Autotrading your TurnerTrends Account
Tired of constantly watching your stocks? Want to match a TurnerTrends portfolio, but don't want to spend the time required to do it? Then Autotrading could be the answer for you!
Autotrading is not for everyone and it is NOT something that we control... this is very important for you to understand. If you choose to autotrade a TurnerTrends Portfolio through your broker, keep the following in mind:
- TurnerTrends is NOT a licensed financial adviser. We do not and will not provide your broker with any information that should be considered as advice regarding the trading of securities on your behalf. We have no relationship with any broker where we supply securities trading recommendations on the behalf of any person, investor or subscriber.
- If you desire to hire your broker to autotrade on your behalf, that decision is strictly between you and your broker. If you are planning to follow one or more of our portfolios via Autotrading, you must read, understand, properly execute and fax or mail a copy of our Autotrade Disclaimer (pdf) to TurnerTrends.
- TurnerTrends does not recommend, endorse or advocate Autotrading and strongly recommends that you not use any information published by TurnerTrends for the buying, selling, shorting or covering of any securities without first seeking the advice of a licensed professional adviser.
When you set up an autotrade account with your broker, you are instructing your broker to execute all your buys, sells and stop loss settings for you, based on a specific set of instructions that you control.
Every broker that provides an autotrade service has rules and guidelines unique to that broker. Our broker-of-choice, thinkorswim*, provides Autotrading services. Still have questions? Just click on any of the links below to view the Frequently Asked Autotrade Questions:
- What is Autotrading?
- How does Autotrading work?
- How do I start Autotrading?
- What is the Cost for Autotrading?
- Do you have a recommended broker for Autotrading?
- Why should I use Autotrading?
- Why should I NOT use Autotrading?
- Can I Autotrade in more than one TurnerTrends portfolio?
- Ok... I understand that you don't recommend Autotrading, don't provide investment advice and don't tell my broker what to buy or sell on my behalf. But, I still want to autotrade and follow one or more of your portfolios. I have filled out and signed the Autotrade Disclaimer and sent it to you. Now... I want to get started in may autotrade account with my broker. Do you have a recommendation regarding the initial start up? Should I buy everything you already have in your portfolio?
- Do you short sell in any of your portfolios?
- If you don't recommend that we autotrade, why do you have this as an option?
What is Autotrading?
Autotrading is where you enter into an agreement with your broker in which you instruct your broker to follow a specific set of rules, guidelines and/or trading instructions provided by you to your broker. Your broker, then, makes trades on your behalf according to those instructions. You could, for example, provide your broker with a copy of the information we publish about one of our portfolios, with the instructions to your broker to proportionately trade your account so as to stay in sync with a TurnerTrends portfolio. This action should NOT be construed as TurnerTrends providing trading information to your broker on your behalf. If you choose to use our published information for Autotrading, you do so at your own risk. TurnerTrends is an information-only publication and does not make securities trading recommendations of any kind. We merely tell you what we plan to buy and sell in our own model portfolios.
How does Autotrading work?
As a subscriber to a TurnerTrends portfolio, you are provided with an Excel worksheet each weekend that includes:
- Ticker
- Number of Shares
- Limit Order Price Per Share
- Percent of the total portfolio each position holds, including new positions we plan to buy
- Stop Loss setting for each position, including the new positions we plan to buy
If you plan to match us trade-for-trade, then you will want to proportionately buy and sell the same stocks that we buy and sell. This worksheet is designed to show you exactly what percent of your investable funds should be allocated to each position in our portfolio, if your goal is to match us trade-for-trade.
This worksheet is called our “Portfolio Tool” and should be downloaded each week from our website. It is updated each time we make a change to the portfolio, including all trades and stop loss settings. The Portfolio Tool for each portfolio can be downloaded from the portfolio overview page on the TurnerTrends website.
As a courtesy to you, we provide your autotrade broker with access to this same Portfolio Tool. Your autotrade broker will use this tool to determine how many shares to buy or sell to keep your brokerage account in sync with our portfolio.
