On-line Brokers: AB Watley vs MB Trading
There's been much discussion here lately about brokers and I've gotten a few PM's asking who I use and what my thoughts are. Here goes:
When I first began to daytrade full time, I used MB Trading, a direct order entry system with all the bells and whistles. I had a hard time with all the data coming at me on level two and found myself panic selling when my stock went down a tick. For many people, level two is a godsend. Not for me, at this point, anyway. I've actually done much better without it.
I've been using Waterhouse the past few months and find it really difficult to daytrade with it. The webbroker is achingly slow and execution is not terribly good. Their price of $12 per trade is great, however. I'll be sticking with them for overnight plays, position plays, etc.
I did a preliminary check on AB Watley today, which is highly thought of by many who use it. They have varying levels of trading packages: web-based trading with unlimited real time quotes ($9.95 per trade), then there are different levels of their "Ultimate Trader" package, in which you trade using their software, have a streaming data feed and can choose to add level two and charting. The fees for the Ultimate trader vary from $50/mo. for the data feed and $16.95 per trade (do more than 20 trades a month and the data feed is free) up to $300/mo. for level two and charting capability, per trade fees ranging from $23.95 to $18.95, depending on how often you trade during the month (do more than 100 trades and level two is free).
From what I remember about MB trading, the fee schedules and service options are almost identical. I'm going to resume daytrading with MB but urge you who are interested to check out both the Watley and MB threads here on SI for comparison. |
