Using StockTraderVision Because StockTraderVision does most of the work, our portfolio is simple. First, register as a trial member. It takes less than a minute. Then login to your account. Next, decide the amount of positions you wish to utilize in your portfolio. Finally choose which type of positions you want in your portfolio. While the amount of positions that you use is up to you, we recommend that you use at least as many positions as are listed on the chart below. The more positions you choose, the more diversified your portfolio will be; however, more positions also means trades. Total trading funds available (including margin) Suggested Postions $7,000-$10,000 1 position $10,000-$20,000 at least 2 $20,000-$30,000 at least 3 $30,000-$50,000 at least 4 $50,000-$70,000 at least 5 $70,000+ at least 6 Once you decide on how many positions you wish to trade, you can decide which types of positions you would like in your portfolio. The table below explains the 8 different positions which can be included in your portfolio. The basic idea is to let you choose how often you would like to trade. Generally the top positions make more trades during the month and are expected to gain more. If you are not sure, we suggest you choose a mix of position types and get a feel for how often you like to trade. Position Number Position Type Explanation 1-2 Short Term Positions- These position are designed to swing with every move of the market without the hyper-activity of day trading. These positions usually last for hours to days. 3-4 Medium Term Positions- These positions are designed to take advantage of swings in the market. These positions generally last for days to weeks. 5-6 Long Term Positions- These positions are designed to take advantage of established swings in the market. These positions generally last for weeks to months. Changing your portfolio You may change your on or before the 3rd day of each calander month. For the purposes of fees, we use your portfolio as it stands on the 4th day of the month. Now you can enter the amount of funds you have available for trading (including any margin you wish to use) in the form to allow the program to calculate the dollar amounts to be allocated for each stock. If no amount is entered, the default is $10,000. Do not use commas or dollar signs when entering this amount. Now you are ready to trade to match the StockTraderVision portfolio. When changes are made to the portfolio, you will be notified via email. The process can be summarized in the 6 steps shown below. Step 1 Register. The process takes less than a minute. If you have not registered, you may do so by clicking here Step 2 Login - Use the user name and password that you chose during the registration process. Step 3 Decide on the amount of positions that you want in your portfolio. Step 4 Select the position types you wish to trade. Step 5 Enter the amount of funds, including margin that you wish to trade with. Step 6 Trade to match the StockTraderVision portfolio. Be mindful of whether the stock is being bought or shorted and carefully note the allocation amount. Step 7 Wait for updated portfolio information via email. Make sure to test your email so that we can be sure you are getting the updates. Viewing Closed Trades You may also view closed trades by selecting "Past Performance" under the "Performance" tab. This will allow you to view all trades that have closed. Changing Your Position Count You may change your on or before the 3rd day of each calander month. For the purposes of fees, we use your portfolio as it stands on the 4th day of the month. Viewing Account Information Select "My Account" from the "Members" tab to view or edit account information. This will allow you to view past portfolio performance as well as payments. You can also modify your email address from this location. This is the address that will be emailed when a change is made to your portfolio. Use the test email function to send a test email to your account. Some email servers have programs that filter out spam emails. Sometimes valid emails can be filtered out. If you do not get the email we sent you, make sure StockTraderVision.com is added to your 'allowed' list on your email client. You may also cancel and restore your account from this location. Once an account is canceled, you may continue to login, but you will not be able to see the StockTraderVision Portfolio. You can restore the account at any time. Canceling Your Account You may cancel your account at any time, for any reason, with no problems. If your account opens or closes during the middle of the month, fees are pro-rated. If you close your account on the 10th for example, your account will only be charged for 10 days. Trial accounts will expire automatically after 30 days. There are no fees for the 30 day trial period. To cancel your account, simply go to the "My Account" tab on the main page, and click the "CANCEL" button. You may restore your account by going to the same place and clicking on the "RESTORE" button. Using Your Margin Account Because we often use short positions in our portfolio, you will need to have a margin account with your broker. In addition, you may also use your margin account to increase your trading funds. Using your margin account for leverage has benefits and dangers. For more information on using margin accounts click here. Monthly Fees The 30 day trial period is free. If you wish to join after that point, the service fees will be charged on the last day of every month. Our fees are based on the monthly performance of the portfolio multiplied by how many positions you have chosen for your portfolio. View our service fees here. The Real-Time Alert Executable for Windows In addition to email alerts, you can also receive alerts from our Real-Time Alert executable for Windows. This program will alert you by sound and/or a message box in order to get your alerts faster and easier. The product is free for members. To download, click here. This product will allow you to get your alerts faster, without checking your email. To use the Real-Time Alert executable follow the steps below: Step 1 Register. You must be registered with StockTraderVision to use the Alert.exe. If you are not registered, you may do so by clicking here Step 2 Download - There is only a single file to download. To begin, click here. Step 3 Run - Run the executable by simply clicking on the Alert.exe file you downloaded. Step 4 Login - Click the "Login" button, use the same user name and password that you chose during the registration process. If the product fails to login, it will return an error message. If it hangs for more than 30 seconds during login, either our site is down or a firewall exists on your network which is blocking the login attempt. Step 5 Adjust Settings - Click the "Settings" button and choose to receive sound and/or pop-up alerts. You may also adjust your polling interval which is the time in between alert checks. The default for this value is 60 seconds. This means that Alert.exe will check for new alerts, every 60 seconds. Step 6 Minimize - You may minimize the utility if you want. Message boxes will show up on your screen if you get an alert. We recommend you enable both the beeps and message box options. This product will only work on Windows systems. If you or your network uses a firewall to block traffic. You may not be able to use the Alert.exe. Monthly Calculations and Charges Once you join StockTraderVision.com, charges are incurred each month on your credit card based on our performance multiplied by how many positions you have chosen for your portfolio. Our performance is calculated as follows: Allocations Each trade has an allocation value. This is the percentage of your portfolio dedicated to this stock. The gain or loss from the trade is multiplied by the allocation to get the weighted gain. This represents the gain or loss from the particular trade. The formula is as follows: (Close Price - Open Price) / Open Price * Allocation = Weighted Gain Cumulative Value Each trade is cumulated to the next trade when totalling real value over time. This is the standard way mutual funds are calculated in order to ensure that your portfolio growth is measured in terms of real gains. For example: Your portfolio has $10,000. You lose 10% on a trade and you now have $9,000. The next trade your portfolio value starts at $9,000. If you were to gain 10%, you would only have $9,900. This is a total loss of 1%. The calculation is done as follows: Trade 1: 100% * -10% = -90% Cumulative total 100-10=-10% Start with 90% on the next trade. Trade 2: 90% * +10% = +99% Cumulative total 90*10=+ 9% Start with 99% on the next trade. and so on until the month is completed. The actual formula is slightly more complicated because it can only cumulate on a trade which closed before the current trade opens, but you can gather that the idea here is to be as accurate in terms of real dollars as possible excluding trading fees. Split Trades But what about trades that straddle two months? In these situations, the trade is broken into 2 transactions. Example, say we entered a long position of XYZ on August 20 at $50.00 and exited the trade at $44.00 on September 10. For each month to be calculated correctly, we break this trade into two transactions. Assume the price on September 1st was $40.00. August Transaction: $50.00-$40.00 (a loss of 20%) September Transactions: $40.00-$44.00 (a gain of 10%) The closed trade page only shows the completed trades and not the split transactions. To see these, you must go to the monthly page and click on the month which you want to see. This will show each of the individual transactions for the month.