I looked into Hold Brothers over a year ago when they operated as On-Line Investment Services, Inc. and was very tempted by the trader-centric service, technology, tools, and commission structure offered for the higher-volume trader. The shortcoming was that they did not offer remote trading. Hold Brothers is now set-up for remote trading and they have released their new trading software Graybox. From screenshots and descriptions, Graybox is competition for RealTick, particularly in the area of order-entry, but it does appear to make some tasks cumbersome. http://www.holdbrothers.com/graybox_4-9.html Anyone having experience with Hold Brothers and Graybox care to provide some feedback regarding the company and software?
I was just looking at them too. I'm planning on opening an account with them soon, so I can update in a week or so. Yes, it looks like there is a hotkey for every possbile execution. But it looks like you can place orders with your mouse also. I've never been comfortable with the idea of having just about every key on your keyboard capable of sending an order. But soome of the best traders, eg the guys who use Watcher and similar platforms, trade from their keyboard only. Also I noticed that they don't have charting. I don't know if you can get esignal or something else that will integrate with their software. But it's a pain in the butt not having your chart linked to a level 2 box. Their commission structure (no ticket charges) and order entry capabilities really caught my attention.
This looks like a very complete execution system. I like the $.015 per trade with a $1.50 minimum, but I was disappointed to see they charge $250 per month for level II data fees (which they require) unless you make 200 trades per month. (not really my trading style) If that $250 included a decent charting system I would be sold.
I have been using Graybox since its inception. It had a few problems at first, but the programmers have worked that out well. I scalp, so software is key. The way graybox allows you to set up your keyboard any way you want it is a huge advantage. Some of my fellow traders were used to other software packages and they didn't want to learn new keystrokes, so graybox is created to where they can all set it up to match their old strokes. Also, you can use a mouse, but that would kill a scalper. You could have a function on practically every key, but no one wants that. I personally use only about 8 -10 keys in addition to the arrows and number pad. It is a nice setup with access to six ecns direct. one nice feature of Graybox is the blast keys where you can send out all ecn orders at a designated price, or orders to everyone on the bid offer, or you can set it up for big moves when you want to preference everyone and send out all ecns for as many levels as you desire. Overall, Graybox is a nice piece of software for scalpers, and it should work real well for other traders as well. The charts don't link, but we use realtick for charting along with the Graybox, so you just have to set up realtick where you can access the charts you want fast. The order entry and execution of Graybox is far superior to Real tick. I hope this helps you a bit.
Speedracer Are you trading in house? From the website it sounds like they offer Real Tick charting to in house traders only. I saw that they have a lot of proprietary order entry functions, like the blast key that you mentioned. Do these complete orders just as quickly if you would enter trades directly through each ECN? I mean, if you send a blast order, and there are a few ECNs on the inside, will you get filled instantaneously? (Assuming, of course, that you're first in line)
The blast functions send all the ECns direct so you get them just as fast as sending them individually to an ECN. The advantage is you hit them all at once and take out the whole level if you want. You can send just ECNS out or just MM's or both, depending on which function you use. They are all available. I am not sure what is offered to remotes, because I trade in house. The software has worked well with the change to decimals. No noticable problems that I have heard of. Personally, I hate the change to decimals because it has killed several stocks I trade, but atleast the software is working. Hope that helps.