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It would be very valuable to have an accurate calculation of Cash on hand. By my calculation my portfolio has approx $ 90K in cash. But C2 shows that I have “Raw” cash of $219K. Its not my intention to go on margin.
I know I asked about this many years ago and its still an issue.
Thanks
Brad
I too have always found it annoying. For example on this webtrader screenshot I would really appreciate a line showing NLV and a line showing hypothetical cash.
LOL, I asked for this feature 7 plus years ago. Nothing happened. I was told that “Raw cash” was of more value to the portfolio leaders. Sure, that may be the case if you’re trading with leverage but I’m not.
2nd Request or a least a reply from C2. An actual Cash position figure would be very valuable for port managers who need to know how much cash is available. Otherwise we do the calculation by hand. In any brokerage account the Cash position is always available. Thank you
Hi, Brad -
I’m sorry for the slow reply. (Seven years to reply is pretty slow, even for me and C2, I admit.)
I appreciate the request, I “get” the desire for it, but, to be honest, it’s one that seems continually to fall below the “what should Matthew work on next” line on my notebook page. At the risk of explaining too much about how the sausage is made, here are some of my general reactions to the feature request:
It won’t mean much to subscribers, because whether you (the strategy manager) want to trade using margin or not is immaterial to them; they will do what they want, either levering your strategy or not; and they use the Model Account size as the main heuristic for figuring out how big or small to make their autotrade scaling %. In this sense, showing the raw cash value is almost an aesthetic feature, allowing the strategy manager to scratch an aesthetic itch (“I trade without using a dollar of margin, which pleases me,” but I don’t think it makes the experience better for subscribers).
Yes, it’s trivial to calculate “cash” in a long-only, stock-only portfolio, but it gets harder (and less meaningful) in any portfolio that includes futures, forex, and options, where positions are collateralized with other positions. So that means every UI affordance needs to figure out whether it’s even appropriate to show the stat, which is of dubious value in the first place, for the reason above.
I fear this post may come across as intransigent and unhelpful, and that’s not my desire. In fact I love when you and other C2 users post feature requests! It’s the main way I figure out how to improve C2. But sometimes, when requested features don’t quite exceed the minimum benefit-to-cost calculation, I stay silent rather than posting long, annoying, lazy-sounding explanations about why I’m hesitant to tackle a problem. In this case, I explicitly want to say why – even after seven years – I’m still not enthusiastic about this, so that I can make it clear I am not just ignoring this request.
But let me think about it some more. Maybe it’s not such a big deal and I can make some time and get it done. Still not 100% sure. But maybe.
Matthew, please give it some time and attention: Do you have a favorite beverage?
I have only one counter point to your reply. Considering how many traders/ports on this platform blow up, perhaps a little attention to the needs of the long term players on this platform who survive and prospered.
Thanks
(not joking about the beverage)
Brad
