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

To: jlonj who wrote (4028)	5/8/1998 12:40:00 AM
From: Sword	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12617

jlonj: I wrote this message in response to your private one to me, but will post it here since it may be of general interest to others as well. In regard to brokerages, I have three: Lombard, Dreyfus and SouthWest Securities (MB Trading). Only MB Trading is really suited to daytrading. The others I keep for my long term investments. I can almost use Dreyfus (my alltime favorite brokerage) while consulting my MBT screens, but have calculated that I lose approximately 20 to 30% of my trading profits due to time delays in execution and less freedom to route orders. This is a huge amount in comparison to the $5 commission difference. The biggest problems with online daytrading brokerages is not their software or internal routers but the internet. I have three ISPs as of right now (Microsoft Network, MCI and Sprint). Only the Microsoft Network ISP is fast enough. They have more hops (12) vs. MCI (9) to the daytrading server at MBT but they don't go through the Chicago routers like MCI does from my location (LA). Chicago has intermittent delays of up to 2.5 seconds which is terrible for a trading connection. Sprint doesn't allow my modem to connect at higher than 28 BPS for some reason (probably my problem, not theirs). I plan to install a connection to a UUNET or WorldCom frame space from a PacBell local loop in the near future. I am preparing for the next big market crash. I don't want to be on the internet when that happens. -Sword

To: jlonj who wrote (4028)	5/8/1998 11:34:00 PM
From: Sword	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 12617

jlonj: I've used Dreyfus for about six years also. And my reason for selecting them was the low commissions on options as well. I got burnt on buying calls some years ago and will never do that again. Unfortunately, they are not just bought by others to hedge short positions but are bought by people like me who (at one time) wanted to get rich very quick. But they are just like gambling with the time premium working against you. I was OK for awhile, but eventually the game caught up with me. Never again. Writing covered calls is fine though. You are giving up the big gain that is a maybe for a small gain that is almost a sure thing. Interesting story about what happened to me today... I was trading my Dreyfus account and my MBT account by watching my MBT screens. I was short ENMD at 34 3/4. The stock dropped and I attempted to cover at a limit of 33 1/8. 500 shares of the 1000 went through, but because of the slow confirmation at Dreyfus, I didn't know it. I thought it had risen away from my bid. I was watching it on my MBT screen. So I clicked on my Dreyfus screen and changed the order to market on the Dreyfus web page (oh so slow when you are used to MBT) and submitted it. It went through. So what happened? I bought another full 1000 shares. 60 seconds later, the market was closed. Now I was long in my shorting hedge account! Not supposed to happen. So I called Dreyfus and told them about it. As usual they went the extra mile. They could have told me, "I'm sorry, but the warning screen about possible duplicate orders was displayed and we must hold you to the trade." Instead, they said no problem, we'll fix it and take back the extra 500 shares. They even refunded my account with the highest block price. Their personel and service are wonderful. But they are not a daytrading outfit. The software just doesn't support it. The Dreyfus long limit orders I submit usually show up in about 5 seconds on the MBT screen. This is very fast. The short limit orders take about twice as long (probably because a clerk has to check on availability.) The real downfall for daytrading is lack of speedy confirmation, something that is nearly instantaneous at MBT. If the stock moves against me, I've got to know if I'm in or out so that I can protect my capital. -Sword