My quotes were solid today. There's an option in the Setup/Server dialog that lets you choose Graybox Quotes (GQ) or RealTick Quotes (RQ). At first, the tech support said I had to use GQ to trade NASDAQ and RQ to trade NYSE and AMEX. I thought that was ridiculous and tried sending a Smart Order for a NASDAQ stock using RQ (the quotes were coming in fine). Sure enough, Graybox crashed. Recently, they said that I -can- just stay on RQ to trade both, so I tried it again today and Graybox crashed again. But only on the first try. After restarting, I traded a few stocks OK, and RQ didn't freeze like GQ. Let's see if this holds tomorrow. Speedracer, what you describe sounds like a real pain and prone to errors. I suppose with experience it gets easy. But what if the higher level ECNs move while you're hitting the lower level ones? Wouldn't it be easier and more accurate to hit multiple ECNs at once? I agree that mjt's Smart Limit Order idea would be great if implemented. Also, setting the limit price by clicking in Level II would speed things up.
You guys both have valid points. Actually, traders have complained for months about the Smart order system not working the way it should, the way you describe it. They keep saying it is being worked on. Klaorman, the process I described can be prone to errors. I can manage the keys very well now and don't have many problems. I started out picking off ecns the way I described trying to limit what I got. Now I basically ALT1 90% of my trades getting in, which sends out all the ecn orders to the price set and I also hit the MMs on the keypad. By setting the selectnet preference to Inca, it will start on the Inca box and then move along the ECn bar only. By setting it to selectnet, it does as you say, starting in box 1 and moving down with every enter. This is similar to the Hammer softwares selectnet entry which is very useful. I don't know which way I like best, and often switch between the two. Managers act like they listen to traders, and for the most part they do a good job, but their hands are tied because the tech guys have to create the software options we want, and they seem to really drag their feet on alot of issues.
klaorman Just to clarify, it looks like you're keeping it on RQ the entire time, is that correct? And you are trying to see whether that will give you more stable quotes?
mjt, Yes, I'm keeping it on RQ the whole time. How were your quotes today? Did you use GQ? Did you try out Blasting or Smart Orders? Speedracer, With ALT 1, the maximum quantity in the Trading Options dialog is ignored, right? So you can buy more than you really want? The programmers seem to add new features without fixing old bugs. In 2.4.2, the proper saving and loading of layouts still doesn't work and Swipe settings still don't stick. The tech support guy swears that the layouts work correctly in-house, but you've already said they don't work you, correct? They also introduced a new bug whereby the symbol in the initial Level II window can't be changed unless you close the window and open a new one. Tech support acknowledges this bug.
My quotes seem to be working fine. I've been using GQ. I haven't been trading yet; I'm scared I'm going to hit something and place an order. (I inadvertantly bought 1500 JNPR the other day, and that was when I was on the phone with someone showing me how to place orders.)
I spoke too soon. I just came back from a break and my level 2 is frozen. I just switched to RQ. Let's see what happens. How do you refresh your data? In the manual it says to go to your position box and hit ctrl d. That never works.
1500 JNPR?? :eek: Did you make a profit? On 2.4.2, click the second button on the toolbar under the menubar to bring up a dialog box and then click on Reset Connection. The older version has the same button, but I'm not sure if it brings up the same dialog. In that version you can right click on the main window and choose Setup/Server (or something like that) and then click on Reset Connection. Today RQ was going along great so I made a few trades, but later whenever I tried a Smart Order or Blast Graybox crashed. I saw your message here so I switched to GQ. Those quotes looked fine today, but I didn't trade anymore. But you froze on GQ, so it looks like if we use GQ, we risk frozen quotes and if we use RQ, we risk crashes. Hmmmm, which is the lesser of two evils?
Klaorman and mjt, You guys should be getting some of the millions of dollars that Hold Bros. are claiming to be putting into development. Is there a satisfied remote trader out there using Graybox? What does Hold say about this?
Actually I made $50 profit, but I generated a margin call since I only have $25K in that account. Are you going to look for greener pastures if their software doesn't improve? I plan on evaluating whether to stay with them at the end of the month.
You got a margin call? Sounds like Graybox doesn't check whether you have enough buying power before sending out an order. That's not good. I thought Graybox -was- the greener-looking grass! I split half my account from Tradescape to try out Hold Brothers. When Graybox breaks, I trade with Tradescape. I could stay with Hold Brothers for awhile to see if they improve, but the $250/month charge hangs over my head and is a big consideration. Maybe I can get them to waive that charge because of faulty software and data feed... What else is available? I tried RealTick awhile back and, while they do have hotkeys, they don't have the Super Dooper Smart Order that we want. I had asked about quick order entry with RealTick before, and zboy had responded with a setup that can get orders out in 2 mouse clicks, but I was never comfortable with that method, and besides, the $24/trade that MB Trading was charging then was just killing me because I trade small shares. Tradescape's interface ideally has 2-click functionality, but usually I have to click more (to set number of shares or click B or S to change the action button to Buy, Sell or Short) on the super-tiny buttons. But the price is right, so I put up with it for now. I've asked them a few times when their keyboard-controlled Lightspeed will come out, but they always said "in 2 or 3 months" or to check their webpage. Finally, after I said don't give me your canned answers again, they said Lightspeed is currently only available for onsite traders, but a new version of Tradescape will be coming out "soon" that will incorporate some features from Lightspeed. I hope they add hotkeys and a Super Dooper Smart Order. What we really need is a trading interface that can read our minds. Mouse clicking is too slow. Even hotkeys are slow if you haven't really learned them yet. But imagine thinking "BUY 1000 XXXX 40.75" and having your software instantly execute your order. Of course, we'd have to control our random thoughts ("I think I'll take a million IBM."), but with a little polish, a mind reading interface can work wonders. I think I'll go do some programming now...