|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
I agree with Harley about Datek. Apart from the one incident which
seemed to be reasonable based on the replies from the more experienced
traders on this list, they have done a good job. You get free real time
quotes, these include bid, ask, last, high, low, close, volume and
whether the last transaction was an uptick or a downtick. The quote
data is not updated automatically (you have to manually update) or
displayed graphically (they provide bigcharts which are 15 min delayed
charts). Quite adequate for everything but intraday trading. They also
pay you 4% interest on your cash balance and charge you 7% for margin.
They have promised checking facilities in the near future.
Occasionally they are busy and slow in updating, in which case you might
have to login again to get a server with less traffic on it. Marketable
orders are filled within 60 seconds or they do not charge commission. I
have tried placing buy orders at the bid price and have been successful
some of the time. However, I have also chased stocks all day trying to
get in at the bid price. If the bid-ask spread is reasonable, I usually
put in a market order since my trading in not based on intraday
movement.
My opinion is that they do a decent job for a great price. Short
selling seems to be not quite as simple as I thought based on the
replies to my post.
You can open an account with only $2,000 so it doesn't hurt to try them
out.
Darryl
|