consider whether the C2Star program is worth the time and effort.
I love to see some good engagement on the C2Star program. Cheers!
Maybe I can help there.
The TWS offers the function that you can connect to the TWS via API. Collective2 also offers an API to trade. I could write a small program that makes a C2 API call when the TWS has made a trade.
The only condition: The TWS and my program must always run together. If the TWS is closed and, for example, a limit order is entered, this will not be passed on to C2.
Depending on the system, the program can of course also pass limit orders to C2.
To ensure that the TWS and my program always run together, you could rent a small VPS (~$10 per month)
Conclusion: You can get this point under control with little programming work.
Hello @Fabi,
Thanks for your idea and possible solution here. I have been looking into various options that each have pros/cons. If my testing goes well I should know what might work best by the end of this year or early next year. I’ll let you know if I have more questions regarding your program.
Regards,
~Recon
