"""""You can AutoTrade as many trading systems as you like in one brokerage account… Trade anything. AutoTrade supports stocks, options, futures, and forex…""""
…But not if they are a mix of forex and non-forex…?
My brother was all fired up to set up a Collective2 autotrading account at MBtrading.
First, he tried to sign up through the Collective2 website. We could not find a link to join MBtrading, only a link to subscribe to a system. First thing, it wants a credit card number to begin charging the system fee immediately. Meanwhile as you know, things always take longer than they are supposed to take, especially if there is some small glitch. It could take a month to get the MBtrading account funded. Meanwhile there might be some distraction to enabling the autotrading. Time can pass. Not very appropriate to subscribe to a system before having the brokearage account open and funded.
So my brother went to sign up directly at MBtrading. The form forces him to check either Forex or equities/options/etc. He telephoned their support number, explaining he is trying to enable autotrading for Forex and non-Forex. He was told he would need separate accounts. With separate software fees.
Correct or not?
If correct… is this one reason why people seem to be waiting for Interactive Brokers to have gen3 autotrading? Because Interactive Brokers does not require separate accounts for Forex?
In any case… whether not telling people they need separate accounts for Forex… or not being at all up front about the $99 software fees until they are deep in the subscription process… or not providing links for new subscribers to open an account until they have subscribed to a system… meanwhile paying for the system while waiting for the account to be funded… And now it seems the software fees will be $198 monthly if they want to do a mix of Forex and non-Forex systems… directly contrary to the impression given by the Autotrading information page…
Well either I am missing something obvious and I must apologize… or I must complain this lack of clear helpful information and overhead disclosure for new subscribers is seeming quite messy, discouraging and unprofessional.
Hi, Krystof:
If you trade stocks using Gen3, there is a $99 monthly charge (but this is discounted to $67 per month if you pay 3 months at a time). This covers your AutoTrading of as many stock or option systems as you like, in as many brokerage accounts as you like.
If you want to trade forex or futures, there is no monthly technology fee.
In other words, if your brother wants to trade forex and stocks, there is only one monthly fee charged by C2 (for stocks).
To answer your other question, yes, MBTrading does indeed ask you to set up two separate account numbers for you for forex and non-forex trading. You’ll be able to specify which account type you want to open (or both) at the MB Trading web site.
Finally, regarding how to open an MB Trading account: The best way is to just go to the www.mbtrading.com web site. Alternately, when you set up C2 AutoTrading, you will be asked to choose your broker. If you choose MB Trading, C2 will then pop up a little window which will ask you to enter your MB Trading account number. Just below the “Please enter your MB Trading account number” field we display a link that says “Need an MB Trading account?” which takes you to MB Trading’s account-opening screen. (The link is: https://www.mbtrading.com/ola/getStarted.aspx - also reachable through their web site.)
We try hard to make the setup process reasonably simple, and yet flexible enough to support many brokers and instrument classes. I can see how it can be a bit daunting first time you try it, though. So I hope this post helps. Let me know if I can clarify anything further.
Matthew
Whew! Thank you Matthew. Sounds better now.
