EK, I have an account with Datek also. Last week, I opened an account with CyberCorp (CyberTrader) and moved all of my money from Datek to Cyber. I use CyberCorp's CyberX for order entry plus QCharts for data and charting. Good combo.
I thought about CyberCorp's CyberTrader, but the trades are more expensive and CyberTrader requires a very fast comm line. With CyberX plus QCharts, I get most of what CyberTrader offers at less cost and much better charting. CyberX is $15/trade and QCharts is $80/month plus exchange fees (about $60/month for LII). Also, I have an ISDN line and rarely ever hit the second channel. I.e., CyberX plus QCharts works very well on much less band-width.
Regarding cost, I had a great experience with CyberX this morning. I had a small position on MCOM. (I've been live trading small positions to get used to CyberX.) About 2 minutes into the trade, I was up about $120. Being greedy, I made a poor decision and waited too long to exit. The price started dropping very quickly. At about 5 minutes into the trade, I was down about $130 (ouch!) and decided to exit with a limit order. First try - missed it. (Damn.) Cancel. Second try - missed it! (Damn!) Cancel. Third try - nailed it. Total loss $250 (ouch!) But...
The time to enter and cancel two sell orders and enter a third order was about 45 seconds. The key here was NOT execution time. The executed order only took about 3-5 seconds, which is about the same as Datek on a good day. The key was cancellation. Each cancellation took about 2-3 seconds. Many (most?) GOOD Datek cancellations take 20-30 seconds. Many take minutes.
How would I have lost with Datek? If the each cancellations had taken 30 seconds, at best, I would have probably lost about $500. So is Datek's $9.95 less than CyberCorp's $15? No way! If I was still with Datek, the commission would have been $250 more!
Regards,
Dan. |
