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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/30/1999 3:49:00 PM
From: Sure Thing	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90042

Tim, "Which broker do you use." It's time for me to come clean! I use a discount broker. I have traded with Schwab for 10 years. Started trading electronically when they drop their rates to $30 per 1000 shares. "Are you happy with them." I'm luke warm about Schwab. The Schwab 500 team really tries to keep me happy, but the electronic trading can be too slow on busy market days. Also, their worthless software engineers keep installing new year 2000 code that crashes their entire trading system! What a pain!!! Schwab's reliability has decreased in the last 12 months. "How fast are your fills" Depends on the stupid software upgrades and high volume market days. Under normal conditions they fill within 60 seconds. But, I've had to wait half a day before they could tell me if my order was executed. "Are you getting alot of down time on busy days" Yes! But those are the days I call in the order to the Schwab 500 team. "About how many trades do you do a week" If you count my block trades that are divided between accounts, then it can range between 0 and 75 per week. "Where do I get real time quotes" I use Schwab's "watch list". "Where do I get real time charts" I don't have access to real time charts! Sure would like to have it with my new ADSL connection. "Why don't I switch to A.B. Watley" Because it would be a big pain in the ass to switch 15 accounts that I currently manage with Schwab. "Do I use Level 2" Not yet, but I have plans to hook up soon. "Am I looking forward to your web site" Yes. - Sure Thing -

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/30/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: gerard mangiardi	Respond to of 90042

Fidelity MSDW Executions are excellent with DW ok with fidelity. I do about 1 trade every ten days and thats too many. I think that the mistake a lot of people make is that they overtrade in spite of the fact that you don't really need a lot of good ideas to make money.

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/30/1999 4:27:00 PM
From: Dave Shoe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90042

1. which broker do you use: Datek. (NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ only, no BB access.) I use Quote.com Q-charts Premium for my realtime quote info. I'm very interested in moving toward level II, but will stay with this package until I learn more about the tactics of trading. 2. are you happy with them: Very happy, particularly with Datek's Express Server. 3. how fast are your fills: 25% show up on my Q-charts in 2-3 secs of hitting 'Enter'. Most within 10 seconds. If a market order takes more than 60 seconds (about 10% of my orders do) the $9.99 fee is waived, but I now realize that the broker will probably make money on scalping the spread (the delay gives them time to chain together a scalp operation - this is fun to learn). Still, I am amazed at how often Datek fills my order (market or limit) at better than market price. 4. are getting alot of down time on busy days: I don't remember any recent down time. On occasion I have trouble dialing in (all servers busy), and on rarer occasions I get kicked out, but more often the anomaly is sluggish trading. Trading is frequently sluggush in the first hour, and occasionally for a whole day. Usually it's fast. I always test the speed before starting the trading day. 5. about how many trades you do a week: 10 to 200 one-way trades per week. I'm presently revising my trading style, and expect to stay on the lower end of that number for a while. ----- I've used Schwab and E-Trade in the past and don't use them now. Their web pages (even their new ones) are too way too slow. Also, Schwab is overpriced for low-dollar stocks and E-Trade updates balances only in the evening, which makes daytrading difficult. I keep hearing good things about E-Trade, but I wish I could see them.

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/30/1999 11:48:00 PM
From: Kedels	Respond to of 90042

Using DLJDirect and very happy so far...about 2 years now. Only time I every had a problem was when I canceled an order and then later tried to place a new bid on the same ticker. Otherwise their execution seems to be great. As far as phone to broker service...forget about it. I have waited and waited and waited several times. I trade approx. once every two weeks. Don't have level 2 so its hard to see exactly how quickly they are filling me on a limit order...but aren't all brokers now promising 30 second market fills. Who needs that anyway! Your just going to get stripped at the market. Also, I have a close friend who does 2-3 trades a week and was with Discover...had major problems...they screwed him over a bunch of times. Don't even think about those robber barrons. Keith

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/31/1999 1:54:00 AM
From: LiveWire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

1. which broker do you use The Executioner 2. are you happy with them Happier now than I was at one point. If I were experienced enough when I started with them, I probably would have been happier. 3. how fast are your fills 1-3 seconds depending on market conditions in the stock 4. are getting alot of down time on busy days No. 5. about how many trades you do a week 50-100

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/31/1999 11:40:00 AM
From: easel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

Use Discover and am learning to hate them with intensity. Trades 100 weekly at times, Their book keeping is terrible, unable to keep up with balances online, long phone waits. Dislike changing, such a hassel, may be driven to it.

