Surcharging paper traders

Hey Matt,

System vendors are using this site to paper trade. It’s a cheap way out of doing the hardwork longhand. Why not surchange any system that doesn’t deserve to be offered to the public?



Just a thought,

Arnie

In some ways this is not such a bad idea. I always thought charging only $20 for additional systems was pretty cheap. Why not bump up the first system to $99, any other system after that to $49, and increase the commission to 15%.



For any system that is not profitable at the end of each 3 month period, charge an additional $20 surcharge for that quarter. Since a losing system is not going to be bringing you any commission income, you ought to get your income by other means.



This will increase your income and should not totally alienate your entire group of system vendors, like you’re doing now.



Brian

Brian:

>Why not bump up the first system to $99, any other system after that to $49, and increase the commission to 15%.



That’s what I suggested. But you guys have to keep in mind, that technically speaking, any vendor who doesn’t have at least 1 subscriber is a papertrader, he wants to be or not. And according to my guestimate, that is 90% of all vendors! :slight_smile:



Again, even good systems have no subscribers because of the competitive nature of the site…

Guys and gals:



I want to refrain from responding specifically to comments about the new pricing policy, for now.



However, I do want to comment on Peter’s remark that "even good systems have no subscribers because of the competitive nature of the site."



With due respect to Peter, who is a great guy, and who has been with us from the beginning (an old timer!) – I think that’s turning reality on its head.



Systems find subscribers because of the fact that Collective2 aggregates lots of trading systems onto one site. That’s the point of Collective2. That’s not a bad thing. That’s what makes it attractive to subscribers: that a trader can look through hundreds of systems, and find one that’s right for him.



To say otherwise is a bit like suggesting that Ebay reduces business for sellers of goods due to the “competitive” nature of that site. (Not that I think we’re going to do as well as Ebay… even with new fees!)



Anyway, I just want to say this. Collective2 is a place where you can run your business. If you are a trading advisor, you are in business. (If you merely want to paper trade for your own sake, that’s fine, too.) You can build your business as large as you are capable and willing. Sure, being on Collective2 is a good retail “location” for a trading system vendor, but you also need to have a good product to sell (i.e. a profitable trading system), and you need to market and price it right, and you need to be a smart business person.



I’ve seen people come to Collective2 and start racking up subscribers pretty quickly, because they price their systems wisely, they make profitable trades, they spend effort or money promoting their systems, etc.



Like everything else in life, this site is what you make of it. My goal is to provide an awesome set of tools to let you run your trading advisory business. Collective2 is a platform. How you use it (and how much you benefit from it) is up to you.



- Matthew



P.S. The reason I don’t want to comment on the price increase is because I don’t want anyone to feel like I am shutting down discussion. If you want to communicate directly to me via email, that’s fine. I’ll try to respond in a timely manner. (Although I can sometimes get backed up for a few days!)