New feature: "Manual trading" in your AutoTrade broker account

C2
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Hi, C2 Members:

We’ve turned on a much-requested feature: Now you can tell C2 that you want to be able to “manually trade” in your broker account, while simultaneously AutoTrading in that same account.

Standard mealy-mouthed disclaimers apply: beta test, new feature, give us feedback, yada-yada, etc.

Matthew

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Dear Matthew, have sent a pile of questions to the help desk so ask Melissa to ignore those if you can help me here! I’m not clear as to what extent AutoSync will continue to do its thing if we click on the ‘manual trading’ button. In the config process the disclaimer says: '‘AutoSync will still be active but C2 will AutoTrade as if your manual orders and positions do not exist’ which is exactly what I wanted. I simply want to trade a long short non-Collective system, entering positions SSO and SH. None of my auto-trade services (‘Carma’ and ‘Simple Swing’) use SSO or SH so I just want AutoSync to ignore SSO and SH and treat the rest of my account as normal, syncing as necessary. Great! But then clicking on the contextual help menu next to the ‘manual trade button’ it says: ‘The disadvantage is that AutoSync won’t close positions that are "unexpected … AutoSync may not fix that situation automatically’. Does this mean AutoSync won’t then correct problems with Carma and Simple Swing positions? Will I have to constantly keep an eye on them making sure they match up to the on-line systems, because AutoSync won’t be concerning itself with them any more? Grateful for your help here. By the way, I LOVE collective2 (new user) and think the whole service is the best thing since sliced bread (Australian saying). Thank you, Greg

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PS. It might be good if our manual signals could be ‘quarantined’ so that auto-sync would work with the auto-traded systems (even closing ‘unexpected positions’) but leave the manual trades untouched, as if they were their own independent system. I guess we could do this using the new Trade Entry system via IB’s TWS. But after 5 free trades we’d have to pay $120 every 6 months to maintain our quarantined system. Can we get cheaper quarantining. So that we can have our ‘manual system’, but still have auto-sync doing its thing 100% for our auto-traded services? Thanks! Greg

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The general idea is your manual trades will go in a virtual “manual” system which we will studiously ignore. Let’s take an example to illustrate what you need to watch out for:

  1. System XYZ opens 100 MSFT (let’s assume you are Autotrading at 100% scaling)
  2. your IB account will show 100 MSFT
  3. IB close your position for whatever reason (forced liquidation due to margin call, whatever)
  4. Net result:
    System XYZ is long 100 MSFT
    Manual System is short 100 MSFT

IB account is net flat

  1. Now some time later, System XYZ closes the MSFT position, so it sells 100 MSFT
  2. you also sell 100 MSFT in your IB account
  3. Net result:
    System XYZ is flat
    Your manual System is short 100 MSFT

IB account is net short 100 MSFT

Sync will not correct this because there is nothing to correct: you are in sync with System XYZ. What this implies is every manual trade must be managed manually by you because C2 will trade as if it does not exist.

I hope this helps,

Francis

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Dear Francis, I appreciate your most helpful reply. I can see now how it is possible for ‘orphan trades’ to pop up in the manual system and how it would be necessary to keep an eye on this. As I intend to press the leverage button a little with our two auto-mated systems going forwards, it is not unlikely that some forced liquidations could occasionally occur, and unless I can watch the account very closely I don’t think I’d want, for example, a few short positions cropping up on the manual side of things. Long positions maybe, but shorts can be ugly if the market starts to cover in a hurry and you are not around to close the positions out. The conclusion for me is to leave the account on 100% auto-trade, although the conclusion might be different for others, who may not run such a risk of liquidations and/or can keep a very close eye on their accounts. Many thanks again for your helpful answer and excellent service at Collective2, Greg

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Dear Francis, I’ve been looking for the “Manually Trading” button everywhere and still not able to find it. Can you please guide me to it?

Regards,

Oswaldo

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Hi Oswaldo,

It’s visible on the Autotrade Control Panel page at https://collective2.com/autotrade-control-panel

It is currently only available for Interactive Brokers accounts. Other brokers will be added very soon.