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

To: INFO_DART who wrote (9684)	9/15/1998 8:22:00 AM
From: LEVEL7	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

My tradestaion gives me: 1. ARCA, TNTO, ISLD, SOES, SNET, INCA 2. Level 2 3. Position minders 4. real time charting 5. scanners 6. News 7. Alerts etc, etc I can execute trades with one click as I'm monitoring all the above. My point: If you through everything above out the window except an ECN, I would still stay with my tradestaion over Datek. The most important functions to me are: 1. Reliable and fast execution, confirmation and cancel. 2. Reliable and trustworthy customer support. It's like buying a car for $3,000 but the radio doesn't work, when it rains sometimes the windshield wipers work. When you need to slam on the brakes to avoid the oncoming diesal truck, well you get the picture. Hope you find what you're looking for.

To: INFO_DART who wrote (9684)	9/15/1998 11:51:00 PM
From: Esteban	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 16892

ID, I may not be in the level II game, but fortunately, it's not the only game in town. (;-) Besides, that's a hard game, at least in my experience. I found that the Nasdaq limit order display rule actually made level II trading more difficult. Now the inside spread is dominated by the ecns INCA and ISLD, whereas before in the high volume stocks like CSCO and INTC the strength of the bid or ask was much easier to judge and not as whimsical. You certainly do need a trade station setup when trying to hit a bid when only one or two market makers who can disappear any second 100 shares are traded, are all that is between the current price and 1/4 lower. I do believe my trading has become more productive since I pulled my self away from constantly monitoring the level II monitor. I do have an account at Web St., and you're right, they are too slow, on order entry, on representation and on cancelations. I hardly ever use them anymore. I'm not saying Datek is equal in all things to the trade stations. It's just that Datek is very good, at least in my experience, and at some point improvements are subject to the concept of diminishing returns. It's a very rare occurrence for me to have problems with my Datek orders, so improving 1/16th on a quarter of my trades seems unlikely. I do know that I will pay significantly less commissions with Datek, and everybody who trades regularly knows that even at 9.99, these costs become significant before long. Maybe it's all a matter of trading style. I don't seek out the day's high fliers based on breaking news. I trade much more often on the NYSE than the Nasdaq. I've become so frustrated with the Nasdaq rules regarding time priority, watching MMs trade around my best bid or offer while I set the market and take the risk of opposite price movement. I trade for price improvement most of the time, and when I do place marketable limit orders on NYSE listed stocks, I still get price improvement a significant percentage of the time. I truly don't believe a fancier setup than Datek would help me in most of these trades, and I'm not even sure the price improvement through these systems would equal Datek's.