Dear Traders, Friends, I want to know how many of you, would be willing to join another Broker Company, which would be much reliable. And if you want to move to New Broker, what would you be looking to get? Would u want tight spreads, or want good services, with Best Spreads, We collect Surveys, so your post would help. rgds PHILIP JB USA
Conditions: (1) No JAVA or other similar proprietary software; (2) Runs on linux/unix, distributed like an rpm. May also run on M$ and other proprietary OS, but I can't care less. (3) Fully portable - no M$ development tools dependency, only GNU; (4) API, not unlike TWS but WITHOUT the for trading USELESS charting/backfill clutter they added over the last year or so; (5) API geared towards automated trading - possibility of automated logon using standard security tools. Full support to help users quickly re-obtain control in case of a technical failure
One thing your forgot to mention is which instruments are you talking about? I guess any and all, but then posters should specify which ones. Also, except for spot FX, brokers have no control over spreads. Btw, I'm more than happy with my current broker.
I second all of the above. Additionally, I would like to see: (6) A trade platform that is thoroughly tested before all releases (7) A 24-hour toll-free customer service phone number that is promptly answered by courteous and knowledgeable staff (8) Ability to speak directly to management if requested (9) No charges for excessive messaging (10) Ability to place trades during early morning hours with INET and ARCA (11) Autologin ability - a must for those that want it (12) No charge for phone orders (13) Stocks and Futures, including Open Pit orders (14) Real-time (ballpark) account balance that always shows in upper right corner of trading platform (15) A Market Data line that shows the price the instrument executed at, and an execution summary that can be set to number of hours and days. (16) No auto-logoff or ability to cancel auto-logoff (17) 1/2 hour maintenance at most with maintenance being done between 4:15-4:45pm CST(Chicago time). That is 15 min after U.S. stock market closes, and 15 min before Globex re-opens at 5pm - a perfect time. (18) Acceptance of email instead of a trouble ticket system. (19) Reliable server connections (20) A broker that shows they appreciate your business NOTE: These suggestions all stem from my problems at Interactivebrokers.
- execution latency - correctness and understandibility of statements - traders outside the US do not need a complex reporting system - safety of funds if providing a "basic datafeed" then no compression of data and historical data in same format because trading requirements "morph" all the time NO charting and other bells and wistles, just a basic trade entry /exit interface a backend trade database which is NOT SQL based ( so that the connection can stay up 24 hours AND less latency ) ( some subtle distinctions here to be made eg. the customer information database needs to be SQL based, the average SQL query takes 8 reads or more.... ) vital analitics
this entirely depends on what markets / instruments one trades. For currencies this is the right timeframe, for the indexes this can be different and for markets on other exchanges this is unacceptable. Hence the 24 hour up time required. One does not want to have change from server to server because one wants to trade a different market... (eg trade Hong Kong, Australian or European markets) Main interest for me is in futures (indexes and currencies).
I trade mostly futures too, and I thought this timeframe would also be good for futures trading since most futures don't start trading again until 6:30pmCST. Anyhow, being an IB U.S. customer, changing to the Hong Kong server does not work for me either. The 24-hour uptime sounds even better, if it is possible. Here's another request: ... ability to work with trading platform on weekends and/or off-market hours
i've changed brokers only when problems at the first broker became so bad that i couldn't deal with it anymore. the first one was etrade (yeah, i know) around 1998, i think. i couldn't take site freeze-ups and what i found out was selling their order flow. the second was ab watley. site instability, unavailability of stocks to short, and a feeling from their workers that there were much bigger problems there (which there were). i've now opened up a second account at another brokerage which supplements my main account. that doesn't really answer your question, but i just know that, no offense, as long as my brokers don't screw things up and remain competitive, i'll stay with them.