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/31/1999 12:20:00 PM
From: max power	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90042

tim, 1. which broker do you use waterhouse personal access trading software 2. are you happy with them no - the direct trading software used to be great,online trading, fast executions, real time quotes on portfolio's, position balances,updating schedule d,etc. - in the past month waterhouse has become nonfunctional 3. how fast are your fills difficult to say- use limit orders on most trades 4. are getting alot of down time on busy days yes - can't get through using software, web site down, busy signals at local waterhouse offices (2 in houston) 5. about how many trades you do a week 0 -6 currently evaluating other brokers - watley utrader more than i need at this point and does not work behind firewalls. datek, etrade, also seem to have a number of problems. i have gotten a lot of positive feedback on fidelity and will be talking to them tomorrow. glenn likes dlj and i will evaluate them also. regards, thomas

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/31/1999 3:03:00 PM
From: mlmpro	Respond to of 90042

1. which broker do you use firstrade.com 2. are you happy with them No. They suck in a big way. I started out with them because their commissions are low, and they trade OTC BB (which I'm gradually avoiding). You can almost be guaranteed to not be able to access your account or do any trading until 10:15 AM or at any other times when the market is busy. 3. how fast are your fills Extremely slow. If you try to place a limit order (especially in a stock moving anything above a snails pace) it's almost a given fact that your order will not be executed. Call up, and the "only thing they can do" is place a market order at the current price, or raise your limit price. Same thing in reverse on the way down. Market orders can usually be filled before finishing a cup of coffee, but I've yet to get filled at the current bid/ask. It's either to high on the way up, and always to low on the way down. At times, I feel this broker waits to the end of a run in a fast moving stock to fill an order. 4. are getting alot of down time on busy days I've conditioned myself to just hit the speed dial button on my phone, say "Need a broker immediately, website down" and place my orders on the phone. Question is, how frequently are they up? 5. about how many trades you do a week About 10 round trip daytrades, and 5-10 position/swing trades. I am planning on an immediate switch to mbtrading, with level 2 quotes and the whole nine yards, even if I reduce my daytrading and lean more toward position trading. I will leave limited funds in this account to satisfy my cravings for OTC stocks. Tim, you are 100% correct in stating that many are losing money due to improper tools and a poor broker. I've paid my tuition, and now I'm ready for a real setup. Also, I now adhere to a strict policy in stocks I play resulting from SI recommendations. These people are You & Jenna (#1 on my list), Wayne Rumbell & Rande Is. Please add my email to your list when you open up your website. It's official now, I'm no longer a lurker on this thread. Your request for broker information just got me so mad thinking about my losses due to firstrade that I just had to post. Thanks

To: Tim Luke who wrote (10688)	1/31/1999 10:11:00 PM
From: Jon Whit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90042

Tim, 1. Which broker? Etrade now, switching soon to MB Trading 2. Happy with them? Yes. For what they offer, it is good service. 3. How fast are fills? Normally less than 1 minute, but confirmation takes from 20 sec to 1 hour, usually 1 minute. 4. Down time? No. Just painfully slow web pages. 5. How many trades/week? About 10 Etrade is obviously not adequate for day trading, but it's a good place to start for swing trading and position plays. It is a real pain that the trading account is only updated each evening, but they claim they will be providing realtime accounting soon. It's ironic that I sit infront of my Gateway, running Microsoft Windows, using AOL, and Etrade, and I'm having a hard time finding good investments! Go figure!