Many strategy developers publish trading advice on Collective2 without registering with any government agency. The reason is the way the platform works: your strategy is published impersonally, to subscribers who choose to follow it — or not. You never advise anyone individually. In fact, you generally have no idea who your subscribers are, and no way of knowing anything about their personal financial situations.
That said, we need to be straight with you: whether registration requirements apply to you depends on your own circumstances — what you trade, how you market yourself, whether you promote your strategy to your own audience outside Collective2, and where you live. Collective2 cannot give you legal advice. If you are unsure about your own obligations, a securities attorney is the right person to ask.
Two rules apply to everyone on Collective2, no matter what:
1. You cannot provide individualized advice. You cannot offer different advice to different subscribers based on their personal financial situations.
Allowed: “Attention all subscribers to my strategy: Buy IBM, because I believe it is going up!”
Not allowed: “Dear John: based on our conversation earlier today, in which you told me you were nearing retirement, I think you should buy IBM.”
2. You cannot market your strategy in misleading ways. Don’t promise returns, don’t invent a track record, and don’t describe hypothetical results as if they were real money. Collective2 displays your results with the required hypothetical-performance disclosures automatically — don’t undercut them in your own marketing.
Keep your activity to publishing non-personalized signals that subscribers choose to act on, and let the platform handle the disclosures.
If you are not a U.S. person, your own country’s rules apply to you as well. Please check with a local attorney.