Great, thoughtful post, Paul. You make alot of good points, and I agree with most of them. I'm glad to see another perspective, so thanks.
I also use Datek, and will differ with you here. While Datek, when running on all cylinders, is the best online broker in many areas, I absolutely have NO illusions about their ability to integrate streaming quotes into their system anytime soon. In my opinion, they are flying by the seat of their pants now, and have grown way too fast. Customer service is non-existent for the most part, and it takes forever to solve any screw-ups. I doubt they will pull this off without problems on a scale that makes the NAQ problems seem like child's play. I won't use this space to flame them, as I have done enough of that on the thread devoted to them, lest anyone here think I'm just a company kiss-ass, for my earlier comments on NAQ.
I agree that the ideal situation is the integrated package, and there are a few that offer that ideal. I refer to AT Financial, with their recently rolled out ( though offered for awhile) Preferred Technology Trading, Castle Securities with their Market Links, and MB Trading, with their system based on Realtick (thru S/P Comstock I think), and of course, Watley.
We'll just have to wait and see. Good luck to all of us.
Len |
