In the case of SNET, yes, I was informed - though obviously, I can't guarantee that they didn't only first discover the problem w/ SNET when an unhappy customer got stuck with his order. It is possible that Naz informed them ahead of time somehow - in any case, it was pretty timely (at least for me, because I wasn't using SNET at the time). Later SNET seems to have recovered, though I don't recall a bulletin to that effect from Cyber (maybe they did, but I don't remember).
As to ISLD temporarily unavailable - sadly, I discovered that on my own. I put in orders and got the message "ISLD temporarily unavailable". That had me a bit miffed, because they certainly didn't send that message before I attempted to put in my orders. Afterwards, they did send a general alert (very unpleasant too, because it was on again off again, with bulletins saying "available" and then "not", then "available" again - how can you trade like that?). My problem with that was, that had they sent the ISLD alert in time, I wouldn't have bothered sitting there and monitoring my stock w/ Cyber, and putting in orders. I'd immediately switch to Datek and not waste time w/ Cyber. I had no problems w/ Datek at all today. So, I don't know if this was a general ISLD problem (for anyone accessing them from the outside, not through Datek), or a problem w/ Cyber's access. Again, I was trying to use ISLD *direct* through Cyber, not SNETing ISLD, so SNET is not in the picture here.
Now, mind you, while I don't know to what extent this is a problem w/ Cyber, and what was purely market related (Nas DID have a problem w/ SNET at one point), the advantage w/ Datek, is that they have such a mass of customers they push through ISLD, that there is quite a bit of internal liquidity for their custormers. You'd think that now that Cyber is part of Schwab, you'd get the same effect w/ Cyber, but no. The reason is that even though Schwab has a lot of customers, they shove everything through MASH which they own. This is not nearly as efficient as ISLD. God knows why, since you'd think that at least MASH liquidity ought to be at the beck and call of all SCH customers - and I'm sure they cross orders off electronically, internally for all SCH customers through MASH (and farm out what they can't); basically, I think they do through MASH what Datek does through ISLD, but for whatever reason, it doesn't seem as efficient (note that ISLD is not a middleman in the sense an MM like MASH is). Also, I suspect that Cyber is nowhere near as integrated (as yet - or maybe ever will be) with SCH to do what Datek is doing. I understand that Cyber stands apart from SCH - maybe that will change (sure would be nice to get more short stocks). Anyhow, I can't compare Cyber's performance today with any ordinary DOE broker, because I haven't traded on RIII through a reliable shop like MBT (come to think of it, maybe I should pose this question on the MBT thread<ggg>).
Morgan |
