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At 10:31 AM 2/17/99 -0600, Michael Guess wrote: Gary,
You've touched a nerve! <<
And I must have touched a nerve, also. Shortly after I posted my reply to Gary I got a call from my broker @ FTG regarding my complaint that my commissions still weren't correct. He pointed out to me that indeed the credit I was due had been applied to my account in my most recent equity run (finally). Upon review I found this to be correct. For those of you who've journeyed through a variety of brokers/clearing houses you know that each one has their own unique form of bookkeeping & statement formatting. In this case, the credit had been applied to the "commissions" part of the statement, not as a separate entry but "netted out" after that day's commissions had been deducted. What was normally a debit was now a credit; the amount I expected to be credited never appeared as a seperate item but some other figure that was the difference between the two.
This has been a valuable lesson for me, even after years of reading nightly statements. You can never be careful enough when reviewing your run. Clearing houses have their own way of posting entries. So, it pays to ask. However, I'd been accustomed to having corrections made w/in 1-2 days (at most) @ previous firms, so I was put off by these delays.
Since then, my broker has called me a second time because he felt his reputation had been sullied by my other revelations. The bulk of my post (and the main reason I sent it) was because of the problems Gary, I, and others have been having re slow fills & reporting by FTG. Not because of Daniel's performance. This was exacerbated by the screwup I experienced w/ my order (too late to cancel) & the treatment I received when I asked for Time & Sales.
Daniel Bardol has always impressed me as a very sincere, caring broker who truly tried to do "the right thing" for me as a new customer. When I laid out my objections, they were about FTG as an organization, not Daniel as a person. I still feel FTG (and probably several other firms climbing aboard the ET bandwagon) has bit off more than they can chew. Altho Gene Shu (the software interface developer) has created probably the finest, most intuitive order placement platform in the futures biz, it's inaccurate to expect true ET results (fills, reports) when the circuit is NOT totally electronic. I now understand that it may take up to 45 days or more before they're ready for prime time. I can understand that such complexities take time; however, I trade for a living & cannot afford to risk $$ trying to adapt to a slower system than I am accustomed to. A daytrader develops a rhythm in his trading. It makes no sense to keep trying to trade in an environment that penalizes you because you're used to a different level of performance.
I have no doubt FTG will deliver on their goal of providing sophisticated, electronic, multi-threaded, swarm-type technology to its traders. In the meantime I must pursue other avenues since time (and trading) waits for no-one. I am keeping my account open @ FTG on the assumption they will achieve their goal. I also intend to turn to Daniel (now that we're in accord) when I need answers. I hope this clarifies any misunderstandings that may have occurred.
Michael >>>>
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