Regarding Etrade:
1) When you cue up an order, type in your password, but don't press enter, the order will go "stale" after about 5 minutes. At that point you have to hit your browser's back button to get to the screen that you punched in the the order and resubmit to get to the password screen. Now that's not that big a deal. When you press the back button, you don't have to retype the order.....just the back button, then the resubmit button, and then just your password and enter.
2) When you press the "enter" button to execute the trade, it usually goes through in 15-30 seconds. One thing I've discovered though is that when you decide you want to change an order...say increase your price, and you go into the screen that allows you to make the change...and then submit that change, the change usually goes through in about 2 secs or less.
3) Taking advantage of this, I've occasionally done the following. I'll use a buy order for example for a stock that is going to trigger a buy signal for me somewhere between $5.00 and $5.25
a) Place an order that is substantially below the price you want to pay...say $4.50 The order takes the usual 30 secs or so to appear.
b) Now call up the screen that let's you change the order and cue up the changes.
c) As the stock gets to the point that you get your buy signal, say specifically $5.10 and you want it NOW, type in that price $5.10 and hit enter. Because this is a CHANGE to an order, the order gets placed in about 2 seconds, i.e. you're filled, rather than the usual 30 seconds for a first time order which might not get filled....depending on how close you play things.
Now, I don't know why this is, but I just know it to be true.
Etrade does not update your account during the day in that you cant go to your balance section and see what you've got. You've got to keep mental track during the day. However, their computer does keep track as to whether you have cash on hand or not on an intraday basis. It understands in and out. Greenline doesn't. If you buy and then sell through Greenline, the computer doesn't know that you're back in cash. So then you have to phone Greenline, and some broker has to sit with pen and paper and look through your trades to see that you are in fact back in cash....which takes more time...and then he executes the trade and overides the computer, but then dings you for more commissions since you're not using webbroker/micromax/telemax.
Like I said, for 99% of the investing public Greenline is fine. For me, at one end of the market fringe, it just doesn't cut it....and maybe that's just not their thing anyway.
Cheers,
Kevin |
