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CoolTrade Automatically Executes Your Trading Strategy Even While You're Away From Your Computer
CoolTrade is an automated trading platform, also known as a robotic trading program, algorithmic trading system or online stock trading system. There are many terms used to describe the online stock trading systems that can help you grow your investments. CoolTrade is the only stock trading program for individual investors that is fully robotic.
CoolTrade was founded in 2004 by CEO Ed Barsano after years of actively trading and not finding software that could trade the market more efficiently. As a former Microsoft developer, Ed created the CoolTrade platform and marketed it to several brokerage firms. Today, CoolTrade users can use this algo trading program to trade with Interactive Brokers, TDAmeritrade, MB Trading and Options House. It is available in 38 countries and in 4 languages. Investment guru The Street’s Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts Plus! subscribers can develop automated strategies to trade Jim’s alerts, exclusively with CoolTrade.
Many of the programs are geared towards "day traders," who technically open long positions (buy) or short positions (sell short) and close these positions the same day. Not everyone who uses these programs closes out his positions by the end of the trading day--sometimes he holds his positions for days, weeks or months. We'll call this "active trading." Sometimes this is also referred to as "swing trading." CoolTrade does not currently offer options trading. There is Beta version of Forex trading that is being tested. CoolTrade includes a data feed for stock quotes and indicators, stock charts or charting capability of major indicators and current balances.
CoolTrade is composed of two major software elements: the Automated Trader, an order entry system, which places the buy and sell orders based on the rules you set, and the Strategy Wizard, where you choose the indicators that will make up your rules. The indicators and rules are used to create a watch list of the stocks to potentially trade.
The Automated Trader is the nervous system of the CoolTrade software, constantly checking the Level II streaming quotes against your positions and strategy. When conditions match for a trade, the Automated Trader executes the trade in a fraction of a second, much faster than any human could. This algorithmic trading capability is your key defense against institutional program trading. The Automated Trader displays current Profit and Loss (P&L) for the day and net overall P&L on your open positions. It also displays the status of the rules on your watch list. For example, if a stock on the watch list hasn't traded, you can pull up the rules and indicators to see which one(s) is preventing the trade.
CoolTrade includes a Sectors graph, which visually displays the percentage of symbols up and down in each sector from the specified time frame to the current time so you can see how the market is turning. The Automated Trader contains the ability to block certain symbols from trading. For example, if you're running a long trading strategy, you won't want to be buying ETF's that short the market. The Automated Trader program has a manual override so that you can manually place a trade as well.
With CoolTrade, you can literally turn on your computer in the morning, leave to go to work or out for fun and the Automated Trader will monitor and execute your trading. It picks the stocks. It buys. It sells. It does it all 100% unattended and it's extremely user friendly. CoolTrade is all point and click—no programming required. It is the only fully automated trading system available to individual investors. CoolTrade hold several patents for this advanced design.
Reports and Trading Strategy Statistics – The Automated Trader has a Reports functionality where you can review your trading activity. Another great feature is strategy statistics. They will tell the serious stock trader the number of trades executed and break them down by profitable vs. unprofitable over various intervals. Reviewing the strategy accuracy increases the odds that a stock trader will be profitable.
The Strategy Wizard is the key to keeping emotion out of the trading equation by enabling you to select from over 300 indicators to set rules on what and when to buy, add to positions and when to sell. Essentially, it's a rules driven software system. Long time traders report that the simplest strategies, when left to run on their own for long periods, perform best. The Strategy Wizard allows the user to set prices or percentages for a stop (loss), stop limit and trailing stops. A trailing stop limit is similar to the stop (loss), except its loss is measured from the stock’s highest point achieved. The key to the Strategy Wizard is the profit goal--the minimum gain a trader sets before closing the position. It also allows the user to set profit protection in the form of a reduced profit goal. After the stock reaches its profit goal and continues to rise, the stock trading software will wait and let the profit increase. If the stock price decreases or pulls back, the Automated Trader will close the position and lock the profit. This pullback value doesn’t have any effect before the profit goal is reached and is intended to improve stock performance. CoolTrade includes is a function to allow the percentage gain from stock trader's entry price, and the trader can also specify a minimum amount in case the percentage gained is too low.
