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Strategies & Market Trends : The Final Frontier - Online Remote Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: brec who wrote (7886)	1/14/2000 7:12:00 PM
From: Dan Clark	Respond to of 12617

Brec, Let me know how you like MBT and whether the commissions worked out as you expected. I've mentioned that I'm very concerned about paying multiple commissions. Please let me know how that has turned out. I.e., do you find that you are paying multiple commissions more than you expected. One of the things that I do like about RealTick3 is that there are two very interesting scanning tools that only run on RealTick3. Good luck. Regards, Dan.

To: brec who wrote (7886)	1/15/2000 12:39:00 AM
From: Dan Duchardt	Respond to of 12617

brec, The third firm in my evaluation is Interactive Brokers -- one cent a share ($1.00/trade minimum), no other costs. They offer direct to five ECNs, Selectnet broadcast, and, for seclected stocks, direct to a market maker, MASH. However their software interface is, um, eccentric; there's no Selectnet preference; and parts of their system seem to be in what I'd call a beta test stage, 'though the firm and its parent, Timber Hill, have solid experience in electronic trading. I've been using IB for a couple of months now. It's working out well for me. The "eccentric" interface is just that, but it is also very efficient. It avoids some of the "I have to change this" problems you have with RTIII based platforms. Of the 5 ECNs, I have only been able to use 3, ISLAND, INSTINET and BRUT. They keep telling me they are working on ARCA and BTRADE.. I'm not sure about "no Selectnet preference" It depends on who you talk to. According to some of the techs, if you send a limit order, and there is a MM quoting that price, they will pref that MM, or several to get full size and they have to divide the order. The software does that for you. You don't get to pick the MM yourself. Selectnet broadcast was used for some non-marketable orders in the past, but now that MASH is in the picture they tend to send them to him unless you direct them to an ECN. I almost always choose an ECN for those. During the time I have been using it, the system has steadily improved. Executions are as good as I would expect from any direct access broker, and confirmations are just as fast. The price structure is great. I don't worry about orders getting broken up, partial fills, or any of that. Just keep buying till you have all you want, and selling all you want; you are paying by the share, not the trade. As with any system that sends data over the internet, you can get caught in a failure. IB has a trade desk, but you pay to use it (I haven't yet). Loss of connection is still a bit too much, but I chat with a lot of MBTrading users who run into problems too. I'm not sure it's any worse. The short list is not posted, but it seems pretty good. I was shorting PRTG after market today while none of the MBT folk could get it. But you do run into some NASDAQ stocks that have not made it into the IB database, so you cannot trade them at all. It takes a couple of days for them to get it in. Some of us have been sharing our IB experiences at beta.siliconinvestor.com Dan