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Dear Scott,
May I suggest a slightly different approach. In my experience, the
service is
not so dependent on the identity of the brokerage as it is on the
identity of the
agent, the guy that I directly deal with over the phone. In a prior
lifetime
when I traded overnight (my last overnight trade was in 85: I went down
$2.5K on
an overnight gap in the S&P), I went through a number of successive
brokerages
before I found a guy that would do just what I hear that you wanted to
do. He
bought an answering machine at my request just so I could put my orders
in before
I went to bed - he would listen to my tape when he got in in the morning
and
execute them immediately following the open. He would call me after the
end of
trading and tell me my fills and open and closed positions. I was
practicing law
at the time. The way I got names of agents was by answering ads in the
back of
Futures magazine. As I say, my experience then was that the agents
would do
pretty much what they wanted to, constrained of course within the limits
of their
brokerage firm. Oh, another thing, I very soon learned that I got much
better
service working with one guy routinely, as opposed to be assigned to an
order
desk. I worked with order desks from time to time, for example, at
Lind-Waldock
and later at Jack Carl, and with that arrangement I felt as if I was
just one
more peace of meat. When I worked with the same guy, and I was his
client, when
bad things happened, I knew who to turn to, and he knew that his job
counted on
resolving my problem --- and my problems always got resolved and in my
favor;
that was just not my experience with an order desk. In the past few
years, I've
gained experience where I have begun to be aware who are the big names
in terms
of executing brokers in the various floors where I trade. I looked to
them to
get me access on the floor when I went to Chicago for the first time
this
summer. There, I began to meet them in person. Now, when I want a
broker to do
some particular job that I haven't done before, I call these guys up and
ask for
a recommendation. (I did this again just last week when I heard that
LFG was
having financial problems - I have two different accounts at LFG, with
two
different IBs and am a little concerned that too much of my trading
money is
concentrated at that one firm.) What I routinely find is that they
refer me not
to some particular brokerage but to some guy or another, who happens to
be
affiliated with brokerage x, y, or z. I then call that guy, ask for his
help,
and he tells me that he'll have his brokerage send me the necessary
papers. So,
to make a long story short, what I am suggesting is that you begin
looking for a
guy who will do what you want to do, and after you find him, then ask
who clears
his trades (that is, his brokerage) and ask him to have them send the
paperwork
to you. This may be backwards, but it works for me time and time
again. My best
to you and your trading.
Sincerely,
Richard Josslin
> At 08:13 PM 10/23/98 -0700, Scott Hoffman wrote:
> >I'm a futures position trader. The broker I currently use is a pleasant guy,
> >gives me good rates ($20-22 / RT including fees) and good fills. However, I
> >usually enter orders MOO and since I live in the Pacific Northwest, I've got
> >to drag my poor self out of bed at 5:00am to get opening orders in before
> >the currencies open at 5:20 am. He doesn't take fax orders (I don't really
> >want to do that anyway...machine could be out of paper...), no answering
> >machine. He has me clear though LFG and they want an *extra* $3 to do
> >LeoWeb orders.
> >
> >Also, they charge $35 to buy TBills and $50 to liquidate early.
> >
> >So, I'm searching for an alternative that more suits my needs.
> >
> >1. Pays interest on daily sweep of cash in account, like Refco. Alternately,
> >no fees for TBill transactions of any kind, even early redemptions.
> >2. 24 hour internet order entry and account status info with telephone back
> >up. Speed of order routing process is not critical. I just want to be able
> >to enter the orders the night before. Must be able to trade all US markets
> >via internet, including Midam.
> >3. ~$20-22 / RT including fees. Virtually all my orders are market orders.
> >Trade frequency and account size are moderate: 6-10 RT per month / $25K
> >account.
> >4. Exchange minimum margins.
> >5. Prompt response (within 24 hr) to email correspondance for non-urgent
> >issues.
> >
> >If anybody has recommendations, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
> >
> >Scott Hoffman
> >Issaquah, WA
> >
> >
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