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

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/6/1998 7:54:00 PM
From: Esteban	Respond to of 16892

Peter, I'm satisfied, and having a good time. No one else offers an Express Server which greatly simplifies entering multiple orders in a rush. And I'm always in a rush! I'm especially happy with the NYSE order routing I've been getting. Fast, and it seems the floor trader or specialist always does his best to get me price improvement, often even better than the price of my limit. I can't fault Datek for lack of speed on Nasdaq, but I've found price improvement hard to come by. Seems the MMs just trade around my limit even when it's the first order bid or offered at that new best price. I hope your new "much smarter order routing algorithms" really can hunt out better Nasdaq executions. Esteban

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/6/1998 8:15:00 PM
From: Ed Forrest	Respond to of 16892

Peter I'm not unhappy with Datek but would be really happy if I had streaming quotes,check writing,and AON.Can you address those issues. Best Regards Ed Forrest

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/6/1998 8:59:00 PM
From: Mighty_Mezz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Peter - Thank you for the improvements. Best part so far is two days in a row without a "did not respond" message. It's been a long while since I was able to stay on one server all day! David p.s. To Dave Michael - It took over two weeks for my Schwab account to get transfered.

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 3:47:00 AM
From: Rene Madsen	Respond to of 16892

Datek Webservers "silly fast" now? You gotta be kidding! Again yesterday (Thursday) I had repeatedly timeout's to your webservers costing me almost a dollar per share each time it happened. That kind of performance can make the difference between win and lose you know. Order routing does seem to be better these days (since some time earlier this week, i believe) so something is happening. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate you're trying, but don't hype it until your brilliance has been confirmed. As for my opinion on all those other things: 1) streaming quotes - forget it. I know I initially though it was a great idea, but I now realize that if you really want to trade you need a proper T&S + L2. 2) Checkwriting - forget it. I've got both bank account and credit card if I want to spend money. Not gonna spend margin-money on consumer goods. 3) The "new" "classic" interface ... (does this sound silly or wot?) is actually not too bad. But now, go make an express version of it, now that would be useful. All those repeated enterings of the password and double checking confirmations ... by the time you've done it your issue is gone. At least if you, as I, trade a lot of quick movers. 4) Or even better, make a java interface for the trading pages. Not a "fancy" frame based thing like you have now. Java is not about animated graphics, it is about having for example realtime input validation, so that you don't have to wait expensive seconds to be informed that your password was entered wrong or some other relatively irrelevant error message which if you're lucky just lose your trade but more often cost you a load. 5) Get rid of that "instant timeout" (expire now) on the webpages, nothing more annoying than losing your page just because you hit the go-back key. I know that to get the latest data I have to refresh the page, don't treat me as stupid, but let me go back and forth if only to refresh my memory about previous pages' content.

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 7:23:00 AM
From: LEVEL7	Respond to of 16892

Silly fast?? I can't tell you how many times i've entered marketable orders, esp. buys @ the current ask & sells @ the current bid. These bids & asks remained the same for 8-10 minutes. My confirmation? up to 4 minutes!! Sometimes I'd buy at the ask, wait 1 minute and try to cancel, as a test. Guess what? 50% of the time my buy doesn't get executed and my cancel "eventually" gets confirmed. How can executions be "silly fast" in light of the above? I've concluded the only orders I feel safe with are limits in between the market. That's the only way I can follow my order and feel assured of it's execution.

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 9:21:00 AM
From: Charles P. Hubbard	Respond to of 16892

Peter, I am very satisfied with my trading experience in stocks at Datek, but am waiting for options trading capability. When you offer that, I will be able to close my other account. CPH

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 10:17:00 AM
From: HKBrittain	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Peter: You are singing your own praises undeservedly. Capacity remains a problem at Datek. I was unable to access a server for the first half hour of trading yesterday, and finally gave up, having missed my opportunity. I tried most of the servers by URL and IP address to no avail. I also experienced punishing delays near the close on Wednesday. So, please, triple capacity post haste. And I hope it's enough! Kim Brittain

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 10:27:00 AM
From: doniam	Respond to of 16892

Peter, I have been a happy camper for quite some time now, and am not too interested in some of the fluff things like check writing. If and when you accept stops on listed stocks I can close out another account. dwf

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/7/1998 2:04:00 PM
From: Larry Voyles	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

