any thoughts on datek for daytrading?? im thinking of using datek with daslinger, with qcharts to get started. is this a good route for a newbie, or should i go directly to direct access. been trading p/time with datek for 1 year. any thoughts appreciated.
What kind of daytrading are you thinking of doing? A couple trades a day, holding for a few hours at a time? Several trades a day, much shorter time frame? I think the more trades and the shorter the time horizon, the more you want to go with direct access. Do you know how Datek routes orders? What happens if there's no one at your price on ISLD? Does the order look at the other ECNs? Then market makers? If so, does it use SOES or Selectnet to fill that order? These are important question to answer if you don't know. If you're trading fewer shares, you may want to look at Tradescape. They're $1.50 per 100 shares with $1.50 minimum per ticket. I am in the process of setting up my account with them, and probably will use them more now instead of Interactive Brokers because they offer SOES as well as the option of preferencing a specific market maker. SOES is an automatic execution with market makers (with some limitations), while Selectnet gives the market maker the option of whether he wants to trade with you, and he has about 30 seconds (I think) to decide. And the Selectnet order can go from one market maker to another if the order gets refused, which can be unbelievably slow. IB is cheaper, but they use Selectnet to deal with market makers. The reason I mention these two brokers is that they are two of the few who don't charge a ticket charge on trades. (eg $15 per trade whether it's 100 shares or 1000 shares.) I don't like the idea of feeling like I have to enter and exit positions all at once. With IB or Tradescape, you can make 10 transactions at 100 shares each, and it will cost you the same as if you make 1 transaction at 1000 shares. I know commissions aren't everything, but when you start out (and even later) commissions can add up. And I've heard that Tradescape offers great executions. They have a 'best execution' feature that looks for the best price; I have yet to find out whether it uses SOES or Selectnet when dealing with market makers.
I was happy with datek for listed trades. They truely are the cheapest, and they use superdot just like everyone else. But you must use a direct access broker for everything else. The $5 you save for the trade is irrelevant if you are loosing just one 1/16. On many otc trades it is much more. Im very happy with cybercorp now. It is only $10 a trade for the first month as well. And the order entry platfor is quite good. Otherwise, any realtick broker should be fine. Good luck
JD I used Datek for many years. At one time they were the best around but now their service is outdated. It got to the point where the only way i could get a trade through was by using a market order. During crucial times you could never count on their service because their servers were to busy. There is no reason today, why anyone should have to use Datek. There are many EDAT brokers with reduce fees that provide excellent service. Try Ab Watley, they have a new 10 dollar fee or Suttononline 11.95. I use cybercorp. Do yourself a favor and avoid Datek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TAke Care Sterling
thanks for the info, very much appreciated. i was also looking at cybercorp,& mbtrading. both seem to be highly recomended. i have an account with datek now, and trade 3-4 trades a day, but i anticpate getting a lot more active and shorter term trading. so direct access is the next step. thanks for your help! jd
jd for further evaluation of Online Brokers, I'd check http://www.sonic.net/donaldj Good Luck & ------------------ Good Trading Privateer
Mjt just looked into Tradescape-they dont offer enough info-ie: 1 chart???-fixed screen--not enough to work with
jd, my only experience is with Datek - I will move to a direct access broker when I can I have made side-by-side comparisons of Streamer vs both QQL and PCQuote: 1) Streamer does not show all the transactions 2) Streamer is @ 1 second slower than QQL and PCQuote if you want to go short, it is necessary to run Streamer because an uptick, as recognized/displayed by Streamer, is necessary to short sell I use daSlinger and recommend it highly: 1)you don't have to re-enter your password for each trade, 2)you can change bid/ask prices with the mouse instead of the keyboard (much faster) and you can choose between fractions/decimal, 3)it has buttons for access to the major Datek functions (ie 'Open Orders') which seem to work faster than the corresponding Datek buttons...etc. etc. and it is very well supported good luck
Hi all, just want to inform those of you who trade with Datek, that QuoteTracker, a free quote & charting program, has recently added a direct-trade functionality for Datek-Customers, which allows direct order entry right away from the quote-line (in your RT-watchlist )by doubleclicking on the bid / ask.You can scale up / down your bid / ask / tradesize by a mouseclick ( scroll-lists ) Password has to be entered only once at the start of your trading-session and stays valid for the entire trading session. For those of you familiar with daSlinger : it works exactly the same way, but you don't have to switch between quote/chart windows and da Slinger for order entry. In addition, Quotetracker offers a lot of other useful functionalities, like RT alarms based on quotes, news, etc, research-links, news-service, RT Quotes for Indexes,links to historical charts and many more. QT uses RT quote-feed of Datek-Streamer(registered Streamer-users only )without a need to run the streamer java-application. QT can use multiple other quotefeeds from exchanges, brokers or quote-vendors from all over the over world. For more info, have a look at : http://www.quotetracker.com For free download http://www.quotetracker.com/beta
I'd also recommend the quotetracker. i'm with Datek and found it very awkward to have to keep switching screens between quote/trade and open positions etc. Also found software for Datek user at http://www.microdrive.com which is good - similair to quotetracker but none of the streaming stuff and charting etcetc. Quotetracker would be useful to many user since it can easily be set up to use data feeds from different sources (choose delayed quotes if you're mad enough!). Streaming charts, quotes, time and sales and so on - excellent (note this program does not directly give quotes etc but pulls them in from whoever you choose). Downloaded it on seeing good things on a message board, and am very happy so far - plus got reply to query nice and promptly. coops