1 Overview of the C2 Tray Application

The C2Tray Application is a Windows System Tray application that receives trade signals from a trading strategy running on TradeStation� and sends them to your Collective2 trading system.� This allows you to automatically replicate the trades made by TradeStation in your Collective2� system.� The C2Tray application runs on Windows XP and sits in you system taskbar (shown below).

This documentation deals with C2 Tray Version 1.7 and TradeStation 8.1 Build 3146.� Earlier versions of C2Tray or TradeStation may work slightly differently.

TradeStation and EasyLanguage� are registered trademarks of TradeStation Technologies, Inc.

2 Downloading the C2 Tray Application

The C2Tray Application is an executable file (.EXE) that can be downloaded from the following location:

http://www.collective2.com/downloads/c2tray.exe

When you click on the link above, you may get a warning box like the one shown below:

Click Save, and browse to your computer�s main disk drive (usually drive C).�

You may create a folder (called C2 for example) and put the C2Tray.exe in the folder, or simply save it right in the root directory of the C drive.� If you do create a folder please make a note of what you called it so you can setup Windows to automatically run the C2Tray application when it starts up (so you don�t have to remember to do it every time).� See Section 3 for instructions on how to do this in Windows XP.

3 Installing the C2 Tray Application

Since the application is a simple .EXE file, no further installation is required.� It is recommended that you setup Windows to automatically run the C2Tray application when Windows starts.� To do this, browse to the C2Tray.EXE file (wherever you saved it in Section 2 above) and drag it onto the Windows �button while keeping the mouse button pressed, scroll over �All Programs� and then �Startup� and drop the C2Tray.exe file into the menu that appears.� This will create a shortcut to the C2 Tray application in the Windows Startup folder.

Alternatively you can manually double-click the C2Tray.exe program whenever you want to run it.� The application is running when you can see the C2 icon �in your task bar.� If you position the mouse pointer over the C2 icon in the task bar, right-click and select �About C2 Tray� the following window should appear and you will see what version of the application is currently running.

4 Configuring TradeStation

There are 3 steps to configuring TradeStation to send signals to the C2 Tray application.� These are:

1. Find the system identifier for the Collective2 system that will receive the TradeStation signals from the C2 Tray Application.

2. Create a TradeStation Workspace for each strategy you want to trade.

3. Configure TradeStation to email trade signals to the C2 Tray Application.

Each of these will now be described.

4.1 Find Your Collective2 System Number

Before you begin, you'll need to create at least one trading system on Collective2. You'll need also to know the system identifier of the trading system for which you want to place a trade. (Every system on Collective2 has a unique identification number associated with it. This is visible to the system owners when they visit their "System Details" page on Collective2 shown below)

Once you know your system id, next you can set up TradeStation to send trade signals to the C2 Tray Application.

4.2 Create a TradeStation Workspace for each Strategy

Each TradeStation strategy that you want to trade must be placed in a chart in its own workspace.� This is because the workspace name will be used to tell the C2 Tray application what Collective2 system the trade is for, and (optionally) what symbol should be traded (this is necessary if TradeStation uses a different symbol than Collective2).

An example of this would be the E-Mini S&P futures contract.�The June 2006 contract in TradeStation would have the symbol ESM06, whereas the Collective2 symbol would be @ESM6. Because the symbols are different, you need to include the Collective2 symbol name in your workspace name.

How to do it: On the File menu in TradeStation select �New� then �Workspace�.

Add your chart with the desired strategy and then use the �File�, �Save Workspace As�� menu item to name the workspace using the parameters defined below:

At a minimum, the workspace should have within its name the Collective2 system id.

Also, if the TradeStation symbol needs to be over-ridden, the workspace name should also include the following parameter:

� Symbol (when TradeStation uses a symbol that is different than Collective2's)

The format for the Workspace name would then be:

c2=<C2 system ID number>_s=<symbol> (don't include < or >)

example: workspace name would be:
c2=10006544_s=@ESM6

This tells Collective2 that you want all signals generated in this workspace to get sent to the Collective2 Trading System with the System ID# 10006544, and you want trades to be placed for the Collective2 symbol @ESM6 ... that is, the June 2006 E-Mini S&P contract.

The rest of the Workspace name parameters are optional, and will override any general C2 Tray application preferences (if they are provided).

