Hi Colin,
You're replying to an old post of mine.
Many developments have come about.
First and foremost is STABILITY of the kill key.
It still occassionaly crashes in a super volume
stock - this may be due to my own overloaded RAM.
YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH RAM!
Currently you can trade Nasdaq with Level II
and NYSE. The NYSE execution is sufficient to make
a trade but still needs some work. NYSE executions
are never as fast as NASDAQ due to the human touch
of the NYSE order.
I am not certain about AMEX, since I've never needed
to trade that exchange, although I would love to short
Organogenesis in the morning! Whatever the outcome,
the AMEX stocks will be able to be traded with the
amex/nasdaq merger.
OTC/BB: Castle does not support the pink sheets.
If you saw Level II on one of these stocks, you probably
wouldn't want to trade them. This market is pretty tricky.
Common sense rules just don't seem to exist. As for fast
bb executions, most any firm has a problem getting fast
fills at a decent price. Its just the nature of this market.
Actually, the BEST place to trade OTC/BB is actually E*Trade.
Their market maker will represent you if you have a big enough
order. Other firms will not broadcast your order unless it
is at the bid/ask. If you want Level II for BB's, you might
try Web Street. I have no experience with them, however, but
hear that they have a hard time getting fills for this manipulated
market. Do you have anything to offer in your search concerning
other firms and trading bb's? If castle offered bb's a lot of
people would complain about them and traders would lose respect for them even though the problems wouldn't be Castle's fault but the nature of this market. Keep the bad apples away from the good!
This is another neat thing about Castle - you use it over
your regular internet connection. It is not browser based,
to increase the speed, meaning, you don't even have to have your browser up to run the key, just your internet connection. However, you can run a browser or several browsers at the same time running the kill keys. Other systems require you to pay a large monthly expense to join a specific carrier. These carriers are not necessarily faster, but can be more stable at times. AT&T worldnet use to offer unlimmited usage, but that has changed. I use a local ISP that
is extremely stable.
This is what I'm doing just on one 17" screen:
BMI charts, two browers on the task bar, 3 kill keys, and a
private chat channel. I need more screen space!
I'm just waiting for Matrox to upgrade their graphics
drivers for Win 98 to have multiple monitors run off
the same computer. - see Dream Machine thread.
The kill key has a nice option. There is a button you
click so that the key remains on top of what ever else
you are looking at. So if you wanted to do some
browsing on the internet or work on a clients tax records,
the Key remains on top - and not lost to view. Very important.
Also, the Key doesn't take up much space like all the other
competitors do. Its nice to use if you have other things to do
on your computer besides trading.
Fund your account and try it yourself.
You be the judge. I think you'll like it!
Level II only $150/month - and its built
right into the execution system. Beat that!
You can also download a trial version of the
software. That is a really neat option Castle
has recently made available.
castleonline.com
They have also reduced the minimum balance
from $20k to $10k.
S.W. |
