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john shih wrote:
> I was addressing my comment to most of the readers of
> this discussion group, with quite a few of them just starting out. Some may
> be overwhelmed by this sophisticated execution capability.
Perhaps. This would depend primarily on the extent of one's involvement in
trading. As far as the casual trader goes (a few tickets here and there), I
totally agree that Datek would be the only sensible choice.
> What is the
> sense of having direct access when you are using snap shot real-time
> quote.
These programs are designed for professional traders, with numerous tools, and all
have dynamic Level 2/specialist screens, time and sales, tick by tick charts, etc.,
so this wouldn't be a problem. However, my point was that the more active trader
would we well advised to check out these options.
> The reason I endorse them is because I am
> so sick and tired of these on-line brokers who runs multi-millions or may be
> multi- billion TV and magazine ads that lure investor in with slick advertising
> with the sole purpose of trading against the orderflow, robbing a 1/16 here
> and there and at the sametime give very poor service.
This *is* a sucker's market for sure. A lot of times it's even 1/8 or more. I
used to trade with one of these firms, and compared their inside bid and ask with
the market, and the word "screwed" came to mind a lot. Selling order flow,
especially market orders, is the real way a lot of these firms make money, using
their commission rate as a loss leader.
> Can you imaging placing an order of a thousand shares of an internet stock
> such as YHOO, LCOS, XCIT, or SEEK, and not knowing whether your order has
> been filled for more than 10 minutes ?? (the value of your margin position
> could drop by 20%).
How about a couple of hours or more at times? I used to have to place sell orders
all the time just in case I *was* in the position, which was pretty much a guess at
times. And this was one of the more benign problems i encountered. The bottom
line, though, is that while no electronic trading service is perfect, a lot of this
crap is unnecessary.
Good trading,
A.J.
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