"We are not after the hyper active day traders. " - BEN BRIGEMAN, EVP, HEAD OF SCHWAB INVESTOR SERVICES, CHARLES SCHWAB To find the quote, call up the following link & search for "cyber trader" (2 words) in the text & read what they finally admit. http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.asp?n=1&neID=20080417560.2_09a3b6b746ac5094 Apparently they no longer wanted the hyper active cybertrader day traders. It's odd that they advertise on this trader site. It also explains why doing basic things such as shorting thru ECN's wasn't activated thru Schwab before any Cybertrader elimination. That's something "hyper active daytraders", such as us, need, and a target audience, that according to that quote, is a group that Schwab aren't going after anymore. Why they weren't up front when the "migration" was first mentioned is a little disheartening.
I've heard that Schwab's clearing costs are not competitive with the true high-frequency shops (Genesis, Assent, RedSky, IB, etc.). Similarly, there was no technical reason (with their CyberTrader/StreetSmart software) for them to ban basket and API trading; from what their staff told me, it seemed that their back-end simply couldn't handle the volume. I suppose Schwab bought CyberTrader mostly for the software -- although they let CyberTrader coexist for 7 years before deciding to merge it out of existence as a high-frequency platform.
Well the way Schwab's system is set up, If you made more than 1 trade for 350 shares in and out totaling 700 shares a day based on the 200 trading days in a year. Guess what folks then your a Hyper Active trader. Maybe they should start their own dictionary for I know just swing traders that do more than that a year. Schwab would look alot better if they just said they are blatent $*^#ing liars! Maybe they would have more marketing success on the whole "Active Trader" speel if they started advertising in mouseville.
Charlie a little long in the tooth. Try something a little younger like Muriel Seibert. "I like swing traders"