All You Need to Know About Auto-Trading

What is auto-trading?

Auto-trading is when subscribers of trading newsletters prefer that their accounts be traded automatically based on the newsletter's trade alerts. With auto-trading you can allocate a portion or all of your account (percentage, dollar amount, or number of units) per recommended trade and the service provider places the trades for you.

Most newsletters send the broker emails including trade alerts and the broker's trade desk places the orders in the client accounts. In some cases (like auto-trading with Interactive Brokers), this is done through third party providers (Global Auto-Trading). Please read SEC Risk Disclosure on Autotrading.

What are the risks of auto-trading?

Before you enroll in an auto-trading service, those are the questions you need to ask about a newsletter offering auto-trading program:

1. Is the newsletter a licensed investment adviser? SEC considers newsletters that engage in auto-trading to be investment advisers. If the newsletter is not an investment adviser, by engaging in auto-trading they are breaking the law and are exposed to lawsuits like this one. Since an auto-trading service is basically equivalent to money management, SEC requirement makes perfect sense.
    
2. Is the newsletter a one man operation? What happens if that man gets hit by a truck or breaks a leg? Does he have a backup to continue trading your money? What if the trade(s) need to be adjusted or closed in a timely matter? Are you at risk of catastrophic losses if this happens?
    
3. What if the markets start moving fast? Will their broker get the email with trade instructions fast enough? What if the prices are significantly different by the time the broker tries to place an order?
    
4. Do you understand the rationale behind the trades or you just trust the newsletter blindly to place the trades in your account?

For most newsletters, auto-trading is actually illegal!

Those are some of the reasons why I cannot auto-trade SteadyOptions strategies. I'm not a licensed investment adviser, I cannot place the trades in members accounts and I'm just not willing to break the law like most other newsletters do.

Some newsletters would consider it a gray area. Let me be very clear: there is nothing gray about it. If autotrading is done by someone who is not an investment adviser, it is illegal. Period. Not a gray area. Black and white.

Unfortunately, many people found out the hard way that giving their money to amateurs is usually not a smart move. Many services simply blew out members accounts. Some of them just closed out, others did a "portfolio reset". Unfortunately, in real life people cannot reset their portfolios after losing 80-100% of them.

How our service is different from most other services?

Unlike SteadyOptions, our other strategies are managed by licensed investments advisers. That means that the trades are placed directly by Lorintine Capital, LP. By doing that, we are eliminating the middle man (the broker's trade desk or GAT). This creates better and more reliable execution, especially in fast moving markets, and reduce costs. Most other competing services cannot do this because they are not licensed investment advisers. In addition, we have backup, so if for any reason, one of our advisers is unable to place the trades, he is backed up by another adviser who has full access to all accounts. In addition, all trades are placed and discussed on the forum, so you can have a full understanding of the rationale behind the trades.

This is not auto-trading, rather it is something called a "managed account."  In order to open a managed account with Lorintine Capital, you will have to enter into an independent client agreement with them and go through a "know your client" process wherein a discussion can be had on whether or not such strategies are suitable for you and to review the risk of them on a one on one basis.

Of course you can always trade our strategies yourself as well, but we can make no guarantees as to your ability to implement them or obtain the same or similar performance other Steady Options members and contributors obtain.  There is a learning curve to the strategies we discuss and much of it is time sensitive.

Clients have full access to their accounts through either tdameritrde.com or advisorclient.com. They can view them at any time. They can deposit/withdraw cash as needed by contacting us or doing it themselves online, as long as they stay within the specified range.

Which broker we use and how much does it cost?

We are using TD Ameritrade Institutional. We will provide you with all necessary paperwork to open a TD Ameritrade Institutional account. Lorintine Capital has negotiated very competitive rates for trading in their managed accounts.

Fees to Lorintine Capital vary by account size and typically are in the range of 0.8% (for accounts over $1m) to 1.5% (for accounts under $250,000). 

To be eligible for a managed account in these strategies, you also need to maintain an active subscription to the respective service. Lorintine Capital and Steady Options are separate firms and bill separately for their services.  Members can still remain self-managed if they want and continue paying the subscription fee only. We continue posting the trades on the forum.

You can have multiple managed accounts under your name or your spouse name. Each account will be charged a separate managed account fee, but you will pay only one service subscription fee to Steady Options.

How to start

If you don't have an active subscription, subscribe to the appropriate package. After your forum account is activated, please contact us for further instructions:

PM or email Chris Welsh at cwelsh@lorintinecapital.com.

Or you may email me with any general questions at info@steadyoptions.com

You are welcome to post your questions/comments.