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At 03:48 PM 4/12/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Does anyone have consistently good experience with an on-line broker for
>execution of the e-mini's (SP and ND) that is reasonably priced? My
>definition of reasonable pricing would be at or less than $15 (all fees
>included).
LD - my recommendation:
Interactivebrokers - http://www.interactivebrokers.com
I have used IB for about 18 months and find it an excellent resource. I
trade multiple ES and NQ contracts, and make extensive use of Stop Limit
orders for position entry. I can not recall more than once when my order
was not filled, and frequently one or more of my contracts will be filled
at better than my limit price.
They charge 2.95 per side per contract.
For trading emini NQ/ES, for the price and execution speed, I do not think
they can be beat.
>It is very important to me that I be able to contact the desk if the system
>(or my system) goes down to unwind a position. Many of the introducing
>brokers have very poorly staffed desks.
IB will meet your expectations then, as they have a small help desk
facility. If you expect to have plenty of hand holding, do not select IB.
They expect their clients to be self sufficient.
My recommendation - IMMEDIATELY after an entry order is filled, place what
we call a CRASH STOP. Then you are at least protected should Internet
connectivity be interrupted or you have a heart attack.
How useful this technique is to you may depend on your trading approach,
but I'm going to make a wild assumption that you use stops extensively for
protection. Since I can't imagine entering a single trade without knowing
ahead of time when I am going to get out, using stops for price protection
and computer/internet reliability protection seems natural to me.
If a setup appears and time is short, I might set my crash stop an
arbitrary number of points away (usually only a couple for the setups I
trade) and one it has been transmitted then I might adjust its price and
retransmit. At least I'm protected.
In all this time I've only once had to contact IB help desk to exit a
trade. I had my crash stop in place, so there was no panic, but the trade
moved very large in my favour and I wanted to take profits. Again, they are
set up with virtually total automation up to and including account set up,
so they do not have a huge fleet of people sitting there waiting to take
your call. They will charge you something like 30$ to place a trade on your
behalf.
For the self sufficient trader with reliable connectivity and a sound stop
loss strategy, I think IB is a good choice.
No affiliation, etc, just a happy client.
Regards,
Michael
Intelligent Speculator
Technical Tools and Trading Techniques for Investors
Michael Watkins
Chief Technical Officer
watkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.intelligentspeculator.com
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