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I decided to try something new because I´m not happy with how things go.
I´m showcasing my strategies on this site because I´m convinced that they deliver added value to your portfolio as they do for mine. However, I´m still trading for my own which is besides the point. If my strategies are not appreciated at all there is no point for me to pay C2 fees going forward.
So here is the deal. Both of my strategies go 100% free for the forseeable future. I want to take the next step, i.e. taking responsibility for subscriber´s gains and losses, so I´m not only trading for myself. The only thing I want from you is your feedback. What do you like/dislike? How is your autotrading or manual trading experience? How do you think I can make my signal service a better experience for you? Is there anything that helps you get more confident in following my strategies?
Constructive criticism is what I´m looking for. And if you´re just happy it´s cool to hear that too!
Check the descriptions for more information about the strategies. Additionally I posted in some threads.
What is next step, if you are not trading for your own?
And few lines before you said you are still trading for your own?
People like strategies like “Strategy for YM”; “Antares”; “Crude oil trader Z”; and when they were performing things like “Simplicity trading”. They are all above 30 or 40 % annual gain.
And if they have to pick, between, for example, your Portfolio Trader IRA or A Strategy for YM; I bet maybe 1 out of 100 people will pick Portfolio Trader.
Just my 2 cents.
You got me wrong here. Of course I´m trading for my own and obviously I will continue that on a private basis. But I see no point in paying listing fees if there is virtually no interest in my work. I then rather keep those fees and not let them drain my overall gains. I´m ok for now if I´m not getting paid if at least my service is of use for someone. But I´m not ok with completely wasting my time, effort and money for an audience that doesn´t have any interest in my trading style which is focused on minimizing risk. I hope that cleared it up and I´m going to be around for some months more in any case.
Edit: I rephrased some parts of the first post that might have caused that confusion. It was late at night and I´m not a native English speaker, sorry about that.
AlexanderG:
A few thoughts. I’m considering posting a strategy and before doing so I also am trying to determine what gets certain strategies traction vs. others. Here is what I’ve learned a bit. You need to market, so your name needs to reflect your approach AND that approach should be consistent. Portfolio Trader as a name is too generic (are you also PortfolioTraderPro?) to stand out, the style is not clear and you use a lot of instruments (non-correlation is not enough of an excuse, change your style, besides what platform do you expect your subscribers to use to match your strategy?) Also it’s only 4 months old. Vol Invest has missed months of trading, so again it’s not consistent (the reason of too much risk is not a good one, people want a consistent “alpha-annuity” return, so if it’s not trading it’s not making money, end of…) AND has a Sharpe near 1.
Here is the clincher…you are not on C2 to market your particular style or approach. If it works for you that’s great, but this a marketing and introduction platform in which you are competing with other strategies. You need to market a style that works for others first. Simple to understand, effective Sharpe over 3, easy to implement, good consistent history…because that is what you are competing against.
I suggest you talk to Rob Casilli for more advice.
Thanks for your comment @HorderPhelps, you bring up some interesting points.
On one thing I disagree though.
Yes, I´m here to exactly do that. I market my approach and I will not change my trading style for anyone even in the case of low interest. I know it works for me and it works for subs too if they stick with me and it doesn´t contain some crazy tail risk. So why on earth should I move away from reasonable trading… Just because the majority does it? That´s no argument because the majority loses money in the long run.
Anyways, thanks for the constructive criticism in your comment, I´ll think about some aspects.
BTW I´m not Portfolio Trader Pro. You can easily see the strategies I manage in my profile and that´s it. No need for double accounts.
I understand your point of view. I might be wrong, but since you asked for opinions I was making a suggestion not just an observation. I was trying to explain the concept of your strategy as a product and your strategy as a personal choice in that your decisions should be viewed as a business. And it doesn’t have to be a binary yes or no choice; certainly you can modify your approach without sacrificing your philosophical integrity because it’s not personal. There are successful trading styles that don’t work on C2, it’s just a business platform. On the other hand businesses fail all the time because the owner doesn’t want to (or can’t) adapt to a target market.