Ability to Simulate Strategies In Real Time Before Running Live - Most traders would agree that they'd like to "test drive" a system before using it. Some programs allow this through "back-testing," in which the program uses historical data to execute the trades and show you what they would have been. This is not always accurate, as there is much data needed to perform a thorough back-test and it's nearly impossible to replicate all the circumstances with just the historical data. In addition, how the system performed in a market last month or last year does not indicate how it will perform in the here and now. CoolTrade will let you practice stock trading using a live real-time data feed during market hours. This is the preferred method, as it gives traders a very realistic view of how their trading strategy is performing and the ability to feel the highs and lows of daily trading without investing real money. If you can simulate trades, you won't need to open an actual brokerage account until you go "live" with real money.
Online traders want automated trading software that tracks and displays the number of day trades remaining. Day trading is regulated by the SEC, so it's important to understand if you will be day trading first. Review the requirements below in Minimum to Invest.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's) can be part of an efficient trading strategy and can be traded in CoolTrade.
Number of Technical Indicators - There are literally hundreds of indicators that stock traders can use to determine which stocks to buy and sell and when. CoolTrade offers over 300 indicators for technical analysis, such as Bollinger Bands, and indicators for Candlestick Chart formations. Robo trading programs use these indicators to set conditions under which online investing will occur. The definitions of the indicators are readily available within the application.
Additional strategy and order entry features include the ability to add to a position as a stock goes up, or as the stock declines, as well as a minimum purchase interval that the stock price should drop before it begins purchasing additional shares. A maximum bid/ask range is another great feature, as the size of the spread can directly impact a swing trader's ability to make profitable trades. |
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Number of Long and Short Strategies Per Account - Due to the size of the online trading platform, there is a limit of one long and one short strategy that can be loaded on each account. If you want to run, say two long trading strategies, then you may need two accounts. Confirm if you have enough memory on your computer for two or more accounts. Also see System Requirements. Experienced active traders may run two or more live long and short strategies, while having additional accounts for strategies that they are testing in a simulator mode. Also see Ability to Simulate Strategies In Real Time Before Running Live. |
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Shows You How to Create A Stock Trading Strategy – CoolTrade has off-the-shelf strategies that are available for your use and they offered for free. You can modify the off the shelf strategies or create your own from scratch. You can also copy strategies from a "friends" list. One size does not fit all. Don’t overpay for "proprietary" services that some stock trading “programs” sell. You may be able to obtain free stock market tips and recommendations online that will perform comparably. Note that the strategies and results are in no way guaranteed.
Number of Broker Choices and Commissions – You don’t even need a brokerage account to start using CoolTrade. CoolTrade can be run in simulator mode for as long as you want to experiment with a strategy. Once you are ready to trade “live,” you will need to choose a brokerage account.
Trading commissions can eat into your profits if you are not careful about choosing a plan that fits your needs. Commissions can vary greatly from broker to broker, depending on the number of shares traded, whether the shares are in round lots of 100, price of the shares traded, and the number of trades you place each month. Stock traders may even want to have more than one account if they have a trading strategy that normally trades 100 shares lots and another that trades 1000 share lots. It pays to read the fine print.
Commissions are just one consideration in choosing a firm. Another is the margin rates. If you choose to have a margin account and borrow against the value of your securities to open more positions, you will be charged margin interest. Rates will vary by firm. Typically, firms with the lowest commissions won't pay you interest or offer a money market fund for your uninvested cash. This is how they keep their costs down. If you anticipate having extra cash that you won’t use for trading, you may want to keep it in another account where it can earn more. You should also check if there is a minimum to open an account or a minimum number of trades required.
CoolTrade affiliated brokers offer the following basic commissions:
Interactive Brokers - $1 per trade for 100 share lot. $.005 per share with a minimum commission of $1 per trade for US clients. A practice “paper trading” account is available and recommended for use before trading live, even for experienced traders.