This is a new record for me: two (2) compliments in one week. I'm feeling a little light-headed here. Cancellations are almost instantaneous for me today and marketable limit orders are filling before I can even flip over to the open orders screen. I was in the habit of watching the open orders slowwwwwwly go through their various statuses. Streamer has been rocking. Life is good. Now if I could just find something to buy... Anyway, my prioritized wish list for the future: 1) AON 1) Options 1) RT Tick Charts (like Streamer had) 1) L2 497) Check writing

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/8/1998 4:35:00 PM
From: Pierre Borczuk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Hi Peter... I will be especially interested in how your servers work between 9:30 and 9:45...I usually use this time to enter fake orders and test to see how long it takes for things to appear on level 2 and how long it takes to cancel...I have been burned in the past, stuck unable to trade, disappearing orders Pierre

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/11/1998 9:31:00 AM
From: Zog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

Peter: If you consider the web sites "silly fast," I'd hate to think what you would consider slow. The biggest problem I have had at the opening is not getting my trade in (though that has been a problem), but in getting orders canceled! I hate to tell you how much money your silly fast web sites cost me because my position is locked up with a "trying to cancel" notice at the opening, like this morning. Get it fixed! Michael EDIT: Boy, the silly fast servers are really doing well today NOT!

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/11/1998 12:32:00 PM
From: Fred Puppet	Respond to of 16892

Peter Stern wrote : "I can't wait until this years version of 27 October 1997. Datek Online customers are going to be so happy." If Datek doesn't work on a mildly volatile day like today, what will happen during a major crash? This morning I couldn't cancel orders, can't gets fills at the market price, or get anything other than a busy signal at 1-888-GODATEK. Peter, you took the time to boast here on SI when things were working, so how about taking the time today to try to explain what went so terribly wrong at Datek?

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/11/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 16892

Special Bulletins - 12:47:12 on 08/11/98 NASDAQ orders are being processed normally. Does this cryptic Datek message mean that NYSE & AMEX orders are not? Does it mean that heretofore NASDAQ orders were not? Please be a little bit more clear with your messages. o~~~ O

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	8/12/1998 10:51:00 AM
From: Rene Madsen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

Peter, not only do you have the nerve to come in here and hype Dateks servers as "silly fast" ... when a LOT of customers reply to you that they see things differently you don't even bother to reply (at least not in public). Today I have again had an "open day" issue for several minutes where it was marketable until it started to decend. After it had dived considerable under what my target price was i decided to cancel my order which was stil "open day" (reloaded the page several times to make sure). AS SOON AS I HIT CANCEL "SUDDENLY" THE TRADE WENT THROUGH. This is not a one-off occation. It looks like a SCAM! Are you just waiting to see how far down you can get away with buying it off the market to be able to sell it to your customer at the top of his limit price? In my case i had a limit price of 45. At the time the sale was confirmed (when I cancelled it) the ask was 44 1/4. 3/4 to the ISDL MM? No wonder Datek can afford all those flashy adds.

To: Peter Stern who wrote (9394)	9/1/1998 11:02:00 AM
From: Tom_	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

A current assessment of Datek... I'm happy with trade execution now. I haven't had any early morning problems recently. But I've been trading there less, and for lower volumes. I'm very content about trade notifications. They seem faster and/or instantaneous now. Thanks for improving the monthly interest notification times. And check request has worked like a dream for me. I like the refresh function on quotes. I wish it would work consistently for the last set of quotes I enter, not revert to a previous set. Quotes-times seem to have deteriorated. I used to use Datek all the time. Now E-Trade seems more reliable. Overall I remain content. I haven't had many of the problems set out on postings here. The top of my wish-list is an ability to set stops on NYSE stocks. The lack of this function keeps portions of my money elsewhere. Some unsolicited advice: Don't pre-announce any more improvements. I can't remember any that were met, time-wise. Do it, then talk. And talk moderately, when you do talk. Your stuff will talk for itself, for better or worse. I've used Jon Tara's Super Express to great effect. Can you pay the guy some money and bring it inside the tent? Or produce something similar in-house? Schwab's customer service is absolutely superlative. I'm glad you have a Schwab alum in charge; there couldn't be a better model. So. OK. Go public later, when everything internally and externally has been sorted out. 200,000 customers to bid up your IPO, rather than 100k. <g>. Tom