Today, when I was setting up Best Market Chances for auto trading at OEC I still got the warning that I can not manipulate positions in my account thereafter, otherwise C2 would reverse it in order to bring it in synch with the system. Now with Gen3 software in place this information seems obsolete and incorrect.
Matthew, am I correct?
By the way, anybody considering subscribing to Best Market Chances, this would be a good time since the system is in a drawdown and the developer has it temporarily shut down.
You are mostly correct. Because OpenECry uses our Gen3 AutoTrading interface, that means that you as the account holder can manipulate the trading system’s signals within certain parameters through the use of C2’s Trade Status web page (see left-side menu bar, under AUTOTRADING). Specifically, you can close positions early, increase position sizes, reduce position sizes, change or add stop losses, change or add profit targets.
However, these activities must be performed through the C2 Trade Status page. If you begin manually trading through OpenECry’s “OEC Trader” application, C2 automation will be shut down.
Since you basically lose the capacity to initiate any trading in your account (which may be a good thing sometimes…), if you want to open new positions on your own you may have to do what I did and buy that privilege back from C2.
So I created (and paid C2 for) a system, then set it up to autotrade my OEC account, along with other systems I subscribe to. That gives me back my right to initiate positions in my own OEC account.
In practice I use it infrequently, only to initiate my trade ideas or (from time to time) hedge positions that were previously open by systems that I subscribe to, and that I don’t want to close outright.
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Would it not be much simpler to set up a second account at OEC where you can transfer funds back and forth between the 2 accounts online?
Of course, if you want to have all the buying power concentrated in one account your approach makes sense.
I don’t know if that would be easier, simply because I never tried it. Still, I like your idea for two reasons:
1) OEC desktop software is good and very fast, so slippage is not a problem as going through C2 sometimes is.
2) You won’t have to pay C2 to have a system active.
AND like using C2 for 3 reasons:
1) C2 offers an easy and automated way of tracking my own transactions, much better than the reports OEC offers. I believe tracking is essential for improving long-term trading performance.
2) As you mention, buying power stays concentrated into one account, specially useful when autotrading some systems that make infrequent but sizable bets. It’s just safer to have a bigger cushion.
3) From my experience with OEC, money transfers are not automated or immediate. But that was money in and out of one account, not between two accounts - since I never had the second account to try that.
Why don’t you test your idea and report back to us if it works?
There is no need to transfer money between OEC accounts. I have 2 accounts with them - one is funded, the other has a $0 cash balance. They allow the funded account to “supply” the margin for the trades in the other account. I use the “zero” account for C2 autotrade and I manually trade in the funded account. You can have 2 OEC Trader windows open simultaneously to monitor both accounts - but you can’t enter trades in the autotrade-only account.
Hans.
Hans,
After Wladimir’s post I was just about to call OEC to find out about fund transfers, then I saw your post. I assumed fund transfers would work like in my Interactive Broker’s account, that is, instant transfer. But what you describe is much better, OEC really seems to have a great platform. BTW, at OX you have to request fund transfers from one account to the other by e-mail and it takes at least one day.
Forgot to mention that OEC was recently acquired by OptionsXpress, but they won’t integrate their futures platform into their system, not at this time, anyway. However, I feel much safer now having funds at OEC (it is thinly capitalized) after having a big established and publicly traded company behind them.
I forgot to mention that you have to request that the funds of the 2 accounts NOT be segregated, else they will treat them at 2 completely separate accounts.
Hans.
