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Strategies & Market Trends : From the Trading Desk -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3629)	9/21/1998 7:33:00 PM
From: GT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4969

Thanks for that insight Alan. Now for the 64 million dollar question - WHICH BROKER DO WE GO TO ? I am disgusted with Waterhouses' confirmations (hours and days late) but amazed by their ability to get price improvement ALL THE TIME. The price improvement is great - but if you don't know whether you own it or not - you can't sell it ! Datek sounds fast IF you are trading a heavily traded stock with island all over it - but I want to trade bb's (yes - you can CASH IN on bb's as long as you sell immediately after the 300% rise or whatever) and also stocks in the 100,000 to 200,000 daily vol range. I think the price improvement from the discount brokers is due to in-house matched trades between different clients wanting to transact at the same price- so if we can find a broker that reports immediately - with a streamlined order entry page that doesn't time out (fill in the blanks ahead of time and wait) get a a nice data feed from someone else(q charts ?) we might have actually found a way to make $$$ at this crazy game. PLEASE let me know your experiences with on line brokers - Thanks - Gordon

To: TraderAlan who wrote (3629)	9/21/1998 9:41:00 PM
From: Len	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4969

Alan, I hope you'll permit me to make a couple of points. Firstly, if you wish to scalp eighths, then you need to place orders for more than 500 shares. You indeed do as poorly as you mention, if you do less than at least 1000 share lots. Sure it's easy for me to tell you to do 1K lots, but if you can't afford to do so, then get it out of your head that you are there to scalp. Decide that you will find a style that better suits your temperament, as well as your budget. Incidentally, you can also go to another Terra Nova affiliate, JPR Capital, whose commissions are $10 per trade, plus a buck or two for certain specific ECN's or Selectnet trades. I may be wrong on that, so you should check out their website. Just do the WWW thing before their name. Those cheaper commissions may help your net, also. I should also tell you that I know a bunch of people doing very well with MB Trading and JPR, even some who are scalping. Frankly, scalping isn't for me, but perhaps you haven't researched the area well enough. I just don't know what kind of preparation you've done prior to beginning trading, but you can't learn too much. Forgive me if that isn't an area you have been lax in. I think you should also give Steve a call, and maybe he can help you out, in terms of you becoming a client, maybe even becoming a swing/position trader. It's not anything to be embarrassed about if you find that daytrading isn't for you. It isn't for many. Frankly, some people are proud to say it isn't for them. You may be one of them. One other thing I would suggest, and I do it here because I know Steve to be fond of the guy I'm gonna recommend, if you haven't already seen me hyping him elsewhere. His name is Baron Robertson, and he runs a site called The Elite Trader, at elitetrader.com. There's tons of info there, as well as an advanced daytrading course that is enormously helpful. Also, there is a chat room you can hang out in during the day, for free. Baron also will answer any question asked of him honestly and helpfully, via email, or in the chat room, which also holds a roundtable discussion on Tuesday nights at 8:30PM. Hope all of this helps. By the way, you can also check out Yamner's site, where there is similarly a wealth of good info. Steve can give you the specific URL's. Len