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Two years ago CUBS was a pilot program and there were 3 terminals, one in the
Live Hogs and two in the S&Ps. Two firms with early online systems (LFG &
Lind-Waldock) pushed CUBS terminals in the S&Ps into full production in order
to establish a foothold in the online order routing marketplace, IMHO.
Some in the industry believe that political pressure was exerted at the CME
to restrict deployment of additional Cubs units in the S&Ps during the pilot
program, thus competition was minimized. This led to an excess volume of
orders being routed into a limited number of terminals and customers suffered
as a result. Interactive Brokers was at the same time offering online access
to the S&Ps at the same time via a different route (non-TOPS) and was getting
a good number of positive reviews on RT and other forums.
Since that time the CME has deployed a second generation of CUBS terminals,
CUBS2, and the number of terminals has been expanded. There were 5 CUBS
terminals in the S&Ps as recently as three months ago. Four remain activated
at the last report I received. One had been deactivated due to an
enforcement action against 3 brokers and 7 locals in the S&P pit at the CME.
See Futures Magazine for basic details.
CUBS terminals, like Electronic Clerk terminals at the CBOT, had initially
been granted to member firms for the most part, rather than independent
brokers. Since the deployment of CUBS2 though, terminals have been issued to
individual brokers and broker groups. Thus, there is more competition and I
believe customers have more choice.
As a broker who uses TOPS, runs an online trading operation, and has
participated in several order routing pilot programs, I am very pleased with
the service I am presently getting from the CUBS2 brokers we use. (This is
not a plug for my service, as many other firms may route to the very same
independent brokers). I have more than once received a fill on limit orders
on my TOPS printer before the quote even hit my CQG (CUBS2 clerks were faster
reporting the fill than the exchange pit reporters putting out the trade
quote). Market order routinely come back in 20 to 45 seconds in the S&Ps
from hitting the send button and seemingly quicker in the Live Hogs, Live
Cattle, British Pounds and Nasdaq pits where we have CUBS2 terminals.
Besides the technology perspective, the human element has improved. There
are more CUBS2 users to compare notes and learn from each other. Exchange
staff has more experience supporting the users. More firms floor staff have
relevant experience. Overall, this aspect is much better than two years ago.
Thus, I think find an online system front end you like that offers the
functionality you need combined with the trading floor network that routes to
CUBS2 and Electronic Clerk terminals you need and you will be OK. Good
support from the brokerage is a must too, but that is something you can only
judge from experience.
Regards,
John J. Lothian
Disclosure: Futures trading involves financial risk, lots of it!
Disclosure: John J. Lothian is the President of the Electronic Trading
Division of The Price Futures Group, Inc., an Introducing Broker clearing
ED&F Man International, Inc.
In a message dated 2/5/00 6:32:26 PM Central Standard Time, tesla@xxxxxxx
writes:
<< I found CUBS very unreliable when I was with ZAP. This was almost two years
ago, so maybe they have gotten their act together. If you are considering
trading over the net make sure you have a cell phone handy nearby just in
case your line goes down and purchase a ping plotter program to monitor the
quality of your connection. Happy trading. >>
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