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

To: Sir Francis Drake who wrote (11347)	3/24/1999 7:28:00 PM
From: The Vet	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 16892

On the subject of order handling with Datek. I have traded with Datek for about 2 years and at time I trade heavily, other times lightly. I have noticed ups and downs in the service over that time. The advent of the Island book and our direct access to it was a big plus for all Datek traders IMO. However you must be aware as to how Island is used if you want to take full advantage of it. It your order is marketable and can be filled on Island then you get the quickest execution imaginable. In fact you will not see your order appear on the Island book, just the matching order disappears the instant you confirm the order, even before the order confirmation comes back on your Datek screen. If you order is not marketable again it will be displayed on the Island book as soon as you place it and then you are at the whims of the market as to if, and when it will execute. The grey area is when you place a marketable order (either a market order or a limit order) that can not be filled either in part or in full on Island. These orders go out to the MM offering the matching price for execution. If that MM is honest and on the ball (a big IF with a lot of MMs) then your trade gets executed and Datek passes the confirmation back to you after they get it from the MM. Often on fast moving stocks the "outside" MM will duck your order either in part or in full, and then sit on it until the market has moved before they let Datek know what they did with it. I don't believe Datek is anything but an innocent party to this; Datek are really trying to get you a fill but the "outside" MM is just trying to scalp you. I suspect a lot of the traditional MM don't like Island and Datek and delight (and profit) by this practice. If the MM delays long enough and your initially marketable order is no longer marketable, then it gets routed back to Datek who then stick it back on to Island. This can take several minutes. How I trade around this: If there is no match on Island at your price even though the order is marketable and you are not at all flexible as to price then you have no choice but to take your chance. If there is a partial match available eg. You want 1000 shares but there are only 500 showing on the Island book, then put in two orders, the first to match the Island book exactly and the second for the balance. That way you get at least 1/2 your order instantly. It costs an extra commision but that is usually better than getting scalped by the outside MM. What I most often do is place a limit order which is just 1/32 or 1/16 outside the marketable price and therefore I get it on to Island immediately. Providing the market is not moving strongly in one direction I usually get a fill much quicker than I would have with an "outside" marketable order that does not go directly to Island. Once my order has been displayed to the world on Island those "outside" MMs no longer have a chance to play with it. They still may trade around you, but at least then you can see it happening. Island orders also cancel instantly so you can get them off if need be. I have played around with these strategies on NASDAQ stocks now for quite a while and I must repeat that I have never seen any case where Datek has intentionally tried to handle any of my orders in any way that I would consider improper. Those "Server too busy" messages are getting too frequent for my liking however and they really should be able to fix that. If they can send me that message then they should be able to build a system that actually completes the real task..