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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yoseph Seyoum who wrote (5028)	2/8/1999 12:23:00 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13953

Yoseph, you should not rely on "The Pulse" level II quotes when placing orders. This feed, from Bridge Data, seems to fall farther and farther behind real-time the longer it is running. Occasionally, it keeps up with the clock for hours, but not often. I have no idea, BTW, whether it gets bogged down at the source (Bridge's server), at my ISP somehow, or as a result of the massive memory leaks from crappy NSCP software (the more memory I put in my machine, the more it sucks up). Suffice it to say, one should not assume the data is timely. Besides, on actively traded stocks, you can judge the timeliness of the quotes by looking at the time of the last trade. In any case, when you placed the order, did you not look at the ask price shown on the order preview page? If that said $19, you have a better argument. Still, you need to look at "time-and-sales" for the stock from the time of your order (now, when ETrade returns the order number, they give you the time the order was entered - it's worth noting the time because you can pull the time-and-sales yourself from "The Pulse") to see what trades went off ahead of you. If the next trades reported after your order went in were at 23 7/8, you have no case (IM non-legal O). That said, this does not mean you should not be pissed off. If ETrade is going to offer "Real-time Level II" quotes, but the service is unreliable, that, IMO, is a reflection of the company's attitude about customer service - that appearances are more important than actually delivering on the promises. Also, their inability to report to you the status of your original order when you spoke with a live broker is, IMO, inexcusable. Finally, at the risk of sounding condescending or like an EGRP apologist, I have to say you were lucky to escape with such a small loss considering where JBOH is now (had you known you paid 23 7/8, would you have sold right away or waited, hoping for a rebound?). Perhaps you should just chalk it up to experience - you've learned that you should be more careful because E*Trade couldn't care less. Just my 2 (or perhaps 5) cents, Bob PS: The foregoing editorial commentary should not be construed as legal advice. ;-)