Jon
While I appreciate your efforts to reassure DATEK users, I think you need to understand the magnitude of the problems some of us had on Monday and Tuesday.
If the big idea behind DATEK was, as you say, to avoid small traders being locked out during a market crash - I am afraid you failed abysmally in my own case.
In my case, it wasn't a question of the system being a bit sluggish, as some other users have reported, but a total inability after logging on successfully to access PORTFOLIO, OPEN ORDERS, DAILY ACTIVITY or even more importantly to receive confirmation that trades had gone through. In two cases I waited for around half an hour to try and confirm market trades, by which time the price had moved so much the trade wasn't worth it, but I was unable either to confirm or cancel until I found out much later that the trade had in fact gone through at a totally unsatisfactory price.
I don't accept the suggestions by others on this thread that general network congestion was the problem since the general speed of response of other sites at the time was patchy but not that bad. In between waiting for responses from DATEK I was able to get into NASDAQ, DBC, SI etc. most of the time. Those of us who trade across the pond are used to the symptoms of general network congestion and that wasn't the primary factor on this occasion.
Bear in mind that NASDAQ volume on Tuesday, although a record, was less than 150% of average levels - a level which I would have thought could easily be designed into your systems.
Please accept this post as constructive criticism - it was instigated by irritation at your rather rosy assertion that "these last few days have proved that DATEK is one of the best etc etc......."
Best regards David Carr |
