Random thoughts....
I would like to rebuttle comment on some of the topics going on here.
1) yes, there is definitely a problem with the NEWS button and IE 4.0. Not yet sure about about Netscape 4.0, but the news button still works on all older versions of these browsers. We are working on it. The beta version of IE 4 would not even work with login security consistently, so it hampered our ability to test pre-release. Sometimes, everybody just *HAS* to hate MSFT....
2) The customer support department is growing *EXTREMELY* rapidly to accomodate the success of Datek Online. There is also a lot of backoffice automation going on to accomodate the wide variety of services that our customers are asking for. Brokerage *IS* a service industry. Customer support is getting better fast.
2b)The Customer Support section at www.datek.com is packed with info. Check it out. And on the Quotes & orders page, if you want to find out more about features, just click on the links. The delight of the web is that we can tell you all about *everything* pretty easily. Now the job is to make it easier for you to find it.
3) On order processing...
Datek Online's goal is to route all customer orders to the market place and get them executed as fast as possible all electronically. Datek Online customers are utilizing, directly through the web, trading technologies that others are paying hundreds of dollars for.
We are constantly improving these systems.
Datek Online customers are not in any way "trading against in-house traders". Orders are not held by traders, intentionally delayed, or any such bunk. But odd stuff does happen in the marketplace, and now datek online customers are in direct interaction with that marketplace.
Lets take this morning for example. The Instinet ECN broke, again, and a host of NASDAQ stocks had incorrect prices, markets were locked, it was ugly. Everybody's abilities to trade certain stocks was impaired. Until NASDAQ pulled Instinet's quotes, and fixed the marketplace.
Obviously, this does not explain *every* problem, and this thread is great. But when I read Datek Online intentionally delayed my order so an in-house trader could do blah blah, i have to respond with "No way".
4) New features
All or None orders, level I & II streaming quotes, and a whole lot more.
They are coming, lots of cool new trading services, but I wont commit to a solid date at this time. If you know somebody who wants to be part it all, check out the job opportunites section on the Datek Online site.
5) We can't stand giving away all those island quotes for free anymore. So you will soon see web ads up there. All proceeds will be donated to charity. If you want to suggest a charity, send e-mail to charity@isld.com.
Peter Stern
Smith Wall
makers of technology for Datek Online...
PS: If anybody is heading to French Polynesia, let me know, I need a favor, please? |
