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

To: henry jakala who wrote (10063)	11/3/1998 12:03:00 PM
From: Michael Elizabeth Chastain	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

I have seen ghost orders, too. I have put in limit orders on slow-moving stocks in the middle of the day (some as slow as 10-20 trades per day). My order goes unfilled, while someone else gets a trade at the same volume and price as my order within one minute. I have seen this more than once, in more than one stock. More and more, I am coming to regard Datek trading as akin to selling naked put options. I realize a little bit of savings with each trade, but I'm exposing myself to hundreds of dollars of risk on their unavailable servers and strange order execution. I'm going to start looking for another broker.

To: henry jakala who wrote (10063)	11/4/1998 9:18:00 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 16892

Ghost orders, front runs. I watched this as early as may or june. I have seen things like: 1) Enter 700 shares at 10 3/8. There is a best bid for the 700 shares. But it is not mine. I withdrew the order and drop the price instead of improving it. The other order is withdrewn quickly. 1b) Enter 700 shares at 10 3/8 if the price is 10,25 x 10,75. Sure there is a bid of 10 7/16 and a ask of 11 with sizes 1x10 within the next minutes, especially when your order is marked "cover buy". 2) Enter 700 shares. There are fills for the 700 shares, maybe only 300 or 500 shares at limit price. Not one, but two or three, still no execution of my order. I withdraw as there is nothing behind my order. Who bought??? 3) Enter 100 or 200 shares of a pricey, but not very actively traded stock. You get 10 shares or 110 shares and your order is slashed as it is no longer a round lot. In fact, the new limit price is worse (lower bid, higher ask, whichever applies) than yours. It happened to me 3 times yet. I can sit around an wait with the mutilated order or make a new round lot or - what works, add a new order to get a round lot. Makes still no sense, see 1). But pay a new commission. That definitely changed my trading style. I avoid thinly traded stocks with huge spreads as it makes no sense to split the bid/ask anywhere and resorted to stocks with closed quotations and per-hour volumes exceeding 500 thousand. So I started to trade only the most active. Even better is the NYSE. For NYSE or AMEX the executions are fine and at market prices, rather than limits. It is completely different. I'm looking for a replacement soon, best with ability to trade options, too. C.