I am relatively new to C2 and am looking for the best way to compare strategies apples to apples on the basis of margin usage. If I look at Volatility Returns (https://collective2.com/details/101429306) under statistics then “Model Account Values (RAW)” it currently shows 0 margin usage. If I were to just take a quick look at this strategy it looks like it grew $25,000 to $115,000 with potentially no margin usage. However, if you look at some of the recent trades that are published for non-subscribers, it shows that the strategy purchased 2,285 shares of XIV on 6/8/2017 for $82.45 for a total of $188,398.25. This value is greater than the current maximum peak of $132,000. Clearly if I were to scale at 100% I would end up needing to have more money available in my account than what would be needed to match the equity curve. So, I guess this leads to three thoughts for me.
- Is there a way to compare strategies equivalently based on total buying power needed to perform the strategy?
- How should a subscriber attempt to follow a strategy that sometimes buys more than the simulated account value? I would hate to have to leave double the amount of the simulated value available in my account to follow a strategy just to make sure I have enough if they use margin or not.
- As a trade leader I use TOS and 2 of my three strategies follow interactive broker accounts that have almost exactly the same $ value as the simulated account. I don’t/can’t use margin in these retirement accounts and therefore wonder if I would be more likely to attract subscribers in the future if I have the simulated account as half of the dollar value in my retirement account. Then it would simulate the effect of me using margin and then my simulated account would have a higher rate of return (larger draw down too). I want to do what would be the best option for myself to attract follower and make it easy for them to follow when they do (assuming I ever build a successful track record).
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
