Do C2 serves execute the trades in your chosen system or do people? I’ve read many reviews that say “this guy isn’t executing my trades” etc., and I’ve read the “How it Works” section which says (paraphrased) “C2 servers will place the trades in your absence, just click a button.” Nowhere have I seen a detailed technical description for how this whole thing really works. Is it like CoolTrade or MultiCharts running on a server or is there literally some guy sitting at a trade station executing these trades? If anyone can help me understand a little better how this works, I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks.
Computer software places trades in your brokerage accounts. (To use your phrase, “C2 servers execute the trades.”)
To see how it works, choose a trading system that offers a free trial, then set up AutoTrading in a Simulated Broker Account. (Usually you do this by pressing the “Trade It” or “AutoTrade” button.)
You’ll see exactly how everything works, and have the same experience as someone with a real brokerage account.
If and when you want to use a real broker, you will do the same process but will type in the account number of your compatible live-money broker account.
Thanks Matthew. When I hear people talking about “sending trading signals to C2”, what is going on there? Is C2s AutoTrade actually processing the algorithms or is this being done by the seller of the system? Once the AutoTrading is set up, is there ever a person making actual decisions or is a computer doing all of the processing and execution?
Also, I goofed a little bit in recent setup. I subscribed to two systems: WSS_Gold100oz and US Stock Trader and instead of using the free simulated account provided by C2, I linked my paper trading account at Interactive Brokers. I didn’t realize that C2 would then perceive this as a true trading account and ask me to sign up for a license to Gen3 which I’m not ready to do yet. I wanted to test these systems before actually going live. Is there a way for me to reverse what I did and change my subscriptions for those two systems over to the simulated account? I have another system, Top Fifteen US Stocks, trading on the free sim account. Thanks again.
To change your AutoTrade broker choice (and that is what you want to do; you want to change your broker from IB to “C2 Simulated Broker”) just go to the AUTOTRADE CONTROL PANEL (reachable via top menu bar), select the system you want to re-configure, and you’ll see something like ‘Currently set up at Interactive Brokers account X1234… Change this?’ You will click, yes, change this, and then select the C2 Simulated Broker from the list of available brokers (usually this appears at the bottom of the long list of available brokers).
My Autotrade report from Simulate broker account is completely different from the actual trading data.
Huge errors at level price inputs and outputs, and also some trades are completely omitted.
Please solve the problem and whether it would be the same happened on real autotrading accounts?
Thank You
Srecko:
I see your SIM broker account is currently in sync with the system you have subscribed to. So I’m not sure exactly what your post means. Can you please send an email to help@collective2.com with specific details about your question or complaint, and I will do my best to explain and/or investigate further. - MK
Thanks Matthew. I appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction. I also asked for more details about how the automated system works. Can you answer the first part of my previous post? Thanks.
Luc
Lucas -
There are two separate questions wrapped up in your forum post:
1) How are trading signals generated in the first place?
and
2) Once they are generated, how do they get transmitted to an AutoTrader’s brokerage account?
The answer to question number one varies. This is because, as a system manager here on C2, you have many choices regarding the way you can submit your trading signals to C2 (and manage your “Model Account”). Some system managers use third-party (non-C2) software to generate automated trade signals for their strategy. The following software is compatible with C2, and can be used to generate automated buy/sell signals that get fed into a C2 Model account: TradeStation, NinjaTrader, MetaTrader, MultiCharts.
Some people (more technical) write computer software programs to generate signals and use one of our APIs to submit it to C2.
Some people manually type in signals through a Web interface, much as they would at an online broker.
Now, on to question number two.
Once the signal is submitted to C2 and becomes part of the system’s C2 Model Account, it is electronically transmitted, instantly, to the individual brokerage accounts that are AutoTrading that system. (Each order is properly “scaled” to take into account each individual AutoTrader’s quantity preferences.)
So there is no human sitting at C2 International Headquarters (located, in a James-Bondian fashion, at the center of a dormant volcano) typing in orders into thousands of brokerage accounts. That part is all done through software.
Matthew
Matthew,
LOL! Thanks for the response. I liked the comment about the secret C2 lair inside a volcano. Your comment, “Some people manually type in signals through a Web interface, much as they would at an online broker,” actually answers my question regarding that, however. I well understand how impractical a centralized manual order generating system would be (I am imagining a giant wall with 60’s style switch-board operators constantly unplugging and plugging in wires accompanied by a disco of blinking lights and beeps), but what I wanted to know was if it is possible at any point for a person to generate signals manually vs. a computer doing it algorithmically.
Thanks for wrapping it up for me.
Luc
