Is there any further information about IB accounts auto-trading needing to create a sub-linked C2 account inside of IB, why is this necessary only for IB Are all auto-trading brokers need to do this? Anyone know what the deadlines are for this if in fact this is real thing.
I was skeptical receiving a message from Alen at Collective 2, thinking it might be phishing scam, but the email address matched previous communications I had.
Since IB has good security protocols before money can be sent or transferred I followed the steps to set up a new “Futures” account at IB yesterday. I see the new account now shows up today on C2 when attempting to set-up auto trading.
A concern I have is having to wait to transfer funds from the existing account to the new account. It is my understanding that auto trading would need to be suspended until the transfer occurs which could be a day or two so I’m afraid of missing strategy signals.
Some other concerns I wonder about:
- Can I transfer any current open futures positions into the new account or cash only?
- What if I traded a strategy that trades stocks, options, and futures within a single strategy? Which account is used? Both?
- C2 auto traders are allowed to trade two broker accounts with their auto trading license which is what I do currently. Will I need to disconnect one of these to use the new “futures” only account?
- On the new account are you still restricted from placing your own trades in the account if it is linked to C2 auto trading? (courtesy of AndreyBlinkov)
It sounds as if the deadline for the new account set-up is the end of October.
Interesting, I didn’t receive any notification. On the new account do you still restricted from trading by yourself if you auto trade?
these are excellent questions/concerns glad that someone else received this message as well does this affect all IB auto-traders or only some? would this sub-linked account is it owned by C2 or by us we do not want to be transferring funds to some else’s account even nominally it may be best to verify what exactly is going on with IB as well before doing anything
My new sub account shows up in the IB customer account management portal and is titled exactly the same as my primary account. All the other information regarding address, financial info, trading experience, etc. related to the account is exactly the same as well.
Just has a different account number and also shows it is linked to Trade Integration LLC, Collective2’s affiliated company, as Advisor/Broker.
C2 will need to chime in on whether this affects all futures auto traders or not.
Good question and I took the liberty of adding it to my list above.
Ditto, IB autotrader here, did not receive any notification
I trade a futures strategy in my IRA account. Will transferring money or securities to the new account involve a messy “rollover”? Hopefully not since the custodian probably doesn’t change but C2 should verify that for us as well.
You would need to check with C2 on this but from my experience setting up a taxable futures account I would think an IRA futures account would also be an exact duplicate IRA account.
An email I received last evening from Alen at C2 (I don’t think she will mind if I share this):
"Hi Corey,
Autotrading continues in the existing account while you are funding the new account. You will need to stop autotrading futures only in the existing account when you are ready to autotrade in the new account.
Stocks cannot be traded in the new account, only futures.
It is not transferring per se but you can choose to join Open Positions in the new account when setting up Autotrade.
Hope I have addressed all your questions. Reply back if you need additional information.:
I believe the reason behind this is for monetary purposes. When one is forced to open a linked account at Interactive Brokers, they might consider trading futures with Tradovate instead. I think there is a link between C2 and Tradovate.
Chiming in here to address several topics in this thread.
- Opening a linked account for futures trading is only required if you wish to trade futures strategies at Interactive Brokers and are in the U.S. It does not apply to any other supported futures brokers and is not needed to trade stocks or equity options.
- The linked account inherits all the settings of the existing account from which it is created. An IRA will create another IRA, a joint account will create another joint account.
- The linked accounts are not owned or managed by us (C2) and remain completely self-directed. They do become client accounts of C2 subsidiary Trade Integration LLC.
- Internal fund transfers between accounts are immediate, so if you are funding (transfering) funds from your current account to the new account there is no funding lag time.
- The new dedicated account for futures has the same rules as any account connection to a C2 strategy. That is, you are not permitted to trade manually directly in the account.
- If you trade a strategy that trades multiple instruments (both stocks and futures), contact help@collective2.com and we’ll assist with the configuration. In short, you will AutoTrade the strategy in 2 accounts with settings to trade stocks in one account and futures in the other.
- We are not working off a hard deadline to create the new account but we do ask that you make time to do it before the end of October. The entire process takes less than 24 hours.
- AutoTrade Plan licenses are based on the number of strategies you trade per unique user login, not the number of accounts or broker connections, so nothing changes around pricing in any way either for plans or commissions paid to IB.
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Why can’t I see the new linked account activity on the TWS? I have a privately linked account to my C2 trading account and that one I can see on TWS by clicking on a tab on the top.
You state that we are not permitted to trade manually in the account. What happens when the account does not remain in sync with the C2 system being followed? How do we proceed if we are not able to close an out of sync position? I was trading a system with OANDA when I noticed that C2 and OANDA were out of sync for more than 5 hours. I spent over an hour in an OANDA chat to correct the issue. It was only corrected when I was given special permission to close the position. I was told this was a onetime deal, they would not allow me to do this again. Also, when we stop trading a system, we are prompted by a C2 email to check our open positions. How do we proceed if positions remain open?
Hi Karl,
I’m not sure what a privately linked account means. You should be able to see all linked accounts using the dropdown under the Portfolio tab in TWS. You can also select All to see positions in all accounts. If you are still having issues, please send an email to help@collective2.com
There is nothing special about a linked account at IB. Trading is not disabled. You can still “trade” (close positions) directly on the platform (TWS) if necessary but doing so will shut off AutoTrading.
Thanks, I got it now, I forgot to open a separate tab on TWS for the new account.
That helps, thanks for the reply.
Now I got stuck. I want to set up WaveRunner, which trades Futures and Options, in the new account but only for Futures (no Options or Stocks). The setup does not let me do that, instead it suggest to open it on a new server for stocks and options. What to do now?