Here is a list of all the parameters you can use in your Workspace name. All parameter names may be abbreviated as shown in the �Allowed Abbreviations� column below:

Required?	Example	Explanation	Allowed Abbreviations
required	c2=1234	You must enter the system identification number of the Collective2 trading system.
optional, but recommended	symbol=@ESH5	If TradeStation is using a non-standard symbol (like @ES) you need to specify the Collective2 trading symbol to use. Note that TradeStation names futures like this: SK05 While Collective2 names them like this: SK5	s=ESH5
optional	duration=DAY	Specify the order duration (DAY or GTC). Collective2 will use DAY unless you specify otherwise.	dur=DAY dur=GTC
optional, but recommended	type=option	Collective2 is usually able to figure out what kind of symbol you want to trade, but sometimes it is impossible to tell the difference between an option and a stock. Just to be safe, specify the type of symbol. Use one of the following: future ,option, stock, forex.	t=o t=f t=s t=forex
optional	quant=10	If you want Collective2 to trade a quantity different than your TradeStation quantity, use this.	q=2
optional	quantmult=100	If you want Collective2 to multiply the quantity your TradeStation strategy recommends trading by some number. Useful if your EasyLanguage� strategy recommends small trades, but you want the C2 trade size to be larger.	mult=100
required for systems that use daily bars	submittime=0930	Use this option if your trading system uses daily bars, but you want your new orders to be executed only when the market opens in the morning (and not during night hours). Example: You build a system that uses E-Mini S&P daily bars. You turn on TradeStation each evening at 11:00 pm Eastern Time. Your TradeStation strategy generates a BUY signal at 11:00 pm. This signal will get sent to Collective2. Unless you tell Collective2 otherwise, C2 will think you intend this order to be executed right away -- that is, in the evening hours (since the E-Mini is an electronic contract that trades at night). By adding a submittime=hhmm parameter, you tell C2 not to execute your order until the next trading day at the time you specify -- in this case, 09:30 in the morning. (Note that hhmm is in military 24-hour format.)

Examples of valid workspace names:

c2=1234_symbol=@ESH5_q=1

c2=1234_type=stock

c2=1234_symbol=MQPBD_type=option

c2=1234_symbol=EURUSD_type=forex_quantmult=10

How a workspace name appears in TradeStation is shown below:

4.3 Configure TradeStation to send emails to the C2 Tray Application

Next TradeStation must be configured to send email notifications to the C2 Tray application when the strategy generates trade signals. �This is done by selecting the Trade Manager (shown to the left).

You then need to enter the Trade Manager Preferences by selecting �View� and then �TradeManager Preferences��

Next, �Enable e-mail notification� must be turned on for the Order Status message types shown:

Email notification must be enabled for the following Order Status types:

Strategy Active Order

Strategy Canceled Order

Strategy Filled Order

Strategy Replace Order (only available in TradeStation 8.1 or higher)

The email envelope show to the left indicates which Order Status types you have enabled email notifications for

Next press the Configure... button to configure the email notifications.

You must enter the IP address 127.0.0.1 so that TradeStation sends email notifications directly to the C2 Tray Application. (The "address" 127.0.0.1 is geek-speak for "myself." When you tell a computer to send a message to 127.0.0.1, you are really telling it to send a message to a program that is running on the very same computer where the message is being generated.)

The last thing you need to do is turn on the automatic execution of your TradeStation strategy so it generates emails when trades are signaled.� You do this by right-clicking on the chart window in TradeStation and selecting �Format Strategies�.� Check the �Generate strategy orders for display in TradeManager�s Strategy Orders tab� (shown below).

5 Configuring the C2 Tray Application Preferences

This section deals with how to configure the C2 Tray application to make it work properly.� There are 2 kinds of preferences:

� Mandatory Configuration Preferences

� Optional Configuration Preferences

Both of these can be accessed in the �Preferences� menu item by right-clicking on the C2 icon in the task bar.� See the diagram below:

All of the parameters will now be described.

5.1 Mandatory Preferences

In order to automatically enter trade signals for your Collective2 system, the C2Tray application must login to your C2 account on your behalf.� For this reason it needs to know your Collective2 account user name (email) and password.

Collective2 Login Email - Your Collective2 user name

Collective2 Password � Your Collective2 password

Once you type in your C2 email address and password... then that�s it; you�re done!� Your user name and password is the only required information to make the C2Tray application work with your C2 account.� As long as you have a working internet connection, the C2Tray application will send any TradeStation signals it receives to your C2 system just like you had entered them yourself.

5.2 Optional Preferences

There are some optional features which you may choose to use, or you may ignore.

If you want the trade signals that the C2 Tray application receives to be forwarded to another email address, you need to tell the C2Tray which address to send to, and how to access your outgoing email server.

Forward to email � an email address to forward trade messages to

SMTP server to use � your outgoing email server to use to send the messages (contact your ISP for this)

Your �from� email � the address that you want the forwarded email to appear to come from.

If your outgoing SMTP server requires a user name and password (contact your ISP to determine this) then check the �My SMTP server requires authorization� box and enter the SMTP username and SMTP password in the boxes provided. Otherwise, leave these boxes blank.

Normally the C2Tray application can listen on port 25 for signals from TradeStation.� If for some reason this conflicts with another application running on your PC you can change the default port number by entering it in the Listen Port field.� If you configure all the parameters then the preference dialog box should look something like this:

If you want to use the optional email forwarding feature, then once you have configured the settings it is recommended that you use the �Test Email Forwarding� menu item to see if it works correctly.� See Section 6.6.

