You do not need a live (“real-money”) brokerage account to manage a trading strategy on Collective2. However, if you do have a live brokerage account at a compatible broker (such as Interactive Brokers, OptionsHouse, Gain Capital, or others), you can use our BrokerTransmit technology to “run your strategy” (submit buy and sell signals) by simply trading in your broker account, as you normally do. 

If you don’t have a live broker account, or choose not to connect to us using BrokerTransmit, you can use C2 QuickTrade to enter your trades. C2 QuickTrade is a web-based trade-entry screen. If you’ve ever used an online broker, the experience will be similar.

Alternately, you can use one of our connectors to popular platforms such as TradeStation, NinjaTrader, MetaTrader, or MultiCharts.

Or you can use our API. Or you can use Seetu, our strategy-development and backtesting environment. In other words, whatever floats your boat.

With over 103,000 registered users, and hundreds of millions of dollars of automated transactions flowing through our platform each week, Collective2 is the world’s dominant open trading strategy platform.* If your strategy performs well at C2, chances are good that you will make money.

How much? That obviously depends on your strategy, and how well it performs, but we can give you some benchmarks. The highest-grossing strategy on C2 has earned over a half-million dollars. Other strategies hover around the $100,000 dollars revenue level. And quite a few good strategies cluster around the $20,000 to $30,000 level.

* “The world’s dominant open trading strategy platform” – based on analysis of available, published revenue and a user statistics for private companies. Also based on the completely objective opinion of our mothers.

You can charge subscribers any amount you like, but the “sweet spot” seems to be between the $49 and $199 monthly price point. Most strategies offer free trial periods.

Another factor to consider is the amount of capital required to follow your strategy. When you begin a strategy on Collective2, you’ll be asked to choose its starting “Model Account” size. When choosing Model Account size, make sure you take into account the margin needed, position sizing, and typical drawdown. Strategies that require more than $50,000 may be less popular than those that can be followed with a smaller capital amount.

If you find a trading strategy that you like (or two strategies, or three…), you will first “subscribe” to it. This means you can receive emails or instant messages each time a buy or sell is published by the strategy.

Of course, it’s a bit of a drag, to have to jump like a trained monkey every time your phone dings and a trade signal arrives. That’s where AutoTrade comes in.

If you choose our AutoTrade technology, every time a buy or sell signal is published, a trade will be placed in your brokerage account… automatically.

Here’s the cool part. Even though it’s called “AutoTrade,” the amount of its “auto”-ness is up to you. You stay in control. Start and stop trading whenever you like. Tell the software which kind of things to trade, and which kind of things not to trade (For example: “Yes, stocks… but no options.”). Tell the software how big or small to make your trades. You can even specify your own customized stop-losses* or profit targets. And if you see a trade that you absolutely, positively love, you can increase its size, on the fly. Similarly, if you see a real stinker, you can close that specific trade early… even before the strategy recommends… even while allowing the strategy to continue trading other things.

So, yeah, it’s “automatic,” but you can keep control.

C2 AutoTrade technology runs on our servers. It costs $99 per month to use the technology. This is a monthly software fee. This cost does not vary, regardless of how large is your broker account, and regardless of how often you trade.

Each strategy to which you subscribe sets its own monthly subscription price. These fees usually range between $20 – $200 per month. Many strategies offer free trial periods.

* “Stop Losses” may not limit losses in all market conditions.

Yep, you sure can, provided your account has enough capital. A good way to experience the results of multiple strategies as a ‘portfolio’ is to select a few in the Simulated Broker Account account provided on Collective2. You can follow trade signals for any system that has a free-trial period.

You can find a list of compatible brokers that can receive autotrade signals from Collective2 here. We are continually updating this list.

If you are an U.S. person, the short answer is: No, you do not need to register with any government agency, or pass any kind of test, or have a license in order to publish trading signals. However, you must be aware of certain restrictions. The most important restriction is this: You cannot provide individualized advice to clients. That is, you cannot offer different advice to different clients based on their individual financial situations.

If you are not a U.S. person, please check with a local attorney regarding the restrictions your government imposes upon you. Happily, we can report that Collective2 works with Trade Leaders all over the world, including the USA, Europe, the Middle East, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, North and South America, and Oceana. 

Once you start signing up subscribers, we’ll take care of all the transaction processing. We pay Trade Leaders (strategy managers) 50% of any subscriptions you collect through Collective2. Charge whatever you’d like for access to your strategy. 

Everything is included:

• Offer Autotrading to subscribers. Included.
• Broadcast signals via email, Instant Messenger, or cell phone. Included.
• Private forum for your subscribers. Included.

To “manage a strategy” here on Collective2, you’ll need to submit buy and sell signals. That means: when it’s time to buy something, you need to tell us, “Buy now.” When it’s time to sell, you’ll need to tell us, “Sell now.”

The easiest way to do this is to type your buy and sell signals directly into our web site using C2 QuickTrade. C2 QuickTrade is a web page that looks like an online broker. When you type in your trade, C2 “publishes” it simultaneously to all subscribers.

Alternately, if you have a live broker account at a C2-compatible broker, you can use BrokerTransmit technology, which automatically beams your trading activity into your C2 Model Account. (From there, all your subscribers will receive your published buy / sell instruction simultaneously.)

Or, you can explore advanced choices, which include our C2 API, email, platform connectors (NinjaTrader, MT4, TradeStation), or programming your strategy using our Seetu language (pronounced SEE-too).

Yes. Stock and stock option systems can be traded in most traditional IRA accounts. Futures systems often require an alternative investment custodian. You can check with your broker for a recommendation of companies that allow for self-directed accounts that can participate in non-traditional assets.

We’re working on that and it may be available for some brokers in the future. For now, though, subscription fees can only be paid via credit card on file for your C2 account.

So, you have a broker account at Schwab, or E*Trade, or Ameritrade, or Fidelity. You don’t see your broker on our list of compatible brokers. You say to yourself, “What’s wrong with these clowns at Collective2? Don’t they know anything? My broker is the biggest in the world! How come C2 doesn’t want to work with them?”

Au contraire, my friend. We really do want to work with all the big guys. And we do work with quite a few powerful firms, any one of which could squash us like a bug on their windshield — firms like Interactive Brokers, OptionsHouse, FXCM, Gain Capital, NinjaTrader, Dorman, AMP, and many others. But you know how it is. Some companies move faster than others. Some like to explore new frontiers. Some need a little gentle encouragement. So, if you don’t see your broker on the list, we ask you to (politely!) contact your broker and tell someone that there that you want to be able to follow Collective2 strategies in your account. 

Or you could, you know, just open an account at one of the firms that already loves C2. Just saying.