Yeah, 10 years ago, there were human's still doing alot of the clerical work, filling orders, etc...I still remember in 98 when anything under $10 r/t in the e-mini's was a great rate...
the reason 2011 rallied from lows is because QE was announced; don't think another QE is coming anytime soon
I remember back in 98 and 99 when I first had an online broker, I thought damn this is so cool, I was saving lots of money because when I first started trading back in the day I used morgan stanley dean witter, I wish I held onto some of my statements just to see what I used to pay.
yeah, no kidding. I remember in those days, the online entry systems were extremely "glitchy". There was one futures broker that was renowned for screwing up orders and you would wind up with "out-trades"...literally your statement might arrive by mail three days later and you'd find out you were long or short some s&p futures...
ouch, I dont recall that. maybe because I only traded stocks....I had National Discount Brokers as my first online broker, I thought it was so cool, and not only that but they didn't have pattern day trader rules back then, you could make as many trades as you wanted, now you need an account with more than $25k....