Howard,
Interestingly enough, I currently have two accounts with Waterhouse (one "regular" and one IRA) and one account ("regular") with Datek. FWIW, I also have a trial account with Farsight and I used to be an eBroker customer. In the past, I have also used the brokerage services of Citibank.
Datek and Waterhouse are so completely different that I don't think of them as comparable at all. Waterhouse offers just about everything that you would expect of a first-class brokerage and bank, with low to moderate fees and commissions. Datek offers nothing but stock trading with no real perks or services at all, except free real-time quotes on stocks which trade within the markets it serves (NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ).
The difference in trading costs between Waterhouse and Datek are minimal, $12 vs $10 ($9.99, actually), although I suppose for a real high-volume trader that could make a difference. But Waterhouse has filled all my trades as quickly as Datek, albeit without the 1-minute-or-free pledge. Granted, Waterhouse's $12/trade internet commission is being advertised as jumping up to $25 after Oct 98; however, I expect it will be maintained beyond that date - just a gut feeling.
With Waterhouse, I have my paycheck direct-deposited, keep my cash reserves in their FDIC-insured money market, pay my bills with their touch-tone system, write checks against my account and could write myself a loan against margin as simply as writing a check if I wanted to, write way-out puts against my margin and cash balances for a little extra income, and might even get my next mortgage through them.
With Datek, I keep just a few thousand dollars and day trade, just for the fun of it. I use Datek during the day, pretty much all day long, just to keep a real-time watch on all my stocks, even when I don't want to play the trading game. Datek's web-based system is very quick, very streamlined, and updates instantaneously (Waterhouse's system updates ALMOST everything ALMOST as well as Datek's does). But it is nearly impossible to talk to a human being, even email can take days for a response, and Datek has been known to take their sweet time sending a check after a request for funds has been made.
Quite honestly, if you have at least $7,000 I would suggest you do what I have done: Open an account at Datek ($2000 minimum) and at Waterhouse ($5000 minimum except for IRAs, which have no minimum). If you only want to open one and just want to trade stocks and want to do alot of trading, then Datek might be the way to go since it is a bit cheaper. Otherise, if you are going to open only one account then Datek simply isn't a choice since they don't do options, don't have check writing, etc.
Best wishes,
John |
