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Non-Tech : Datek Brokerage $9.95 a trade -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GR who wrote (7258)	3/7/1998 10:01:00 AM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

I agree. Datek has often blamed the exchanges for the "first 15 minute" problem. While it is certainly possible that they are a contributory factor, the exchanges can NOT be responsible for slow or non-existent response from Datek's order servers, which occurs consistently at the start of the day. The FIRST step is to get your order into the system! If that can't be done, all other efforts are fruitless. This may mean that Datek may have to add such massive over-capacity (for the rest of the day) as to be considered imprudent (i.e. "throwing money away on unneeded hardware") in most situations. Datek management must be convinced, though, that to do anything ELSE but to provide the capacity to handle peak demand on the heviest trading day imaginable is imprudent. This also may mean beefing-up backend and middleware components that we don't see, not just the web servers. Beyond that, NASDAQ and the exchanges may screw-up, but Datek will be in an enviable position in the marketplace if they can argue that THEIR equipment is never a bottleneck. So far, they are far from that goal. (If it's a goal of theirs.) Now, I must add that during most of the day on most days, Datek is close to perfect, and has much improved over the past few months. However, this is NOT GOOD ENOUGH and they must deal with the "first 15 minutes" problem.