TDAmeritrade – Normally $9.99 per trade of 100 shares, CoolTrade members receive a discounted commission rate of $5 per trade upon request.
Options House - $2.95 per trade, flat rate regardless of the number of shares. A practice “virtual” account is available and recommended for use before trading live, even for experienced traders.
Flat Rate - $4.95 per trade, regardless of share size Per Share - $.0075 per share, with a $4.95 minimum per trade
Initial Subscription Fee and Annual Fees – The CoolTrade subscription is about $4000 per year. There are no hidden fees or costs. This includes the software download, many strategies (some have been running successfully for years), support, free training in-our-offce and reporting. Many other online investment programs charge an initial fee of anywhere from $5000 to $8000 to buy their package. Much of what you can obtain from some of these programs can be found in inexpensive books or on the Internet for free. Some programs also charge an extra monthly fee in addition to purchasing the software. In reviewing online trading services, you will discover that more expensive is not necessarily better.
Data Feed Fee – The CoolTrade subscription inncludes real time Level II data feeds for stock quotes and indicators. Many other firms charge an extra fee for this and only include delayed or end of day quotes for free. This is the biggest component cost in developing automated stock trading programs. Even in a simulation, old data is not good data.
Stock Charts Fee – As with the data feed, CoolTrade includes basic stock charts in its subscriptions. Some other programs charge a separate fee for it. With CoolTrade, you do not need to spend extra money on a charting package. The Automated Trader will tell you which rule or rules are preventing trades for the stocks on your Watch List.
Ongoing Support Fee – At CoolTrade there are no other fees. Hidden fees will definitely eat into a stock trader's profits. If you're not in the market to make money, then you shouldn't be in the market.
Training Fee – At CoolTrade there is never a fee for training. Free live training is available every week in our Scottsdale, Arizona office. For other programs that market themselves as financial educators, there will be a fee, sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars, as this is how they make their money. Visit the CoolTrade Training Site to schedule free training today.
Training Formats – CoolTrade also offers free video training so you can learn at your convenience. Many financial educational firms charge extra for materials such as DVDs. Check out CoolTrade Video Tutorials today!
Minimum to Invest – There is no minimum to use CoolTrade. Brokerage firms have their own minimums but there are also account minimum balances required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for what it calls "pattern day traders." A day trade occurs when a trader opens and closes the same position in a margin account on the same day. A pattern day trader is any person who executes 4 or more day trades within 5 business days in a margin account, provided the number of day trades is more than 6% of the total trades in the account during that period. All pattern day traders must maintain a minimum of $25,000 in equity at all times. More information about these regulations is available at Day Trading Margin Requirements.
System Requirements - The more robust the trading system, the greater the memory requirements. We recommend using a desktop computer with a Windows operating system with at least 1GB of RAM. Many of our users buy an inexpensive desktop and only run CoolTrade on it. If you sign up for more than one account, check whether your machine have enough RAM to run two or you’ll need to purchase an extra computer or more memory. Laptops and wireless connections aren’t recommended for use with CoolTrade. |
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Tech Support and Customer Service – CoolTrade software is easy to download and install. It works on Windows Vista, XP and 2000. CoolTrade is not compatible with the Mac operating system.
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Online Trading Community - Trading platform developers who are truly proud of their work welcome comments and questions from users. CoolTrade offers a Community Board. Take some time to read the stock trading forum and see what other traders are saying. You may even submit a request for additional technical analysis indicators.
We invite you to compare CoolTrade to other educational, trading or broker partner programs. Robotic trading has already been proven. Institutions have used it for years. Now CoolTrade takes fully robotic trading to the public. CoolTrade is about you having control over your financial future.
Make your next trade a CoolTrade! |
Traders in over 35 countries enjoy trading with the CoolTrade Fully Robotic Trader.
CoolTrade works with the following online brokers:
E*TRADE
MB TRADING
TD Ameritrade
TradeKing
Test your strategies in real-time.
Download strategies FREE from other CoolTrade members.
The Robotic Trader may be set to start by itself in the morning and trade the market all day 100% unattended.
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