Summary of Castle and the Kill Key
Castle Securities has been around for about 10 years?? They use JB Oxford as their Clearing Firm. $10,000 minimum to open an account.
Transaction fees: $19.95 for up to 1,000 shares traded on the SOES market and $19.95 for up to 10,000 shares traded on Selecnet.
The Kill Key is an Order Execution System that facilitates very fast executions using your PC (not compatable with Macs). It is level one trading with real-time quotes: best bid and best offer. Executions take about 3 seconds. For those interested in Nasdaq Level II, its $150/month.
Presently, they only offer Nasdaq stocks. Next year they will begin offering NYSE, AMEX, and BB. No time table is set. They are working to improve their present service before going into other markets. Once everything is settled, look for them to go public.
Lets compare them to two other services, Datek and the Watcher. Datak is a pretty good bang for the buck. Check out their thread and web site. Their executions are a bit slower because they try to process their orders "in house" on their Island System so you may have to wait a few more seconds or minutes for another customer buying or selling on the Island. If the order remains, they send it out to Selecnet. They are also slower because their Order Execution System uses a browser like Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. On the other hand, the Kill Key is not browser based. You download the program off a private URL and run it seperate from the browser. This allows you to use your browser for other things.
The most popular SOES trading system is the Watcher. Its the fastest out there, but with a price. I have heard some say that Block Trading requires $100,000 to open an account. Along with this price is higher commissions and being connected to the system via a seperate LONG DISTANCE phone call connection. This price really adds up, unless you live close to them and don't have to pay the long distance charges. The Watcher is tied into Datek's Island.
At the present time, I don't have an account at either place. I've just been doing my research. If interested in Castle, give them a call at (516) 868-2000, ask for Glen Perkins. They do not have a web site!! Their system is the fastest way to make a SOES/Selecnet trade over the internet.
Street Walker |
