Johndee, and others, thanks for the feedback on Preferred.
Let me respond to a couple of specific points. I'm not trying to defend them, just clarify where I can:
"Another thing is that they jumble the stock and options on the same
company together."
If you are referring-to the Positions P&L in Delta Trader, just double-click on a stock symbol, and it will break-out the stock and each option series separately. That doesn't work on the YTD display, though. On the other hand, this is kind of an odd-ball thing that I don't see other brokers even offering. Frankly, I don't particularly care about how much I made/lost on a particular stock, except at tax time. And I have my confirmations for that, which are pretty clear, and NOT "jumbled" in any way.
" Of course they don't give you the exact commission figure till the next day."
Yea, that's kinda dumb. I don't know why they can't calculate the commissions on-line. This would seem to be a no-brainer.
" Let me know if you find a broker with similar fees and ease of use."
Me too. I really do think their fees are great for the service offered. Most options brokers have a base that they add the per-contract commission to. Preferred has a $19.95 minimum, that your per-contract gets burried in for small numbers of contracts. I think all my trades so far have been $19.95, so it's not so difficult figuring the commission. :)
Yes, it also annoys me that they don't update your balances during the day. I haven't used margin yet, so can't comment on the effect on margin. I don't recall if I've ever used funds from a sale the same day. I think I may have, but had sufficient cash to cover it.
I cannot over-emphasize the importance of being able to reach your broker on the phone. My main reason for going with Preferred was the astonishingly short time it takes them to answer the phone. As a Datek customer, this blew me away. Two rings, and they answer. Datek takes a half-hour, if you are lucky.
I had hoped that Delta Trader was a work in progress, and that we could expect fast and furious updates. From what I've read here, though, perhaps not...
Delta Trader does take some getting used to, and it does encompass some pretty odd-ball (and to my mind, not terribly useful) concepts. It's a quirky program, but certainly gets the job done when it comes to executions, and - very important, I think - knowing the exact status of your order. I love the speed with which you can cancel or change an order. You should read some of the Datek cancellation nightmares...
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