No, it was I, not that other gang of ne'er-do-wells. <G>
Jon Normile, who made the post you reference, is the Datek
registered representative. I think we can take what was
in that post as given from the horse's mouth (or from somewhere
about the horse, anyhow).
Yes, that would make Datek twice as costly as Schwab, ignoring
whatever difference their may be in interest rates. According
to that post, Datek charges twice on the short margin; once
by not paying interest on the short proceeds (fairly standard)
and once by encumbering your free cash (so you lose interest)
or by debiting margin (so you pay interest), whatever combination
it takes to make up the total AGAIN.
That's possibly legal but reprehensible, and unless things have
changed significantly in the last two-three years, not the
practice anywhere else I've been (of course it HAS been two
years + a bit since my account of what happened at Schwab,
don't forget that--maybe Schwab's done the same thing for
all I know).
This is close to the final straw for me.
There are things I like about Datek, but that's low. I don't
short much (never at Datek), and I don't even run a margin
balance of any type except very occasionally, but this is
too much for me on principal. This boy's voting with his feet.
Naturally, I'll hedge that; I have an account at Dreyfus,
and I'm going to TRIPLE check their short margin policy. They
don't confirm as quickly (anything like) as Datek, but their
commissions are comparable, their fills are ok, and they
have as cheap an option schedule as I've seen anywhere. And
they answer the phone.
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