brokers redux...comments on velocity, open e-cry, ts8, others?

[r.and.d@xxxxxxx]

hi guys,

i'm looking for a broker where i can do high intraday volume and 
trade both electronic and pit futures in the same account and use the 
same platform, eventually with autoexecution.. i currently use 
j-trader with rcg and ib (nothing bad to report on either for 
non-auto trading).

mark brown recommended velocity futures and open e-cry in the past on 
this list and on his website. velocity is interesting cuz they use 
xtrader exclusively (i'm thinking that i could use mark's free dual 
subserver thingy to pull quotes out of xtrader for fast and timely 
ts2ki charting). open e-cry is interesting in that they offer both 
pit and electronic futures through their home grown c++ platform. 
anyone use velocity or open e-cry or heard any stories about either 
of em, good or bad?

ts8 was recommended in the past on this list by bob fulks and some 
others. i still have a bitter sweet relationship regarding 
omega/ts/tt and the cruz brothers. problem is, ts8 fits my system 
automation criteria, but it doesn't do electronic and pit futures in 
the same account. so i would need to open two accounts...one for 
electronic only with orders routed through the ts platform, and 
another account for pit with orders routed through rjo's mcd 
platform. if you want to trade both e and pit in one account, then ts 
interfaces with mcd and all orders are routed through the mcd 
platform. swell, another cobbled together platform. might as well go 
directly to rjo and eliminate the tt middleman. anyone care to 
comment on ts8 strengths and weakness?

what drive me nuts is that to get what you want, you still have to 
cobble together a platform, and use different vendors for data, 
charting, order execution, and trade automation...ts8 appears to fit 
the bill for all the above, but after reading their fine print, it's 
another cobbled together platform. as a recent thread on this list 
indicated, vendors are squirrelly...if one part fails and it ain't 
fixed quickly, then you the helpless trader has a big problem, 
meaning lost bucks per day.

all comments are welcome on these and other platforms, cobbled or not

thanks...

Tony aka multitrak.