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

To: nick nelson who wrote (11616)	4/13/1999 6:28:00 PM
From: Keith Lenart	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

I share in everyone's pain and have a (long) Datek "horror" story of my own today. 1. I was trading NTBK, very volatile today. I shorted after a run-up and had a nice profit going as the stock declined slowly. The stock dipped sharply and I tried to cover to lock in a profit.... My order was active and marketable for at least 90 seconds, but it must have gotten lost in ROUTING HELL because it didn't fill. But by then the momentum had reversed and the price was bouncing. 2. I immediately cancelled the order and placed another cover order a few points higher. It too did not execute (although marketable for at least 45 seconds.) 3. Finally, I placed a third order "4 points" above the then current market. It took about a minute, but I was filled at just under my limit to close the trade at a loss of $300. (At the beginning of this fiasco I was up $2500.) 4. Worse yet, my original order, was still "canceling" in the open order section. I called Datek and got a busy signal twice. 5. 15 minutes later my order was STILL canceling as NTBK began to dive again. I got on the phone to Datek (this time got through) and waited on hold for about 2-3 minutes. You guessed it, the stock came down to my original limit order price and EXECUTED a buy!! I of course did not want the stock, since it was tanking, and fortunately was able to enter an immediate sell order to get rid of it for no harm done. 6. When I finally got through to a rep and recounted this whole problem, I was told that I should call anytime a "canceling" takes more than a minute. (Maybe I would if the line wasn't busy or taking a 5 minute wait!) I felt like I was being scolded for their system's hiccup. The rep didn't give me a good reason for the cancel getting lost in limbo and didn't even apologize for the mistake. This has been my first really bad experience with Datek, although like everyone else, I've suffered through other technical problems from time to time. I'm seriously considering closing my account and will probably do so if I encounter ANY further problems this month. One last thought ... what the hell good are Datek's tracking numbers if they don't help the system ensure fills and cancellations are properly executed?

To: nick nelson who wrote (11616)	4/14/1999 3:30:00 AM
From: Marc Newman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Yes, I just pay the money for the overnight delivery now. Worth the money to not have the aggravation of not knowing when the check will come. Meanwhile, my other account (DLJ) gets me a check through the mail in two days. Of course their accounts get updated at night, not real-time, so there is a disadvantage there. And Datek has a superior margin interest--however, my beloved TAVA is still non-marginable. Like NITE, it is not on their list of special requirement stocks. But there it was at $6 today and still NM. Really ruining a lot of my trading plans--killing me and I'm ready to cut my account back at Datek since TAVA is a nice big pct. of my holdings. Marc