Have they said that they are going to fix any of these issues or are they not concerned about it since being taken over by Sungard?
waggie I do not even have s&p futurs quotes. I have the cash quote is that what you were referencing. two- I have no stake in the management there but after running an office for a few different firms and using many different platforms. I have never traded on a platform that comes close to hammer for speed and reliability. If I thought I could have competed with it I would have but I wanted to use it. Could the watcher stuff be as fast maybe, faster I doubt it. almost everything else lags it. My friend and former tarder has started a new firm and I told him I would not trade with him till he was as a good as the hammer.
The bottomline is that the Cytrix-based version (which is the Hammer version that all of your REMOTE traders use) is extremely long in the tooth. To pay $100.00 per month for Hammer AND another $165.00 per month for decent charting (Realtick or E-Signal ) is ridiculous. And yet Bill Meyers the President of Assent has told me on several occasions that his traders tell him that they only want TICK CHARTS, and nothing more. Yeah, right! Assent has known for sometime that there are capacity restraints regarding Cytrix-based Hammer. They keep saying that they are going to add more severs to handle the "bottlenecks", but this is the kind of "talk" that most of us traders have been hearing for the last couple of months. I'm not here to "bash" Assent. I just have a hard time understanding why they can be so insensitive to the needs of traders. Back to trading the futures~!
waggie informed me that the spx symbol is suppossed to be a futures quote. If that is true that I was wrong for correcting him. However, in my defense everyone uses spx as the cash. two I use the vpn and I used it in the san diego office. So my above comments were about the office hammer and then vpn hammer.
From what I understand, the VPN version of Hammer is very stable. I have never spoken negatively of this platform. As anyone that has read my postings on this thread can see, I have been questioning Assent's support of their Cytrix-based version of Hammer - - - the one that they offer REMOTE traders. Funny how the San Diego office of Assent has come to Hammer's rescue with so many POM-POMS, yet these same cheerleaders were unaware that Hammer carryies S&P futures quotes. Interesting. I must be some sort of JUNIOR odd-lot trader, right BJ? GET REAL.
I average about 20 round-turns on the S&P E-Minis and 50 round-turns on the T-Bonds from my home. Don't forget, ROLLOVER DAY is tomorrow!
There are two remote applications through Assent they are VPN and Citrix VPN is supported by the Hammer support Desk Citrix is supported by by a remote group at the Assent Montebello office Both the VPN and Citrix will soon become one and will use SSL. If you do not know what SSL is then I'll explain it in a nutshell. Its the future, it's better than both VPN and Citrix. And it is already in use by Assent..and is currently being used by Brut for their institutional business (which was set up by assent and supported by assent also) The Citrix support team will soon join the Hammer support team in Hoboken more than doubling the size of the support desk. True...charts are crap. But Assent and Esignal have struck a deal and Esignal pro charts are now being offered to in house traders and soon to be remote traders also, these charts link with the Hammer system. There is also another application which is offered by Assent called Anvil. This application is just as fast as Hammer. It uses the same back end and is a thinner client and uses less CPU. Yes there was a major outage of the system not that long ago. The hammer does not, repeat does not go down every day. It has its bumpy days, but they spare no expense on getting brand new servers and equipment when it is needed. The only servers that tend to go down from time to time are the developmental servers that are used for black/grey box trading. Go find another firm that offers two platforms both as fast as hammer and anvil and as reliable and I'll pay you.
In house traders do not use VPN. they connect directly to a local server. Remote traders use VPN and or Citrix fact. Ordering new equipment takes time New lines (weeks at least), brand new servers (a week)