Great news. OpenECry is the first futures broker to connect to C2’s server-based AutoTrading.
Now you can AutoTrade any futures system you see here on C2 in a real-life OpenECry account. And best of all: it’s server-based. That means you don’t have to run any software on your computer. No TradeBullet, TradeBolt, or whatever. Just type your OpenECry account number into C2 and let it trade!
OpenECry is offering free demo accounts, with $10,000 of imaginary money in them, to all C2 users to let you try out C2 AutoTrading.
A few caveats: This is a public beta test. Only demo accounts are currently available. We expect live account trading to be available next week. But why not start now and see how it works?
To open an OpenECry demo account, go to C2’s Autotrading Trading Permissions page (left-side menu), pull down Open E Cry, and click the link "How to set up Open E Cry."
Please let me know what you think!
Matthew
I went to try this out of curiosity, and their software requires .NET 2.0 to be installed. For the functions their “demo” is performing, they could have just as easily coded for .NET 1.X compatibility (but they were lazy). I’m one of those people who refuses to install an entire development environment in order to support one “demo” program that could otherwise be supported with existing components. Hence, I won’t be checking this out, after all.
That’s your choice, Lew.
On the other hand, a lot of users will appreciate the ability to AutoTrade C2 futures systems on a server-based system. For those users, installation of a free Microsoft .NET component is worthwhile.
looks interesting. I have resisted using TB or other solutions. I don’t see why (for basic trading), I should have to leave unattended PCs running or pay monthly fees just to have vendor signals transmitted to my broker, or change brokers, just because they are server based. It is ALSO nice, since this is web-based, and should be accessible everywhere.
This definitely looks like a huge step in the right direction. I look forward to other brokers joining in. I hope you will consider doing a campaign with other brokers, especially the major players…
Yes, we’ll also be turning on OptionsXpress within a few days, and we are working on integrating a handful of other brokers, too.
It’s nice to see that an option broker is integrating with C2. I hope you’ll be adding more options brokers in addition to OX.
the biggies, like IB would be nice (I am sure tradestation is out…)
MK
By the way, I put OEC onto the C2 path. Rick (there) & OEC were looking for their own alternatives to PATS, and I said they really should look at C2. I am surprised they took so long - I had a few conversations with him like 6 months ago. I guess everyone is pretty busy 
If you go for the "you can get new customers from Collective2 subscribers, if you hook into C2 unlike other brokers" angle, you might hook a few more fish. Maybe they will even consider co-advertising with you, to save you some $$$$. Some of THEIR existing customers might want to join C2. You might even be able to get links from their sites back to C2. Just be willing to put links to them from C2 page(s)…
Those are all good ideas, thanks.
Hopefully we’ll have other broker-related announcements soon.
As both an IB and OX customer, I’m cheering for your OX automation, soon to be turned on! Looking forward to seeing an IB one on the slate soon.
Sounds good. Every success with it.
David
hello mathew:
excuseme for my ingnorance and my english…
yesterday i do 2 things.
1 fill the forms , tellme my system is ok.
and 2 download program and install ok.
after i configure several providers futures in Trading Permission.Sliced Bread.TurboEliteES,etc.
But donts works…
what happend?
forget it.
works ok!
excuseme.
Thanks! Server based is exactly what we need. Also I would very much like to see this work with IB.
What does this cost me? Or is it not published yet?
Panu
Hi Matthew,
Autotrading through OpenECry need to be tuned seriously. I’ve tried the demo account with the PrimeTime Mini Re-load System and it was a disaster. While the system was down -3’500$ on February 23, the autotrade account crashed by -30’000$ without commission offcourse (to be added). Here are some dysfunction observed:
- Trades not executed timely (sometimes up to 10 min delay)
- Orders for partial position close are not recognised and insteed full position is closed. And than reopen a new positions to be in synchro with C2.
So for the moment it’s not recommanded to autotrade a day trading system unless all problems will be resolved. Perheps swing trading with simple positioning can be considered.
Regards
Abdel
I’ll take a look at your demo account to see what happened. - Matthew
Abdel:
We’ve spent quite a bit of time studying the audit trail for your simulated Open E Cry account, and we’re a bit puzzled.
(1) Your account went down from 50K to 46K. Your cumulative PL was minus $3,700 - not great, but basically matching the performance of the system you are autotrading. So I’m puzzled why you claim a $30,000 loss.
2) When you set up your AutoTrade Permissions, you told C2 to allocate up to $82,000 of your account. But OpenECry gives you a demo account with only $50,000 of imaginary money. So this was unwise. You basically told C2 to place trades much larger than your account.
3) We see zero instances of fills that had a “10 minute delay.” In fact, all your fills were almost identical to the C2 system. Is it possible you were looking at the length of time it took to fill limit orders? You should be aware that limit orders do not get filled instantly. They only get filled when the limit price is reached by the marketplace.
4) There was indeed one instance where C2 performed an extra “synchronization” order between your account and the C2 system. We have been working to make sure that account synchronization works flawlessly, without extra open-and-close cycles. In this case, there was one needless open and close, which we will investigate. But only one, in a very fast-trading system, and - at the end of the day, the really important thing is that your Open E Cry account is still in sync with the C2 system to which you subscribed.
So, all in all, a very excellent performance by server-based C2 Autotrading. That’s why we’re really puzzled by your post, which seems to describe a very different set of events.
I thought it important to post this publicly. C2 always tries to address problems in an open and transparent way. We never hide problems, and in fact encourage the use of public forums to discuss them. But in this case, I simply can’t see the problems you describe, so I wanted people who were considering Open E Cry to read this post after reading your initial complaint.
If I’m misunderstanding your original post, by all means let me know, either in this forum or via email (matthew at collective.com).
Thanks - Matthew
Hi
Sorry I forget to tell you that I traded only 10% of contract and I had the same loses (-3000$). So If I traded 100% It would 30’000$.
Regards
Abdel
Sorry again, It was 10% first day and 20% on February 23 with 3000+$ dawn. Any why it was really quite different.
I’ll continue to monitor this issue because I was really interested in the concept
All the best
Abdel
Matthew: A couple of OEC questions:
1) In the demo as currently set up, it says that no manual orders can be entered. Will manual orders be allowed when you go “live”?
2) Is there a way to turn off syncronization?
I ask because I currently have an OEC account and I would like to continue doing my own trading in it, as well as system trading via C2. But either ‘no manual trades allowed’ or mandatory syncronization would make this difficult. Would 2 separate OEC accounts be needed?
Thanks,
Hans.
