There was a time when I watched Level II quotes for T-Bonds and for E-Mini S&P. Without having an additional crystal ball it does not help anything in trading.
depth of market is absolutly a priority for arbitrage, but apart from that - i have not been able to correlate anything on it to forcasting a market move due to strength or weakness in the volumes has anyone?
Since readers of this thread may feel that def is biased I as a third party must say that def is understating the importance of hot keys for trading (scalping). It is absolutely an AWESOME feature that is so simple yet so effective.
def I have clients who were past traders at IB, but left because they lost $7,000+ on one trade or across many trades because IB's system "went down" for the whole day and they could not get through to anyone at IB on the phone. If they did get through, whoever they spoke to could not confirm their position. Low commsisons are not everything! Craig
craig, technical problems are obviously a real pain when you lose money and certainly an important consideration in light of your point, will you indemnify your accounts against any loss due to technical problems?
stevet I think you know the answer to that question. The point is lower commsions do you no good if there isn't any backup when the platform goes down! If you trade at IB you know what I am talking about. Craig
I think stevet has a good point. If you insist on harping on IB's technical issues, that means you think the firm you represent is far superior in terms of stability to IB. In that case, why don't you put it in writing and guarantee all losses suffered due to technical malfunction.
No firm will put that in wrinitng because no one is perfect. If IB is so great why don't you ask them to put it in wrining? My point was we have much better customer support than IB. Try calling us at 800-634-9466 and see how quickly a broker who can take your order answers the phone. Or email us at info@apexfutures.com and see how quickly you get a reply during business hours or you can even Yahoo! Messenger us at ApexFutures_com and see how quickly you get a response. Then try the same thing at IB and see how long it takes? Let that be your proof. Craig
Online Brokers with a lot of customers will all have similar problems when the online platform goes down for all customers at the same time. How could you pick up the phone in such a case if you had a lot of cusstomers calling you at the same time ? Best solution might be two independent platforms. Yes, I can see that you provide something like that (JTrader plus RAN).
craig i am not saying IB is great at all - i was just responding to your point if your system was down - and it was possible to get hold of you quickly - are you able to get someone out of the trade? and as it happens - why should a customer pay for your or IB's technical problems?