Emails that are forwarded to the address you specify will look like this:

Subject:� TradeStation - Strategy Active Order for <symbol>

TradeStation - Strategy Active Order for <symbol>

�� Order: Buy|Sell|Cover <size> <symbol> @ Market|Limit

�� Account: <account number>

�� Occurred: <date and time>

�� Signal: <signal name>

�� Interval: <chart time interval>

�� Workspace: C:\Program Files\TradeStation 8.1 (Build 3146)\MyWork\c2=<system identifier>_s=<symbol>

6 The C2 Tray Application User Guide

When you right-click the C2 icon in the task bar, the menu that appears has the following items:

� Go C2

� User Manual

� Preferences

� Forex Pip Adjustment

� Latest Messages

� Test Email Forwarding

� Show Status Messages

� About C2 Tray

� Exit

Each of these will now be described.

6.1 Go C2

This menu item opens a new browser window and takes you to the Collective2 start page.

6.2 User Manual

This menu item takes you to this C2Tray User Guide on the Collctive2 site.

6.3 Preferences

See Section 5 for details on configuring the preferences for the application.

6.4 Forex Pip Adjustment

When you select this menu item you get the following window which can be used to adjust foreign exchange buy orders generated by TradeStation as described below.

��

6.5 Latest Messages

This menu item shows a �balloon� with the latest messages that the C2 Tray Application has produced like the one shown below.

6.6 Test Email Forwarding

Select this menu item to check that your email forwarding parameters have been configured correctly (See Section 5).� If they have you will receive a dialog box that looks like this:

And an email that looks like this:

Subject: Test of Forwarding Feature by C2Tray

If you are reading this email, it means you have set up the email-forwarding feature of C2Tray. Now, C2Tray will intercept any signals generated by TradeStation, send them to C2, and also re-send the TradeStation email to the following addresses:

Keep in mind you can set up multiple forwarding addresses. Just separate them with a semicolon (the ; character).

Happy trading!

- The Collective2 Team

6.7 Show Status Messages

If this item is �checked� (like in the diagram below), the C2 Tray Application will show status messages in �balloons� as it receives and processes trades from TradeStation.

6.8 About C2 Tray

This menu item displays what version of the C2 Tray application you are currently running. It also gives credit to the programmer who wrote c2tray. We do this instead of paying him money, because he is easily bamboozled by having his name in lights.

6.9 Exit

This menu item exits the C2 Tray Application.� Any signals from TradeStation will NOT be sent to your C2 System if the C2 Tray application is not running.� Double click the C2Tray.EXE if you Exit the application by mistake and want to start it again.

7 Troubleshooting

My email forwarding doesn�t work.

Either you have not setup a forwarding email address or outgoing SMTP mail server in your C2Tray application preferences (see Section 5.2), or your outgoing email server is not working correctly.� Check with your Internet Service Provider whether you need a user name and password to connect to your email server.� Also check that you have specified the forwarding email address correctly in the C2 Tray application preferences.�

The C2 Tray Application doesn�t run automatically when I start my computer.

In order for the application to run automatically when you start Windows, you need to put a shortcut to the C2Tray.exe application in the Startup folder.� See Section 3 for instruction on how to do this.

The C2 Tray Application doesn�t remember my preferences.

The preferences for C2Tray are stored in a file called c2trayprefs.txt that is created in the root directory of the drive you run the C2Tray.exe application in (usually drive C:).�� If this file is deleted or moved, then the preferences will be lost and you will have to either restore the file to the original location, or enter the preference again into the C2Tray application.

My trades don�t show up in my C2 system even though the C2 Tray Application seems to process them.

You must have a working Internet connection for the C2 Tray application to send trades to your Collective2 system, and Collective2 must be operational.� If your C2 Tray application says that it has processed a trade from your TradeStation strategy (shown if you select the �Latest Messages�) menu item but no trade has appeared for your Collective2 system then it may be for one of the following reasons:

� An incorrect Collective2 system identifier in your TradeStation workspace name

� An incorrect symbol name (or no symbol name mapping) in your TradeStation workspace name

� An incorrect user name or password for your Collective2 login in the C2Tray application preferences

� An internet connection that is not functioning properly

� Collective2 is not operational

Look in the file c2tslog.txt in the root directory of the drive you are running the C2Tray.exe application (usually C:) for more detailed information about the problem and the status of the messages the C2Tray application has recently processed.

If for some reason your C2 System has become �out of synchronization� with your TradeStation strategy, you will have to log in to Collective2 and manually enter trades to get back in synch.

8 Glossary

C2 � Collective2: The leading trading system site on the internet J

GTC � Good �Til Cancelled:� An order that should remain in effect until it is cancelled

IP Address � Internet Protocol Address:� A method of uniquely identifying a computer connected to the internet using the 255.255.255.255 addressing method.

ISP � Internet Service Provider:� A company that provides your internet connection and services.

SMTP � Simple Mail Transfer Protocol:� The protocol that is used to send email over the internet.

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