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[ WebSteet 0, NDB 1 ]
I recently opened a "test" account at WebStreet, to compare their service against my other brokers, NDB and Datek. My attraction to WebStreet is the potential to trade for zero commissions. My doubts focus on speed of representation and execution.
To be fair in my comparison, I'll only place orders before the market opens. That gives the brokers an even starting line. Since Datek is known to be horrible from 9:30 to 9:40, they are out of the comparison from the start.
Today, I wanted to short 4,000 ASTM at a limit of 8. I called NDB at 9:22, and within a minute had placed an order in for 2,000 shares at a limit of 8. The only drawback was that you have to call NDB to make a short sale.
At 9:23, I placed an order at WebStreet to short 2,000 ASTM at a limit of 8. I received this response:
Your DAY order to Sell Short 2000 shares of ASTM (AASTROM
BIOSCIENCES INC) with a limit price of 8 in your Short account
(xxxxxxxx) failed for the following reason:
lid Acct # [xxxxxxxxx ] for user [xxxxxxxx ] while processing 'Order
Request' request
Can anyone make sense of this error message? I tried again, and got the same response. Next I called WebStreet, and they placed the order manually, giving me a zero commission since there was a problem with web order entry. A minute later WebStreet called back, to tell me there were only 800 ASTM available. I told them not to place that order, since my only interest in WebStreet is to trade for free, which means my orders must be at least 1,000 shares.
At 9:32, the NDB web page confirmed my short. At 9:33 I received an email confirmation from NDB. Since I sold at the high of the day (at least until now), I know that I got representation. Sure I paid a $28 commission, but I got a fill. WebStreet was useless for me today.
So far, score 1 for NDB, 0 for WebStreet. |
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