i would like to tell anybody who is interested that datek have a promotion of 1 month free trades or( 500 trades) when you open a new account. I hope that this will help somebody to save money. promotion code DMR
From what I hear, Datek aren't exactly the most reliable broker, in terms of how often their servers are active during trading hours... its little use having free trades when you can't trade...
A couple of years ago I had an account at Datek and was very disappointed. Many annoying things about their software, constantly requiring confirmation on every single order, inability to send them a short order on a downtick (I don't mean execute the order, I just mean send it). In fact, you could not even place a short order after the market closed -- for execution the next morning -- if that stock closed on a downtick, customer service that was often rude, systems that went down with frightening regularity, etc. etc. I know people are attracted to their free streaming quotes, but even that java applet used to lock up on me frequently. In all, a very unpleasant experience.
i have the impression that their servers are down 50% of the time markets are open. also, it took 8 weeks and at least 5 requests to make them close my account. also, i have heard in the past that datek does not stick to all the advertising-promises they make.