Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Befriend the Trend Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Stoxx who wrote (7256)	5/19/2000 3:11:00 PM
From: Mark Z	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 39683

Well, for starters, I use CyberX for trading & QCharts for charting/quotes/Level II info. CyberTrader contains charts & Level II info. I'm not sure of the details (you can check www.cybercorp.com) but CyberTrader charges a monthly fee ($99) unless you make a certain # of trades in which case its waived. I believe commissions are $24.95 (may be $19.95) and come down the more you trade. CyberX is $14.95 regardless of volume of trades. The 'speed' benefit comes in that you can hit ECNs directly without going through a broker plus there's no 'boating' (manual review) of your trades plus the reporting back is instantaneous. You literally can get filled in a second via the Island ECN. OTOH, you have to work your own trades. That is, you have to decide whether to try to get a fill at an ECN or through a market maker & for the latter, fills can take awhile as they have a lot of discretion they can and do use. That whole subject is very complicated & I'm simplyifying it but the point is there's a learning curve here. To add to the complication, CyberCorp has some proprietary routing methods which combine ECNs/MMs and try to route your trade accordingly. I had some bad experiences with these and don't use them but others have had good experiences. Again, the point is -- more to learn about. Regardless, I find CyberX very reliable - as reliable if not moreso than a web-based broker. Accounting/ administration is good (can't say this about some of their competitors who clear through Southwest Securities & it _is_ in an issue if you get into these types of platforms). When there are downtimes, very rare, it is hard to get to a broker & get things done but I don't think they're any worse than the browser-based brokers in this regard. Obviously, now being owned by Schwab, CyberCorp will be around awhile (again, some of their competitors...I wonder...a few have already gone under the past 18 mos.). But being owned by Schwab has meant an attitude change of sorts. I don't find them nearly as helpful as they were when I first started out. They're a 'big company', now. Value? I consider $14.95 a good commission rate especially when the speed of not just execution, but also reporting back of that execution, is factored in. Helpfulness of trading platform? N/A for CyberX & I can't really comment on CyberTrader. They do have a bunch of studies & indicators they developed but I'm clueless as to whether or not they're actually helpful or not. CyberX is bare bones in this regard. Extra features? Small footprint & low bandwidth usage for CyberX. I come from a Real Tick environment and these were important for me. With that platform (& CyberTrader) you de facto need cable modem or DSL, neither of which are available where I live. The software presentation is ugly (not visually appealing) but you learn to live with it. These are random thoughts typed quickly as I glance back and forth at the market. Hope they help...