Heute flatterte eine unangenehme Nachricht für alle Trade Leader auf Collective2 ins Haus.
Matthew Klein teilt darin mit, dass zur Aufrechterhaltung des Services die Notwendigkeit besteht, den Anteil der Abonnentengebühr, die Collective2 einbehält, von vormals 30 % auf nun i.d.R. 50 % angehoben wird.
Wer als Trade Leader seiner Strategie mit einem von C2 zu bestimmenden Livekonto folgt, muss nur 40 % abdrücken.
Was sind die Gründe für die Gebührenanpassung bei Collective2 ?
Klein legt recht offen dar, dass die Abonnenten der Plattform durch den Volacrash im Februar diesen Jahres viel Geld verloren haben. Weniger Konten, weniger Umsatz…so einfach ist das. Desweiteren drücken die Kosten aufs Budget, angefangen von Personal über Lizenzen bis hin zu Anwalts- und Compliancekosten.
C2 war in den letzten Jahren fast eine One Man Show von Matthew Klein. Bemühungen, Gelder einzusammeln, liefen bisher offenbar ins Leere bzw. brachten nicht den gewünschten Erfolg.
Wo melkt man also zuerst?
Bei den Strategieanbietern, den sogenannten Trade Leader. Eigentlich auch logisch, denn die haben ja den Karren mit ihren Volastrategien in den Dreck gefahren.
Hier der Text im Original:
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Today I have unpleasant news. Collective2 needs to increase the percentage it charges Trade Leaders when a strategy subscription is purchased by a customer.
As you know, the current fee is 30%. That has been the percentage for over a decade. The new fee, effective for transactions beginning August 7, 2018, will be as follows:
For subscriptions charged on or after August 7, 2018 Trades-Own-Strategy (TOS) strategies 40% Regular Strategies 50% * Subscription fees charged before August 7, and not yet remitted to you, will be charged old fees
We will not be changing the monthly Trade Leader fees, and have no plans to do so. This affects only when a subscriber pays you for a monthly subscription.
Still, there is no way to sugar-coat this, no corporate bullshit I can blow to make this more palatable. The simple truth is that the economics of Collective2’s business do not work without this price change. If Collective2 is to remain alive and viable, we must change these fees.
Why is this necessary?
Because Collective2 is currently losing money. It’s that simple.
I know it’s not typical for a privately-owned company to share financial data, but I think it’s worth sharing the following.
The February market crash decimated Collective2’s customer base. Many subscribers lost money following strategies that were over-leveraged, and were betting on continued low volatility. This hurt subscribers, but it also hurt C2’s revenue. We’ve been fighting for several months to regain lost ground.
On the cost side of the equation, the math is equally difficult. To be blunt, the operating costs of running Collective2 are high. Just a few examples: we never charge our users for exchange-data fees. C2’s own cost for licensing various exchange data is a quarter of a million dollars each year. In the meantime, the regulatory burden on financial firms such as Collective continues to grow, year by year, regardless of which political party is in office, or what their policies ostensibly are. Legal fees and compliance costs are a steady, large, inevitable, expense. Infrastructure costs — hosting, security, redundancy — are large and rising.
I tell you these things not to make excuses. Ultimately, a business owner is responsible to make his company’s economics „work.“ In Collective2’s case, they currently do not. I therefore need to make changes.
What do you need to do?
There is no action you need to take. The price change will be applied automatically, to new subscription transactions that occur on August 7 or later. (Previous subscriptions already paid by customers are not affected.) If you are not TOS-Certified, and want to benefit from the lower fee structure that TOS offers, please consider TOS Certification. See the postscript at the bottom of this email for more information.
Conclusion
I know this isn’t welcome news for you or for Collective2. But C2 has survived for over 17 years, in many economic, business, and regulatory climates. By making this pricing change, and by making other changes in our operations behind the scenes, including reductions in pay and head count, we will be able to insure that Collective2 survives for many years to come. We will continue to fight every day to build a great, strong, stable platform that helps traders and strategy developers around the world.
Sincerely,
Matthew Klein
CEO
Collective2 LLCP.S. Now, more than ever, becoming „TOS-Certified“ brings benefits. You can read more about TOS Certification here. We are also holding a special live webinar on Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at 1:00 PM Eastern time (New York time) to discuss how to become TOS Certified.
