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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric P who wrote (4557)	10/2/1999 4:37:00 PM
From: TraderAlan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Eric, Comparing short lists is a little like comparing male equipment. It's more a question of quality, than quantity ;-). The bottom line is that daytraders usually have little interest in shorting the bottom 80%-90% of the list. Alan

To: Eric P who wrote (4557)	10/2/1999 6:26:00 PM
From: Matthew L. Jones	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Eric, Funk and other interested parties, I know we all have our preferences as far as brokerages go. Eric, you are partial to Executioner and Funk to MB Trading. Until recently I was to Watley. Here is the deal as for any good firm (and I believe all of those are)-- if you are interesting in shorting a particular issue which is not on their list, one phone call and a good broker will scour the globe trying to bum the shares-- with the exception of IPO's I've never wanted a short that Watley couldn't borrow with a little work, and I'm quite sure the others are the same. As for the published short list, Watley's is significantly smaller than MB Trading's probably because so is it's client base and therefore it's requested short list. They probably don't go looking for shorts but only add them as they get requests. When the systems are up and running, come on, is there really a nickle's worth of difference between any of the good ones? I doubt it. One difference with Watley has to do with what they allow as far as acceptable option plays. With Watley you can long calls and puts, or short calls (if you have the shares to cover them). There is no short puts (even with cash there to exercise). They will not allow more complicated option strategies such as ratio spreads, spreads (if you tell them), straddles, strangles, butterflies, alligators, etc. They are not interested in being an option brokerage firm, have no expertise, and no intentions of adding it. MB, on the other hand, will allow all manner of options trading. Covered and naked, long and short. I can't speak for Executioner as to options. Watley is experiencing some growing pains which translate into less than perfect service lately, however, they are truly trying to resolve issues as they become aware of them. As far as direct access, I believe there has to be a better platform out there than Real Tick 3 (Townsend), although admittedly they have more software out in the daytrading world than any other "non-institutional" platform. Without a better platform and a direct dial up connection (not internet), I would not consider trying to make a living scalping high flyers like internets, as the best of the systems when working fine have a tendency to lag the market 10-15 seconds with their "real time" quotes (all of them) because they all use either PC Quote, Bridge, or S& P Comstock to provide "real time" data. I have used all three (as well as BMI and DTN satellite systems) and have yet to find any system that consistently was "real time". For momentum trading and swing trading this is not that important, however, for scalping it is a huge issue. If a trader is truly wanting to scalp, he needs to lease a seat on an exchange (IMO) or plan on a good deal of technically based losses to factor into his trading strategy. Matt