Thanks for explaining, I think I understand your view much better now. And in fact I do agree with your stance if you think about selling signals as a pure business. Though I´m not reliant on income of that business so the pressure to adapt to this “market” if you will is rather low. I´m happy when I continue to adapt to the financial markets and earn that way. It used to be the bigger income stream anyways.
Having subscribers is a nice plus - otherwise I wouldn´t be here - and I´m open for feedback how to optimize details to give them a high quality, valuable service. I think at the end of the day I have to trade successfully and in a way that is easy to copy.
The points you brought up about marketing/branding are very useful tough. So thanks again for the valuable input.
One last thing since others are actually viewing this post and I think it’s very important.
Creating a successful trading strategy is very hard, but implementing one on Collective2 is harder. There are lots of traps if you want to implement a successful program.
In my case I spent a year developing a successful intraday program on the mini-Dow. I liked the mini-Dow as it has a small $5 per tick so I could fine tune entry and exits and I like intraday for consistency. I realized after talking with Rod Casilli that it wasn’t going to work. I want to attract 100 subscribers to make my effort on this program worthwhile, but the mini-Dow has no liquidity. Even 25 subscribers (which is very hard to attract) at 1 lot each on Auto-trader would move the Dow index maybe 10 points each way (getting in and then getting out), making the program non-viable. It’s a great strategy if I want to trade 1-2 lots for myself personally, but it’s not viable for C2. Looking back this is an obviously embarrassing short coming I should have noticed and yet I’m a professional trader.
I see many forum posters complain about scam developers, but I believe most developers are sincerely trying to make good products, but they miss these types of things.
Good point again Horder! I´m aware of liquidity issues and will adapt as much as possible. For example I will no longer trade VMIN/VMAX after observing their order book in my live broker account. That´s just not going to work with subs. So I´ll trade SPXL/SPXS instead for the index portion of the IRA portfolio. If need be, more adjustments will be made in the process. I´m likely going to cap subscriber number aswell at 50 or so, depending on the strategy to protect the edge. That number is probably reached fast during the free period but If I maintain 50 paying customers in the long run I´m more than happy because then I can focus entirely on trading. Based on the current numbers I assume this would translate into 1-3 million AUM which I can definitely handle with a few adjustments.
Thank you everyone!
We have built up a small community of 17 free subs so far and I got some encouraging feedback from some people already. I´m looking forward to more feedback, questions and reviews in the coming weeks.
I keep subscription for free until we grow to 30 investors. Then I will charge a small fee for any new subscriber so we don´t grow too fast. All those who entered under the free model are grandfathered for 1-2 months for free. My end goal is to grow a subscriber base of 50 investors who value my approach and stick with me in the long run.
So we have 13 free seats for anyone interested in conservative, discretional IRA trading. They won´t last long…
Many strategy developers here claim they use stop loss orders and/or target prices for selling. Yours is one of a relatively small number of strategies here where you can see they actually exist.
What do you mean? that someone won’t pick Portfolio Trader because it is still young and it aims for the same returns than other older strategies? Or why? I’m not sure to understand.
Thank you Corey, your feedback is very much appreciated!
@everyone We have only 8 seats left to be taken for free. It gets more traction than I expected so free subs will be phased out soon. If you´re interested just subscribe and analyse the trades in real time or start trading right away. Your money, your choice - no cost. (current subscribers will be carried for free another 1-2 months)
I mean that 100 % or 300 % gain looks very attractive to most people.
And seeing that kind of gains, happens to override caution and awakens greed in people.
Not saying that anything is wrong with any of those strategies; just the way people pick things. They are willing to ignore warning signs if they see huge % profit number.
And, most people do not have unlimited funds, so they much chose what strategies will they follow.
And in fact I do agree with your stance if you think about selling signals as a pure business. Though I´m not reliant on income of that business so the pressure to adapt to this “market” if you will is rather low. I´m happy when I continue to adapt to the financial markets and earn that way. It used to be the bigger income stream anyways. 