However, this process should not be construed as us giving investment advice to your broker on your behalf. As a part of your autotrade agreement with your broker, you will have instructed your broker to buy and sell stocks according to your rules and requirements. A part of those rules and requirements will be to use the Portfolio Tool to determine what stocks to buy and sell and how many shares of each.
How do I start Autotrading?
To start Autotrading, contact your broker and follow their procedure for Autotrading. You also must provide us with a properly executed Autotrade Disclaimer. Click here to download a pdf copy of the agreement. Fill it out and fax or mail it to us. What is the Cost for Autotrading?
Since we do not provide Autotrading services, there is nothing that TurnerTrends charges for you to autotrade. To our knowledge no broker charges an extra fee for providing Autotrading services to their account holders.
Do you have a recommended broker for Autotrading?
Why should I use Autotrading?
You should use Autotrading if:
- You prefer that your broker follow a pre-defined set of instructions provided by you to your broker for which securities to buy or sell and when to buy or sell those securities.
- As a part of the trading instructions you provide to your broker, you desire to make similar trades to those that TurnerTrends makes in one or more of its model portfolios.
- You have reviewed your trading rules and instructions with a licensed professional financial advisor and clearly know that Autotrading is appropriate for you and your level of investment knowledge.
- You want to be able to continue to match a TurnerTrends portfolio even if you are out of town or unable to get access to the Internet while on a trip or a vacation.
- You want to get the exact price that TurnerTrends gets for every trade.
Why should I NOT use Autotrade?
You should NOT use Autotrade if:
- You have not confirmed that Autotrading is recommended for you by a licensed professional financial adviser.
- You are planning to rely on TurnerTrends for the buying and selling of securities. We do not make stock trading recommendations. We merely tell you what stocks we plan to trade and when we plan to trade them. We DO NOT RECOMMEND that you rely on our published information on our management of our portfolios to autotrade.
- You expect TurnerTrends to tell your broker what to trade on your behalf. We do not provide that information.
Can I Autotrade in more than one TurnerTrends portfolio?
We have no control over what information you use to autotrade. We only want to know that you are not relying on TurnerTrends information for Autotrading. That is why you must provide us with a properly executed Autotrade Disclaimer. Click here to download the pdf for the disclaimer.
Do you have a recommendation regarding the initial start up?
Keep in mind that we are trading out of an actively managed portfolio. This means we are continually looking for the right time to exit positions either to collect profits or limit losses. If you have decided to match us trade-for-trade (only after seeking and obtaining professional financial advice concerning this decision), then we believe you are at a higher risk of closing a new position if you came into that position later than we did. The only way to match us trade for trade is to either buy in when we buy in or buy in at (or very near) the same basis we have in existing positions.
Do you short sell in any of your portfolios?
No.
If you don't recommend that we autotrade, why do you have this as an option?
Don't get us wrong... we think that Autotrading, for the right type of investor, is one of the greatest labor-saving services provided by brokerage firms. It is a wonderful way to manage your own investment portfolio without having to sit in front of a computer screen all day. It is a wonderful service for people who want to follow a specific trading strategy and yet have a life outside of investing in the stock market. People who autotrade can go on vacation, be out of contact with computers and television or phones, and still know that their instructions are being followed; minute by minute and second by second.
But, since we are not licensed financial advisers and since Autotrading is strictly between you and your broker, we cannot possibly recommend something that we neither have control over nor have the credentials to professionally advise you on. We must stay in the position of neither recommending nor supporting Autotrading. As good as it is for some investors, we cannot possibly know if you fit into the category of investor that should even consider Autotrading. So we cannot endorse it.
Disclaimer: thinkorswim, Inc. has entered into a Marketing Agreement with TurnerTrends whereby thinkorswim pays TurnerTrends to recommend thinkorswim as its executing broker. The existence of this Marketing Agreement should not be deemed as and endorsement or recommendation of TurnerTrends by thinkorswim. thinkorswim does not warrant the accuracy or content of TurnerTrend’s products or services.
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