I really recommend DLJ Direct to you (PCFN)
They have a feature called EzTrade for normal trade, also they have Fil or Kill and Expres trade.
I used Waterhouse for almost 3 years and their executions always gave me a bad taste in the mouth, i.e., the time it takes for cnf on limit orders and my longest confirmation record on a market order was 45 minutes once. It feels as if they are some how pocketing the spread. Also on three incidents I placed an order and when I checked back it was a pending status not an open order and as market turned against me I would cancell and get a confirmation and would go about my business, only later to find out that the trade did go through.
I was being a cheapo, since I used to trade frequently I liked their 12 buck trade on web up to 5,000 shares.
It was not worth it in long run.
Since moving to PCFN I have been very satisfied. They almost always get you the inbetween the bids in other words if bid is 3/8 and ask is 1/2 go for 7/16 you will get filled most of the time.
Also a while ago some one asked me what is level I.
Its a simple bid and ask size that these electronic brokerages show in real time. I.E., RNTK bid 2 ask 2 1/16 bid 200 ask 10 last 2 1/16 In this case its obvious that there are 200 to buy and only 10 for sell
so in the buying presure market you will put in an order to sell at 2 1/16 or may be even at 2 1/8. At same time if you wanted to buy then you are facing competition with 200 to buy hence you will have to literally buy at ask. If it was other way round bid 10 ask 200 bid 2 ask 2 1/16 you know that you are competing to 200 sell hence again you have to follow the market demand/
We used a tight spread example because we chose RNTK which has a tight spread but if you look at stocks like AGRPB, MANU and ASND on huge gaps you will see bid 34 1/4 ask 35 1/4 a dollar spread ! On more normal stocks bid 12 5/8 ask 12 7/8 then you would go in at 12 3/4 and you will have a good chance of getting it either buying or selling.
But with Level I you can also get duped by so call MM manipulation, such as false down tick or false up tick to throw off the small retails like us, One MM can be on a box for instance doing both bid and offer upticking and downticking with BS bid and ask sizes which they have no intention of filling.
Not too long ago Instinet (INCA) was used as a smoke screen by MMS to play this silly games and keep the spread from consumers , in other words they would get an order to sell at 1/2 but sell it 9/16 and give you the 1/2 which is what you asked for and keep the 1/16 for them.
It still goes on but recent NASD stipulated that certain sizes has to be shown on the screen. Hence the bitching of the MMs that their profit margin has gone down as well as the spread. 1/32 bid is a recent event.
There are much more to this and it takes years of experience as a professional trader to know all these neuances , of which I am not really qualified, since I have never been a profesional trader. SO I think Ted and others can add in here and explain further.
Now Level II is more complex, since it shows which MMs are bidding and where is the sells and buys are lined up. Like on a given time yuou can see on the bid left collumm Morgan, Cowen , Alex bidding at 28 1/2, 3/4 5/8 etc on the right you have Smith Barney at offer of 28 7/8 . SO MMS will look at it and say 3 on the bid and one at ask.
Then we can see the size of the block on buys nd sells and matches up at same time you can have 20 more MMs sitting there and watching or walking away and coming back etc. They can also hide behind the INCA or another whole sellers. Its really a silly game actually. Altermately MMs are a lot smarter than us.
Its all data feed back which is used by a trained pro or a sharp professional to enforce his her calls.
In my case I tend to use news break outs or like Ted said earlier, the study of the fundamentals.
In case of a momentum trade I look at Stochastics and vector before getting involved with a day trade. The best is to trade the stocks that you know and have setablished a trade pattern. Like some stocks always open high then linger off around 11 then come back strong at closing, or others open low then then goes high at 10 am and falls off etc.
Never buy market open, no matter how great the news is. All stocks , I mean 99% on a bull day would open strong and peter off 10AM to 10:30. Its called 10:30 AM effect as MMS take their profit in the mornig to newbies. then at if it goes it will go after it has took out the sells.
Even the hottest friggin IPOs fall off 30 to an 1 hour after hitting the street.
Uh I cant think of any thing more, and again I am not a pro so I hope others reading this can jump in and correct me or add to what I have started here .
Now I think of it why did I do that. Well its too much work now to just erase it ROFL
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