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Strategies & Market Trends : Systems, Strategies and Resources for Trading Futures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Teresa Lo who wrote (17683)	3/5/1999 8:21:00 AM
From: SE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

When CUBS goes down, I phone any orders I have in. Remember, CUBS only affects the S&P orders, not mini or others. IF CUBS is down, I do not do it via Leoweb at that point. Why I am not sure, because Leoweb still works, but it is simply a different method of getting the order to the traders. I guess at that point with SPOOs I prefer to know I am talking to someone that must report back to me. It is a person to person deal then and personal contact with any broker or trader I think enhances the chances of good fills and leads to less problems. Some of the electronic places I believe don't have backup for phone orders or if they do, they are severly understaffed and you might not get through or be placed on hold. ZAP maintains a good phone order system as well and it is no problem being answered on the first or second ring from my experience. I have only been placed on hold when my call did not relate to an order. With Leoweb, my understanding is the orders are printed and then delivered to the pit just like any other order. Of course fill times will be a bit slower as it is just like a normal S&P order, but again, I have not had any troubles with Leoweb or ZAP. With the bonds, trading over Leoweb is the same type of process. The order is printed, relayed to the bond trader who makes the trade, relayed back and the fill is sent back via LeoWeb. The fills there take some time (as compared to the mini), but I have not had a problem with my one bond trade. (HA - There is a track record!) Well, so far so good.....:)

To: Teresa Lo who wrote (17683)	3/5/1999 8:34:00 AM
From: doug-e-mini	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 44573

I.S. When the CUBS or TOPS system is down, the full size order is printed at the S&P desk and either arbed or run into the pit. The problem is that L-W gets overwhelmed by orderflow and they can't handle the volume, especially, when the market's on the move. The unreliability of the CUBS system has been a problem for a long time. You never know when it's going to crap the bed. It may work fine when you enter your position but then you go to take it off and CUBS is down. It's very frustrating and is one of the reasons I trade the mini. L-W claims the problem is at the Merc and not on their end. Speaking of the mini, you can also experience problems with electronic order execution there as well. Should the TOPS (Trade Order Processing System- it routes orders from your PC into Globex) go down, your order will print at the e-mini desk and be entered into Globex by hand. Again, they become overwhelmed by the volume and run way behind on order entry. At this point, your order is somewhat in limbo, should you want to cxl or change it. At least there is no CUBS involved with the mini and that seems to be where the majority of the problem lies. Here, the full size has the advantage because you can still use the phone and have them arb it in, should there be a problem with electronic order entry. The best fun I've ever had is when I had a position in the e-mini and Globex crashed, meanwhile, the full-size is still trading. I was stuck, couldn't do a thing. The broker's have their ass well covered regarding electronic order entry problems, as one would know if they have read the disclaimer. In general, I like the electronic system because of it's speed. Heck, I can enter an e-mini order and have my fill before the order desk has even entered my account number were I using voice/phone. It's certainly not without problems, though. But, electronic order entry is still fairly new so hopefully these bugs may get worked out.