It is a pleasure. I am also interested in automated strategies. I have been developing my own platform to allow me to pursue this side of trading. I will be automating equities, FX and the indices. I had previously been doing a lot of work in excel but it is about time to move to the next level. Maybe we can have a chat to see if we share some common goals.
Hi Reload, there are good reasons why professionals don't use such platforms like collective2. let me give you an extreme example. there was a fell that ran his own automated strategies on the prop desk of a top tier bank. he's strategy would trade hundreds of tickers and he normally had around 2k positions. a lot of these positions were fake (fake trades and positions) in the risk reporting system and he would trade across multiple accounts. this was all so that no one looking at the blotter could reverse engineer the system. additionally he was not allowed to have a bloomberg terminal and not allowed to have a office phone line (figure why?). so you have people running these strategies and they protect it like Salamon's key.. and then you expect them to put on a pedestal for all to see? I'm sure you understand what it means to have an edge right? nevermind having to disclose every trade, or better yet - use a third party platform that reads all your trades. I can guess that if anything, the best strategies work for a short time before they they start losing money. you must really have the money in your own entity, away from any middle party involvement to protect your business. there are other issues too, legal etc. so in short, such like this are really a toy for retail clients who want to take part in games they probably can't in their own capacity. and yes some of them may make money, but not for too long. there are good reasons why some get paid a lot of money to manage strategies.
Yes indeed, I am quite agree with you. But, just like there are prop traders working in big firm, earning or losing 50K(maybe more) daily, there are also prop traders working in some small prop shop, working for daily profit ranges from 500$ to 1000$. When you are talking about the algo trading guy working in a top tier bank, don't forget there are also some algo guys who are "less" professional but profitable, making their effort in seeking capital to build their career. If you have just a million or two to invest, you might not have the chance to partner with the real professional guy you mentioned, but you are absolutely popular to the technical guys who hanging round in some ATS commodities, like Collective2, right?
I would say they are only useful for amatures. if you consider someone extremely talented, surely they would be hired/supported already? any professional who has developed such strategy normally will use the normal routes to raise the necessary capital needed. just because you don't have a million doesn't mean you should expose your strategy. anyone who is serious about this business will invest a lot of time networking, raising capital and building the business just like any other. just like any other business. I'm not saying it's completely useless, it does give possible opportunities, but just saying anyone who takes the business serious for the long term wouldn't use it and would be somewhat at risk also if they have a serious edge. thanks