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

To: Gary Payton who wrote (7951)	4/17/1998 10:41:00 PM
From: jawd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Yes, you can get your order in just a bit above the inside and see it pop up as ISLD on a level II market makers screen. The tricky bit is getting a confirmation back through your browser, firstly to make sure they got your order - then you need to get another "activity" screen to see if it was executed; which may take at least 2 or 3 reloads of that page until you see the execution; of course, by this you are getting frazzled trying to get info from Datek on the one hand and at the same time trying to keep an eye on the stock - when you finally find out that you've actually got the stock in your portfolio, invariably the stock is miles away from where you bought it - normally in the wrong direction, now you sit thinking "why did I do that?" anyway, now you've got to make a decision and go through the whole thing again to complete the cycle. Bit of a sham really to call this day trading. It only goes this good assuming your internet connection doesn't choke, your PC doesn't freeze, Datek servers are responding, and you are using the "express" datek servers, not the normal one that involves confirmation pages between every step. Frankly, I wonder if its worth saving a few bucks to go through all this - I reckon Dateks $10 fee translates into a few hundred dollars in many cases - I'm just about to jump ship to MB Trading which seems to be a better deal from around $18.95 for up to 2,000 shares. And they throw in the level II quotes too... However, I think Datek are working on something snazzy to get around all these problems ... but I hear its all hush, hush... See ya!

To: Gary Payton who wrote (7951)	4/17/1998 10:55:00 PM
From: steve kennedy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Gary, If you place an order to buy a stock between the spread at a better price than the best MM bid, Datek puts the order on Island and Island will present your price to the market, thus raising the bid that the whole market sees but you may not get filled -- someone will have to sell to you on Island to get a fill. Most of the brokers can do this, but not all use Island -- With Ameritrade you can try to buy at bid and I believe they will pass the order thru to market maker NITE and NITE will present your order to market -- I've heard this process takes quite a long time with Ameritrade -- Datek usually does this in a few seconds(sometimes longer) because it is automated Datek confirms are near instantaneous as are cancelations(most of the time) and your account portfolio is updated instantly as your portfolio changes -- You always know what your position & buying power is I don't think any of this directly relates to SOES although there may be some similarities at buying between the spread. Datek may at times use SOES or Instinet but probably at a loss. I have never used either so I don't know much about it. Maybe someone else has some info on it. Steve

To: Gary Payton who wrote (7951)	4/17/1998 11:24:00 PM
From: Ed Forrest	Respond to of 16892

Gary Because speed is of great importance to try this trading approach you might try preloading all the windows you are going to need and place them in taskbar and use refresh or reload.It might work.Worth the effort. Best Regards Ed Forrest

To: Gary Payton who wrote (7951)	4/18/1998 12:27:00 AM
From: Crabbe	Respond to of 16892

Gary I have traded with both Datek and Ameritrade, and perhaps understand your question better than most. While my Ameritrade experienc is not as up to date as Datek, I gave up trading stocks in that account and just put it in a far east mutual fund, I suppose eventually I will move it to Datek. With Ameritrade the only practical way to get a confirm is to call and get your confirm by telephone or wait for an email the next day or so. When you get a confirm on your activities screen you can't trust it and they don't gaurantee that it is correct even then. With Datek with in a second or so of a fill your portfolio is updated showing the results of the sale and the new available cash balance, your open orders are updated, your history file is updated, and your cash from a sale is released for another trade. On your next request for a quote you get a on screen message and also a message will be posted to your message screen. All limit orders in the spread are represented to the market, and the chances of a fill are quite good in fast moving stocks, the chances in thinly traded stocks are also fairly good, but you may have to wait quite a while to get that fill. Recently I posted a limit at the market with ameritrade for a thinly traded stock it sat all day and expired at the close, in the mean time I posted exactly the same limit order at market to Datek and it executed in under 10 seconds. I no longer trade with Ameritrade as I lost $2500 once because of a false notice of cancelation in my open orders report there, and their refusal to rectify the situation, they offered me 10 free trades. That and the fact that I didn't trust them to make sales in a volitile situation cost me ultimately several thousand more. The only problem with your senario is that most stocks with a 1/2 point spread are usually thinly traded and you won't get the fills fast enough. Rod