So I downloaded E*Trade Pro, their top of line Java based platform, mostly because I needed a broker who will let me trade OTC stocks without all the hidden fees. My normal broker is Tradestation with the 9.0 platform. I love it for the functionality and programmability (and executions are instant using limits at the bid for buys and ask for sells). But they don't do OTC. I basically wanted to find something similar to the Tradestation platform but at a broker that will let me play with penny stocks. I searched and didn't see another thread about E*Trade Pro so I'll just throw this up to share my experiences, good or bad. Why E*Trade? It was recommended to me by my current penny stock subscription service Guru. The main advantage is the flat fee ($8 if you're moderately active) no matter how many millions of shares per turn. Here is a screenshot of the main chart. I tried to get it to look like what I use in Tradestation. My only gripe is you can't put two indicators in one panel (volume and stocastic, for example) and I still haven't figured out how to get data to go all the way across the screen. Everything else looks pretty slick but a little quirky. The level 2, top gainers scanners, quick trade box and 1 min thru monthly time frames are all there, along with real time data. I'll keep this thread updated as I gain some experience with the platform. I kept an eye on it today and it looked like it will do the job.
So far so good. Level 2 got a little weird today and froze for a while, and the main chart doesn't show the current bid and ask like in Tradestation so it's a little more work to enter an order at the current ask. Tradestation is a little simpler in this regard because the current bid and ask are on the buttons in the trade bar at the top of the chart. No need to click anything to bring up a trade dialog, just click the ask, enter number of shares, click buy and hear "order filled" while the bug appears on the chart where you got in. Another little quirk with E*Trade Pro is when you switch from daily to 60min to 10min and back, the bar width is not the same, so you have to pull down another menu and select the time period. Tradestation is totally easier because the bar concentration stays the same over any time frame and you just hit the up or down arrow on the keyboard to stretch it out or squeeze it in tighter. None of this will get in the way of a swing trader but overall the Tradestation platform just flows better in real use, and would allow you to be slightly quicker on the draw.
Here's the level 2 this past Thursday. This particular penny stock can absorb about $6k of buying before moving the price. Some of them can double in a few dayz :eek:
Started executing OTC trades live this morning, using limits at the ask. First thing I notice is it took about 10 seconds for the quickest one to fill, the slowest took a few minutes because it ran up beyond my limit then came back down. Buying a non OTC small cap on Tradestation takes about half a second with a limit at the ask. Also no order entry bug on the chart after getting filled. Here is the status screen. I still can't figure out how to get the chart and level 2 windows to go away when I click on a tab to go to another workspace. This makes it cumbersome to switch between charts, level 2 and the position summary to see if / when you get filled. On the good side, there is a handy built in calculator on the order entry screen so you know how many $.0015 shares you can buy with $1000 :eek:
Just rang the register on one of the OTC's and same deal - about 30 secondz to get a confirmation when selling at the bid. Everything other than that looks pretty good. Maybe it's just the nature of OTC order routing, because I had the same experience with even longer wait times with my other discount broker.
Doing stock research tonight and the platform is working great, very quick to pull up a year's daily price data, then switch to hourly to make sure the wave count is right. I just hooked up another monitor to the laptop in order to solve the problem with the windows not getting in the way of each other when trying to switch from chart to level 2, order status, open p/l and position summary, etc. Now they're just all up in view like it's some kind of situation room (though nothing compared to a forex rig with 16 monitors and sunscreen).
First full week live now complete, and the platform worked fine. Last fill happened in a matter of seconds and I saw it on level 2 right after sending it out. So far the account is up about 15%. The penny stock universe was mostly dead this week.
Had to close a few waterlogged penny stox this afternoon for slight losses and the platform worked great with limits at the top of the range. One filled in a couple seconds, the other two needed some time for the market to arrive. I really like how you can see a trade (price & size) list on the level 2, to get a feel for when the chain reaction is about to begin or end. It would be a slight enhancement if the red / green color coding for this feature were tied to sales at the bid or ask, rather than if it is above or below the last price because I notice that sometimes the ask starts coming down even though buyers are still on the charge, and this shows up as red, even though buyers are the aggressors. Level 2 froze again for a while this morning so I just re-entered the stock symbol and it refreshed itself.
Etrade Pro is a good platform and their price for what you get is worth it! Making 30 trades per quarter to keep what Esignal charges $500 a month for is worth the trades. I love Etrade and all the free ETF trades and their awesome customer service! Etrade Blows the doors off Fidelity, Schwab and other junk, I love Etrade!
Yeah I like it a lot, too, overall. The only real problem I've had with it is that it can "misfire" during startup in the morning and self-abort (happened twice today), and it takes several minutes to do its thing before everything is ready to use. This can cost you 20+ minutes and is greatly annoying, if you have planned to watch the market open.