Hi Jack,
I've been following the current conversation on the Datek thread about "market participants" with interest. Personally, I don't think anything is going on here that is not in the interest of Datek customers. I agree however, that it would be appropriate for Datek to make this matter very clear to all of us. I don't understand the spotty responses they occasionally post on the thread.
As for your question: How is Web Street for daytrading? They seem too good to be true. Is there level II usefull or would I still need realtick or something like that. How quickly do they fill orders, etc.
I use PC Quote directly because they offer more features that I have gotten used to. I can't comment on the usefulness of Web Street's level II because I have no experience with it. If you don't have a service presently that you are satisfied with, it seems like there is nothing to lose in trying Web Street's Level II because it is free. The $50 fee goes to Nasdaq, which you pay in addition to the charges from other vendors. And the $29 for streaming level I quotes is cheap.
I wouldn't expect a professional system for this price though. The system may work great depending on how comprehensive a system is required for your investment style. It's cheap to find out anyway at the prices they charge. I expect to see some postings here soon as some SI members have recently signed up for the quotes, according to their posts.
As for daytrading, I was initially disappointed trying SOES style daytrading with them. Order entry was too slow for me on the high flying high volume techs I was trading. By the time the order was ready for confirmation, I wanted to change the price, but that would take another 30 seconds or so, etc, etc. I was spoiled by Orders7 over at Datek. The problem over there, as you know, is that executions are not what they used to be with Datek even though the order entry is fast. Now it seems Web Street is faster than at first, but it still doesn't match orders7, at least on my system. I think I recall reading that you have a cable modem, Jack, and that might make the difference that puts Web Street over the top. The free 1000 shares or more is really making a difference for me though, and I use Web Street most of the time for those trades. My trading time frame has lengthened a bit to usually several hours for daytrading, from several minutes, so the speed of order entry is not as critical as before. I've decided that I need a professional SOES system to pursue daytrading in the style I was initially using, and I've personally enjoyed the slower pace that I've more recently embraced in my trading.
Here's some links to previous posts were I've compared Web Street and Datek: exchange2000.com
exchange2000.com
Thanks for the 4.04 patch information. I'll download it today.
Esteban |
