You may choose to start receiving Instant Trade Messenges for any trading system - whether it is a day-trading system or not. ITM is the fastest way to receive trading signals. They get zapped into a little window, which you can keep open at all times, if you like.
Of course, you can only receive ITM messenges for systems that you are subscribed to (or, if you are the system vendor, of course). To open the ITM window for a system, go to the system details page.
Now, the exciting news. ITM allows for some pretty nifty features. Like, for instance: if the system vendor charges by the trade, you can turn your ITM window on or off whenever you like. If you turn it off, you won’t be charged for any trades that are recommended while you step away from your computer.
This feature is available by default for any daytrading system that charges by the trade. If you are a system vendor, and do not want to allow this feature, you can turn it off. I don’t encourage you to do this, though. I think giving people the ability to opt in or opt out of your signals depending on their schedule will help increase your subscription rate. In any case, should you choose to ignore my advice, you can edit this setting by following the link to “Edit System” available to system vendors.
I would welcome any comments, questions, or suggestions in this space. This is a new feature, and, frankly, a new trading paradigm, so I am interested in your reaction. What makes sense? What is confusing? What do you like or not like about ITM?
Let me know what you think.
I think having ITM turned on by default is ok, but the users would have to know for sure it is the default setting of their choice. By the way, how is baby doing?
Baby is great, thank you!
Regarding your comment, Wieslaw:
Just to be clear: when you subscribe to a trading system, you receive trading signals by email (by default). You can always open up an ITM window, too, if you like. Then you’ll receive signals through email and ITM.
Now then, within the ITM window, subscribers can click a switch to request that trading signals be delivered only through ITM. If you select this feature, you’ll be able to turn your signals on or off whenever you like, and be charged accordingly.
The ability for subscribers to flip this switch is what is on by default for daytrading systems that charge by-the-trade. System vendors can prevent users from ever seeing this switch (and thus prevent them from flipping it) if the vendor wants to go through the effort of doing so. Again, I discourage this, but it is possible for vendors to control it nonetheless.
Matthew
Sounds great Matthew.
How will charging work for day trading systems that publish recommendations before market open (eg Investing4All Single Day Futures)? If the vendor publishes the recommendation at say 8:30am, and I connect to ITM at 9:00am, will I see the recommendation?
I suggest that a subscriber logged into ITM should be able to see all prior trade recommendations for the day, but they would only be charged for trades that match all of the following criteria:
1. The subscriber has “seen” the recommendation (ie the recommendation was published while the subscriber was connected to ITM, or the subscriber has connected at least once after the recommendation was published.)
2. The trade was entered according to Collective2’s fill algorithm any time after the subscriber first saw the recommendation (regardless of whether the subscriber was connected at the time of the fill). Thus, if a subscriber connects and they see a trade that has already been recommended AND the entry criteria has already been satisfied, they would not be charged for the trade.
3. The trade was exited for a profit (according to Collective2’s fill algorithm)
Just my 2 cents worth.
Steve
I’ve had a slight rethink regarding the suggestion I made in my previous post. The following might be less confusing to all concerned and would probably be more acceptable to vendors:
When a subscriber logs into ITM they will see all UNTRIGGERED trade recommendations that have been published any time today up until now. If a trade has already been entered (according to Collective2’s fill algorithm) by the time the subscriber connects to ITM, that trade would not be visible. The subscriber would be charged for all recommendations that they see that end up being triggered and exited for a profit (regardless of whether they were connected to ITM at the point of trade entry or exit).
How does that sound?
Steve
Well, that’s close… but not exactly how it is designed.
Here’s the way it works. When you log in to ITM, you see all the trade recommendations since the last time you logged in (up to some manageble limit - if you go away on safari for 10 weeks, you won’t see 800 trades).
But what you see, and what you are billed for, are a bit different. You are billed only for trades that (1) you see, and (2) that you have a chance of actually trading.
Here are some examples:
A) You log in to ITM at 11 am. The system vendor recommends you buy the S&P. Ten minutes later he recommends you sell it. You see both open and close recommendations, and the trade is profitable. Thus, you are charged.
B) The system vendor enters a trade recommendation at 4 am, before the markets open, meant for a position you should take at the market open. But you are asleep at 4 am, and your computer is shut down. You log in to ITM at 8:30 am the next morning. But you see the trade. It turns out to be profitable. You are charged for it.
C) You log in to ITM at 2 pm one afternoon. The system vendor recommends that you buy the S&P. The market then goes way, way up. You think you can outsmart the system, so you quickly shut down your ITM window before the vendor recommends closing out the trade at a profit. The outcome? Nice try: you are still charged. What matters is whether you are watching at the point the initial opeing trade is recommended.
D) One more. You wake up one morning, and get a late start on the day. You turn on your computer at 9:26 am - four minutes before the New York Stock Exchange opens. You see a trade in your ITM window that was recommended by the vendor the night before. Eventually it gets closed out at a profit. Are you charged? No. You need to have at least five minutes to act on a trade before it is considered reasonable to be charged for it.
Anyway, that’s how the software currently works. For what it’s worth, all these features have been implemented and are currently functioning. So people should feel free to use them. Let’s see how it goes for a month or so, and discover what issues or feedback develops during the course of real-world use.
-Matthew
That sounds great Matthew.
One question regarding the 5 minute window of grace:
If a subscriber has been connected to ITM for more than 5 minutes when a new recommendation arrives, and that recommendation’s entry condition is triggered in less than 5 minutes from the point of arrival, is the subscriber charged (assuming the trade is profitable)? In other words, does the 5 minute window of grace apply only from the time of initial connection to ITM, or does it also apply from the point of receiption of new trade recommendations?
-Steve
The five minute grace window only applies to situations where you log in to your ITM window after a trade recommendation has been posted by the vendor.
If a system vendor wants to regularly post trade recommendations at 9:29 in the morning, with 45 seconds until the market opens, and expects you to enter them quickly, he will lose subscribers. That is a problem of his own making, and not something Collective2 should or can control.
