Ameritrade stiffed me on a cover today when I watched the trade price float right through my limit order price. I cancelled the order and figured I'd go 'market' instead only to have my cancel order sit in the 'pending' queue for 8 minutes. So, I'm saying goodbye to Ameritrade and replacing it with a direct access package. I've heard good comments about eSignal. Is eSignal just a data provider, or can you trade with them as well? If I sign up with eSignal, do I have to also go sign up with a direct access broker? CybertraderPro has also caught my attention. I thought they were a discount broker, but their website claims they're direct access as well. The price is right, and they have some tools I'd like to check out, like the auto-trailing stop-loss feature. Has anyone used these guys? Are there any other packages that I should take a look at?
eSignal is not a broker, so you will still need a brokerage account with a direct access broker. I was also with Ameritrade/Freetrade and got sick of the bad fills and switched to Interactive Brokers about 2 weeks ago and couldn't be happier. The platform is nice and easy to use and the fills are SUPER FAST! -FastTrader
You can use eSignal with CyberTrader trading capabilities integrated right in. That way, you can use both. Or, you can go with CyberTrader by itself. IB is fast but if you are comming from Ameritrade, you may find customer service a necessity, of which Cyber is known to have excellent support over IB.
MB Trading is also an excellent alternative PointDirex also offers ET members special pricing.... let us know how this turns out
I thought I'd also mention, I currently have Qcharts as well, but I'm not overly impressed with their reliability. I wouldn't mind replacing them with eSignal. I went and signed up with IB. Their little java tool is cool, but I think I'd rather use Quotetracker like I was using with Ameritrade. We'll see what happens. I'm definately in my 'discovery' phase trying to figure out which software combinations I like the most. I'll keep you guys posted.
We work with a number of them mentioned here, MB, IB, Cybertrader, & optionXpress. Some of these brokers will pay for your eSignal fees if you are an active trader: http://www.esignal.com/partners/brokerages/default.asp We plan to announce a few more direct access brokers working with eSignal in the next few weeks. Chuck Vist us @ http://www.esignalcentral.com/
Check out eSignal. I have worked pretty closely with the team over there. As Chuck mentioned, they have alliances with several broker dealers. Give it a look see.