All good points angel and I will try and answer what I can, sounds like you havenât seen the demo page of freetradez trading section, that would explain a lot. Their "Tradegatez" panel has several sections (it looks a lot like cybercorp's platform) it provides both level I, and level II quotes. If you have ever seen Island's quote book display or on any streaming system you must enter the stock symbol (I.E. pull up a quote) in order to generate an individual streamer. Entering a symbol on freetradez system will generate both the level ones, and twos of that stock and directly above, and below the symbol are banner ads, one triggered off of the stock symbol and the other from your demographic information. These ads will stay on screen until a new symbol is entered, triggering new ads. I'm sure that you donât make a trade EVERY time your alert sends you to a stock; you enter the stock symbol and view your streamer, then make a decision. I have spent time looking at Streamers just to check daily volume and where the trends are at, but I look at numerous stocks throughout the day without trading. The point is that it only takes 20 requests to cover the cost of level II'some people do that in an hour, yes there are lots of other costs to consider and therein lies the question, are enough quotes, or stock symbols being entered to cover those costs. Well, of the millions of current traders, and tens of million of future traders, how many will continue to use another broker if they can get prices just as good or better, executed just as fast or faster for free. *** P.S. *** Consider these two things angel; 1. If millions do indeed come to freetradez, and they are ultimately able to match orders within their own book, their execution time becomes less than a second and their prices unbeatable. 2. And, where better for an advertiser to promote their service or product than on a site with millions of users that: A) Have money to spend. B) Fit their specific target audience C) Are looking at investing in their company Can anyone else assure an advertiser that there ad will ONLY be shown to the most likely person to purchase his or her service or product.... the ultimate in cost effectiveness. Thatâs why they can demand a higher CPM. I'm sorry but I just love the plan, I think it's so simple its brilliant
up2par i didnt know that freetradez is going to be matching order from their own internal order book also. You are correct if this is so and millions do sign up this order book can rival the island order book very quickly not only because it will match orders from it sown internal order book but also match orders from other ecns and mm's as well as across global markets. There is no order book that i know of today that can do all of these tasks wallstreeterww
up2par - you must have a different method of trading. I don't "enter my symbol and view the streamer". I have multiple realtime charts, L2, and quotes running continuously. An alert just tells me to stop whatever else I might be doing and pay attention to something in preparation to trade. Not particularly effective for a daytrader to keep entering symbols every time they want to check the quote or L2 (which has to be continuous or its worthless). You're also assuming a $50 CPM advertising rate is achievable. Based on the reasoning, every brokerage and website like TheStreet.Com should be getting $50+ CPM, but they're not. But if it's really more like $5-20 CPM, then it'll take a lot more quotes to pay for things. Also a big assumption that "millions" will flock to them, let alone that if they did that their infrastructure could scale to handle them (a HUGE unknown). Lots of IFs in the Freetradz equation. Only time will tell whether it's just another good sounding idea that fails in the implementation.
I just telephoned FreeTradez and spoke with a very helpful representative. I asked him what was causing the delay in the launch. He said FreeTradez had chosen a new clearing firm that offered enhanced investor services. It'll probably be a week or so before FreeTradez has its full launch. From what I've read - the new clearing firm looks impressive... Miller,Johnson & Kuehn Inc http://www.mjkclearing.com
I like the EFT service offered by MJK... ---------------------------------------------------------- http://www.freetradez.com/logon/accounts/ach.pdf "ACH stands for (A)utomated (C)learing (H)ouse. It is a system designed to handle the transfer of funds between financial institutions without the cost of a wire transaction. With ACH, your money is automatically deposited in your account. There are no checks to deposit, no more waiting for your check to arrive in the mail, no difficulties in collecting your money if you have seasonal address changes or are traveling. Your money will be in your account two days from payment date. Just write a check or go to a cash machine. ACH is a fast, reliable way to get paid. You can also request to have bond redemptions, principal payments, and maturities automatically deposited in your account or choose the option to have us automatically charge your account for any purchases that you make." -----------------------------------------------------------
I noticed a slight change in the freetradez website today, I called and it appears they are about ready to release their software, I,m interested in any opinions about their sight or service, is anyone signed-up yet?
I'm cautiously optimistic that folks will be able to trade by 2002. Nah - just kidding. However, they do seem to be moving at a snails pace as far as a full launch is concerned. I did try out their online live chat. It's a pretty cool program. Out of all of the available chat rooms - it appeared I was the only one there. In the lobby - I asked a question figuring someone from FreeTradez may be monitoring. No answer. It didn't exactly inspire confidence. Hopefully, this is not indicative of the number of customers FreeTradez has. Try it out and see if you have the same experience.
Guys this whole thread just makes me sick. Why do you think anyone should offer "free trades" the last two membership on the NYSE was $2 million and $1.7 million respectively. It's not any cheaper to me a nasdaq MM. So what's with all of you ??? Is this a typical American thing ??? (Well I know there is a sucker born in every minute) but you guys should be savvier than that! There are no free trades unless you fork out the pro membership and have oodles of money (to be a nasdaq MM). Why you you geniuses think Fidelity will fork out 5-6 cents out for commisions.(Yes that's the industry standard for fund managers). It's laughable how long this moronic thread is going you folks debating this stupid issue. Anyway even it is was a free commission firm some of you still lose money there most likely ;-)
andrasnm - you missed the point - which doesn't surprise me in the least. The issue is the viability/non-viability of the business model to cover the necessary costs in order to offer zero commission trades to investors. This is not about trying to obtain a seat on the exchange or being a NASDAQ market maker - moron. Do you trade with the state of mind you were in when you wrote that post ?