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Mr. Dwyer,
Since I have never used A.B. Watley, I can't really comment on how good they are, nor do I know exactly what version of RealTick they distribute... I do know that RealTick has various modules that a broker can purchase the licensing rights to in order to distribute to their clients... I know from personal experience, that the number of modules supplied and the frequency that the versions are updated vary greatly from broker to broker. Even the Terra Nova branch offices (MB Trading, Polar Trading, DirecTrade, etc...) don't all offer the same version/modules...
Having said that, perhaps it would be easiest if I just listed the things that I like and dislike about both programs:
(1) - The overall look and feel of CT is less cumbersome than RT3. The MarketMaker Windows take up less room, the command center bar at the top of the screen and the account manager are both very slick.
(2) - At first glance CT's Market View window is much more attractive and easier to read than RT3's... However, CT doesn't allow you to customize it as much as RT... And more importantly, you can't customize a sort in CT like you can in RT... For instance, I have a list of 130 stocks that I monitor... I like to sort them in order of the the stocks with the greatest Bid/Ask spread so that I can capitalize on any scalps... In CT, the stocks can only be sorted in alphabetical order.
(3) - One thing that RT3 has are audible alerts. You can set an alarm to go off if a stock hits a certain price, or hits a certain level of volume. One thing that CT does have is an alert that tells you if your loss on a stock is greater than a certain amount, but I feel as though it doesn't really get your attention right away, the way an alarm should.. After all, we are dealing in a business where a few seconds may mean the difference of several hundreds of dollars, an alarm should get your attention right away.
(4) - I do like the proximity alerts in CT... It alerts you if a stock hits its 52 week low... intraday low... etc.... It makes it a little easier to scan for trading opportunities.
(5) - One thing that I would really like to see CT address, is multiple trading accounts. I have one account for daytrading, one IRA account, another account setup for short hedge positions, and another account that I have for long-term positions. RT has a drop down box in the order entry screen that allows you to select the account that you would like to use. In CT, I must actually log off, and log on as a different user if I want to execute a trade in a different account.
(6) - I like the graphs in CT much better... I think that they're easier to read and take less customization to make them useful.
(7) - The Position manager in CT looks nicer than RT3, and I know Mr Berber thinks that its a HUGE selling point... But I personally don't think there is much difference between the two programs. For the most part, they both give the same information.
(8) - I can't comment on the dynamic ticker in CT since I don't really use it (like I have said before, I mainly use CyberTrader for trade executions and have used RealTick for stock scanning and analysis), so if someone has any feedback on this feature, I wouldn't mind learning what you think about it and why.
(9) - I think CT's order executions are the best. Although I personally don't use their smart order entry system, I do like a feature they have called a delta sell/buy, which places an order at 1/16 above the current inside bid/ask, so that it is easier for you to get filled, especially in a fast moving market.
(10) - Oh, I almost forgot. I like the CT Communicator. I talk to the back office people right from a window in CT, and never have to pick up the phone and take time away from trading. You can ask about shorting a stock, request wire transfers or checks, or just ask questions. I think its great.
(11) - In RealTick you can view company profiles. It displays information about what the company does, earnings reports, officers and the number of shares they hold, profit projections. However, although its nice to have for research, it is possible to daytrade without it.
(12) - CT allows you to view all buy and sell orders for any given stock in the ISLD book. This is a very useful tool in trading, because it allows you to judge the depth of the market... The only version of RealTick that I have seen with this feature, is All-Tech's version which they call ATTAIN. The only thing that CyberTrader could improve on, is allowing you to open up more than one ISLD Book window at a time, so that you could view all the buy and sell orders for multiple stocks.
I think that just about covers it. Sorry if I was a little wordy or long winded... If you feel like I have left something out or haven't covered something, feel free to let me know. |
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