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.

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

To: Esteban who wrote (9683)	9/15/1998 1:29:00 AM
From: INFO_DART	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

Esteban, I appreciate your financial analysis to figure out what the best deal is. However, here's the problem. It appears you are not even in the game, if you are not using level 2. No wonder you don't think you could do any better. According to the numbers you provided, if you can improve 1/16th on just a quarter or your trades, you have more than made up the price difference. BTW, you can reduce your $10,000 per year expense to ZERO, by trading at Webstreet. What makes you think that you can justify spending an additional $10,000 per year at Datek? I can only infer that you somehow think Datek is $10,000/yr better than Webstreet, but the other companies are not that much better than Datek. I'm trying to learn all this from the experts on SI, so please help.

To: Esteban who wrote (9683)	9/15/1998 8:07:00 AM
From: LEVEL7	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Esteban:" Do these companies make good on any trades that do not execute that are marketable?" I am happy not to have this answer, I don't experience these problems with my tradestation as yet. Regarding your statement of commission savings with Datek. My tradestaion charges me on avg. $19.95/trade up to 2,000 shares; then add .01 /share thereafter. I also have access to ARCA, ISLD, TNTO, SNET, INCA, ISI & SOES. I firmly believe I would more than make up the annual $10k savings you refer to easily. Yesterday, alot of traders were long TLAB due to the TLAB/CIEN killed deal. Some negative news from a conference call drove the TLAB shares from +7 to -3 over a several minute period. You said you trade 1,500 shares at a clip. If you couldn't get fast execution and confirmation of a sell, what would you do. Sell it again? Maybe it was sold but the confirm may not get back to you until several minutes later. What do you do? Well, if you thought you should have been executed but weren't, you just lost $15,000! Herein lies BIG PROBLEM #1 with Datek. Regarding price improvements, I am very satisifed with the performance of my tradestation in this area. Esteban, maybe you're not experiencing the problems others are and that's great news for you. Like I said, if you are an occassional longer term investor, Datek may be for you. As an active trader you'll be hurt eventually. One last thing. Couple weeks ago I experienced a problem with my tradestations position accounting. My screen said I was short Dell while I was sure I was flat. Dell was falling fast and since I make alot of intraday trades researching my position would have been too time consuming. I decided to cover the alleged short at 106. I contacted the backoffice and explained my dilema. Their computer said I was short the Dell but they would go through a trade by trade accounting. They told me I would not suffer any loss if their accounting was incorrect (meaning although I bot Dell @ 106 to cover a supposed short, if I wasn't really short and Dell went down, I wouldn't lose any $$). Next morning Dell is at 110, I get a call saying I was right, they made the mistake. I made $4 selling the Dell. I have had this happen to me 3 times so far. The other 2 times the covering trade I made went against me but I WAS NOT held liable. This would probably never happen at Datek. It's called customer service. Ever hear people tell you; buy IBM or Dell computer products, you get great customer support. It's worth the money. In the debate we're having, I believe in the long run you're paying more for an inferior product!