Mr. Doubek,
I am happy to see you posting here. I commend you (and I am sure all traders and Americans do) on offering services and facilities to accommodate traders and firms affected by the horrible, tragic events in New York on 9-11-01.
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly respond to the e-mail sent to Terra Nova traders regarding the removal of Redibook and Island book data from the TAL datafeed. (I have pasted the e-mail below). Even though this data has been removed, I was very surprised to experience stuck ARCHIP quotes on level 2 today (9/18/01) with my Terra Nova-MB account. As you probably are aware, stuck ECN book quotes on level 2 windows has been a continuing and persistent problem with the Realtick software. I always thought this problem might be caused by the external data from Redi or Island, but after my experience today, I am convinced the problem lies within the Realtick software itself. If you think I am wrong and you have any arguments to the contrary, I would be happy to hear them. I am assuming this because I am aware that ARCA is Townsend's internal ECN, and that this data is not received from the "outside".
As you know, NASDAQ stock traders today are operating in a particularly tough market environment. We do not see the types of moves and opportunity as in years past. The accuracy of our market and level 2 data is critical at all times if we are to make consistent profits. Accurate data is even more critical in fast and high volume markets, since these conditions provide the most opportunity for day traders. For example, today I experienced this erroneous ARCA data at the exact time the NASDAQ market had reversed to the upside (around 9:57 AM EST). Needless to say this erroneous book data confused me and I was unable to execute a trade. This is very disappointing.
I am by no means trying to blame your company for my trading losses, but I am very disappointed that the proper steps (after literally YEARS of problems) have not been taken to correct these types of errors. If the problem is indeed with the Realtick software, I would like to publicly request that you designate a team of programmers to immediately determine what is causing this problem, fix this problem, and release a new version of Realtick so we can be rid of it once and for all.
To be brutally frank, your software fee is very expensive, and your commissions could hardly be called cheap. I am expecting the highest quality of data from your company, and I would like to be assured by you that I will actually receive it.
Sincerely,
Alex Luce
-----Original Message-----
From: Terra Nova-MB [mailto:clients@terranova-mb.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 10:33 AM
To: Clients
Subject: A Letter from Townsend Analytics
Valued client,
The following is a letter from Townsend Analytics regarding ECN book
quotes over the next week:
In response to the tragic events in New York on Tuesday, September
11th, Townsend Analytics, Ltd. is offering quote and trading solutions
to many firms and end users that have moved into temporary locations
around the New York Area. Our facilities are able to accommodate the
needs of the additional users; however, we feel it is prudent to use
the resources we have in the most efficient manner. Consequently,
we are temporarily removing RediBook and ISLAND ECN Book data. We
will continue to deliver ARCA book data. Book data will again be available
on the TAL data feed once we determine that data integrity will not
be affected.
The RediBook and ISLAND data can be seen by opening a browser window
in RealTick and going to the ECNs' Web page. The URLs are:
ISLD:
isld.com
REDI:
redibook.com
REDI does not have a stand alone viewer like ISLD. You must open it
in the window above.
We will continue to monitor the market conditions and our resources
and will add the RediBook and Island ECN book data as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding and patience,
Townsend Analytics
|
