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

To: Mama Bear who wrote (9887)	10/1/1998 4:22:00 AM
From: Susan S.	Respond to of 16892

Barb, the minumum amount to open a Watcher account is $75,000 (at least the last time I checked). Their commission rate is 2.5 cents per share if you trade remote. (If you trade at their office in New York City, it's 2 cents per share). They do not charge for the software or level 2 data feed, but this is offset by the fact that you have to set up a long distance number to have a dedicated phone connection with your modem. This runs me $275 to 375 per month, depending on how much I log on. This also means you probably need to have two computers going, one for the DOS-based Watcher system, the other for your Windows-based programs--chat rooms, other brokerage account, SI etc. (You could use just one computer and switch back and forth from DOS to Windows but I found that to be too time-consuming.) On the surface this is definitely not a cheap setup, especially compared to Datek Online. However, because of the instant executions and being able to short sub-five dollar stocks, you get lots of extra opportunities that Datek can't provide, and this more than makes up for the commission difference and extra computer. About six months ago, I did a little experiment--put equal amounts of money in my Watcher and Datek accounts. The Watcher account consistently returned 20-50% more every month compared to the Datek account. But I still like my Datek account and use it regularly for certain position trades. After all, where else can you trade 5000 shares for just ten bucks? Regards, Susan

To: Mama Bear who wrote (9887)	10/3/1998 2:33:00 AM
From: peter michaelson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

Sorry Barb.... Well, the last of the red hot Datek lovers (me) is getting a bit disenchanted. I had 4986 shares of TTF bought in today, with no notification received. They claimed an email was sent to me, but I did not receive and I receive confirmations every day. I also had my buying power suddenly reduced to negative territory as the rest of my TTF became non-marginable on the server I use (had been so on other servers for some weeks!). When asked what my buying power was, both Datek people said it was way positive!! The two young guys with whom I spoke were polite enough, but simply had no satisfactory answers to offer. I think they're trained to just hang on the phone with you giving useless responses until you give up. peter BTW, the name of the compliance officer at Datek is Jerry Duhovic.