Quote from TBA99:
Take a look at this another way with 500K. If you have 100K in your account and then borrow 400K from F&F at an interest rate of 5%. Your trading expenses are 20K for the loan + operating expenses. The trader parks his 100K in a high interest (pays 2%) secure account to cover any trading losses + loan interest. If the trader eats through 80K then the trader's track record was never that strong and should return the F&F loans + interest. If the trader is averaging 20% returns he should be able to increase those returns with the proper use of leverage. Having access to leverage and knowing how to use that leverage is part of the game. If your an undisciplined trader then yes there is a chance of a blowup. On the plus side you won't have to take any calls (complaints) from your F&F regarding their investment. Paperwork is kept at a minimum. Also, 5% annual return is not that bad for F&F.
Quote from sf631:
In reference to a comment earlier in the thread about the challenges of IB's FFA structure, where you trade all accounts in lock-step and can end up with "stub" positions (2 shares long in one account, 2 shares short in another, flat in the third) if the IB machine screws up the allocation.
I dealt with that reality for a year+ while managing just 3 accounts (I can't imagine how hard it'd be with 10 accts) but a helpful rep at IB taught me a trick.
Define "Account Groups" (Config-> Advisor->Account Groups) that are of two types. The first is "Opening" and the second in "Closing". I actually have an Open_Long, Close_Long, Open_Short, and Close_Short because it's a L/S strategy.
Set up the Opening group(s) to be "AvailableEquity" method, which will apportion the trades to the amount of buying power that exists in each account at the time you place the order. Set up the Closing group(s) to be "PctChange" which will allow you to trade out of a position shared across multiple accounts entirely by specifying a "-100" percent change in the portfolio page, or something less to reduce position. This will take whatever is on the books for each account and reduce the position by that percent, which for me is most often -100 just to close out all positions without risk of overshooting and ending up with 1 or 2 shares short when closing out a long position.
You don't need to Open using AvailableEquity if you prefer a ratio or soemthing else, just an easy way to make sure all accounts are roughly the same percent invested/leveraged.
Hope this helps someone, it's been a life-saver for me.
Quote from sf631:
In reference to a comment earlier in the thread about the challenges of IB's FFA structure, where you trade all accounts in lock-step and can end up with "stub" positions (2 shares long in one account, 2 shares short in another, flat in the third) if the IB machine screws up the allocation.
I dealt with that reality for a year+ while managing just 3 accounts (I can't imagine how hard it'd be with 10 accts) but a helpful rep at IB taught me a trick.
Define "Account Groups" (Config-> Advisor->Account Groups) that are of two types. The first is "Opening" and the second in "Closing". I actually have an Open_Long, Close_Long, Open_Short, and Close_Short because it's a L/S strategy.
Set up the Opening group(s) to be "AvailableEquity" method, which will apportion the trades to the amount of buying power that exists in each account at the time you place the order. Set up the Closing group(s) to be "PctChange" which will allow you to trade out of a position shared across multiple accounts entirely by specifying a "-100" percent change in the portfolio page, or something less to reduce position. This will take whatever is on the books for each account and reduce the position by that percent, which for me is most often -100 just to close out all positions without risk of overshooting and ending up with 1 or 2 shares short when closing out a long position.
You don't need to Open using AvailableEquity if you prefer a ratio or soemthing else, just an easy way to make sure all accounts are roughly the same percent invested/leveraged.
Hope this helps someone, it's been a life-saver for me.
Are you sure that C2 is appropriate also for long-term investing and not just for trading based on "signals"? I got the impression that C2 let people to publish their trading system and if other people like that they can subscribe for a fee, and C2 pass a certain amount of that fee along to the trading system's owner. I am not sure if it is suitable also for long-term money management which is not necessarily based on "signals" or any sophisticated algorithm (as opposed to short-term trading). Please correct me if I am wrong.
This problem is solved radically in WealthSignals. Authors are protected from signal leaks as no free trials or simulations are allowed.Collective2 is definitely not worth it in my opinion.
1) There are way too many investors on their that have figured out how to exploit loopholes in their system that allow investors to “subscribe” to your system as simulation subscribers so they end up getting all of your trades without having to pay the sub fee.
This problem is solved radically in WealthSignals. Authors are protected from signal leaks as no free trials or simulations are allowed.
It's free to become a WealthSignals author and we offer a 80% payout of subscriber fees.
-Eugene