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

To: GT who wrote (10426)	11/25/1998 12:55:00 PM
From: J_K	Respond to of 16892

I cannot recommend NDB - I used them for more than one year. They screwed me up bigtime when they were not able to execute stop sell orders - I really lost money because of that. Regards, Juergen

To: GT who wrote (10426)	11/25/1998 1:01:00 PM
From: Fred Puppet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

NDB vs. Datek NDB clears through Pershing, and Pershing is a market maker in a lot of NASDAQ stocks. For these stocks, NDB is already as good as Datek hopes to be (but charges twice the commission). When placing marketable orders over the internet, I often receive an email confirmation of execution within a few seconds. Canceling and changing these orders also goes quickly. At the open, there is never a problem getting marketable orders filled, but sometimes there is a 5 minute delay in getting a confirmation. On the other hand, if Pershing doesn't make a market in the stock, then they give the order to some other market maker. These orders can have delays of a minute or two when placing, changing, or canceling the order. Rarely, the non-Pershing market maker will decide to screw with you, and sit on your order to see which way the market moves, and only fill you if the market moves against you. I think they feel free to do this because they know that few retail customers will complain. I always complain if I should have gotten a fill and was cheated by the market maker. For example, if I bid 10 for XYZ before the market opens, it trades at 9 3/4 x 10 1/4 until 9:35, and then shoots to 12, I'll call to file a trade dispute. A few hours later NDB will call back and say I was filled at 10. I know that I wasn't filled near the open, but rather NDB worked something out with the market maker who failed to represent my order. This has happened to me about 15 times out of 1,000 trades at NDB over the past couple of years. Another example of NDB's virtue is when I placed an order to buy XYZ at 10 and ABC at 10, right before the open. That day NDB had a Datek-like problem where all the orders were stuck at NDB and could not be sent to Pershing. XYZ went up 10% and ABC went down 10%. So, I canceled my losing buy order on ABC, then picked up the phone to complain about lack of a fill on the winning order for XYZ. NDB's policy is that when they have a computer failure, they retroactively fill all orders that should have been filled, if the customer complains. The major downside of NDB is that you cannot sell short over the internet. You must call a broker and tell them what you want to short. Then they have to call Pershing to see if it is available. So, it takes 2-3 minutes before your order is finally placed. Also, the NDB web pages are slower to load because they have more graphics. NDB has a "secret" premier level of service for frequent traders. They don't advertise this, but sign you up if you trade a lot. NDB understands that a customer who makes several trades a day is a lot more valuable than a once a month trader. That explains why they called my at home to explain the problems and ask if there were any orders where I felt that I unfairly missed out on executions. When I call the premier desk, everyone is quite knowledgeable and helpful. When I used to call the regular customer number, they were unbearable idiots. That's where they start all the new trainees.