Jtrader

I will tone it down and I was not being sarcastic.
Anyone that knows me, knows I am pretty passionate about this stuff.

But you can guess what my next line to you is.

I am off to the Hawks game, but if you want to see a small time IB in action stop by our office in the CME Building.

 

OH YEAH, NO SARCASM HERE.... GET REAL.

PERHAPS YOU SHOULD READ MY SIGNATURE LINE - YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN PASSIONATE AND OVERBEARING.

 

Well, I for one appreciate Riskless' posts. I had been trading equities with Terranova for about five years, and had recently moved to e-minis for obvious reasons. Terranova has outrageously high fees for e-minis. I came across ET, and read some of the posts about IB and poor customer service. At the same time I saw Riskless' post for FFasttrade. I checked out the website, and decided to try out their trainer. Unlike some other companies that just allow you to download their simulator, with FFasttrade, I had a live person call me, and who remotely set up (shadowed) the platform on my computer and was there to answer any questions I had.

Anyone who has used Realtick to trade equities knows its a top flight platform. I wanted nothing less if I was going to make a switch. I liked the FFasttrade (FFastfill) platform, and decided to open an account. In doing their due diligence, GNI found that some time ago I was listed as a director of a company in the UK that went insolvent, and I was prohibited from being a director for several years. GNI declined to open an account without knowing more details.

Riskless personally sent me an e-mail detailing the problem. I called and spoke with him at length. I followed up with a couple of e-mails to him, which he answered within a couple of hours. I really expected him to tell me to take a hike, that I wasn't worth his trouble. On the contrary, he was encouraging. I provided him with some additional information regarding my problem, and he took the ball and ran with it. He got GNI to open the account.

Because of Riskless' posts, I found a great platform, rock bottom fees, and excellent customer service.

 

Slapshot! A couple of posts ago I told you that I would tone it down just for you. I don't want to offend anyone and If I am bothering one person that's enough for me. Anyone that knows me personally, could probably tell you that the last thing I want to be known as is an overbearing prick! I meant what I posted.

If you take that as sarcastic, so be it.

However, if you want to get personal, please feel free to call me direct and give me Hell. You have my number!

 

Riskless,

I'll start out by making a public apology for my own abrasive delivery of an otherwise valid point. After re-reading this thread I am now aware that I came across with too much venom. So for that I am truly sorry - I would rather be part of the solution and not the problem. (What can I say, it was a full moon LOL).

So - a potential solution - since I do truly applaud a businessman's efforts to create awareness of products/services that benefit consumers (your product/service obviously has merit) AND I also believe in the unbiased, agenda-free exchange of information that a lot of us cherish on a forum like ET...

Instead of imposing your ads on existing threads that may or may not be closely related to your product/service line, why not just start a new thread once a week or so with a different headline? I.E.

"For those looking for fastest E-mini executions..." (week 1)

"Debate merits of futures platforms - what's best?" (week 2)

"Unhappy with your futures prices? check this..." (week 3)

etc. etc. you get the idea.

The benefits? You can still attract every trader (old and new alike) that has any interest whatsoever in changing or improving brokers. The ones that are perfectly content are not your target audience anyway, right? Are people really going to give up a great brokerage experience and software they are comfortable with to save .50 or 1.00 R/T and/or 2 or 3 10th's of a second in fills? Highly doubtful. Especially if they mostly use limit orders.

But anyone even slightly interested will take note - even people who are happy will at least click on the thread for one post to see if it is something new. When they realize it is you again, they will once again take note that there is an alternative out there should they become disenchanted with their current provider. Or need a second account for different trading styles.

People who have no interest whatsoever will just ignore it - no harm, no foul.

In the meantime you can express your passion for the e-mini's by participating in the threads as a trader, not as a businessman - because we do value your experience and enthusiasm for what you do. My guess is that it will enhance your credibility as well, gaining you even more business.

My prediction is that if you follow this strategy for a while your "hit rate" for new clients will increase substantially.

Allow the soft sell to work for you. "Attraction, not promotion".

Also, you will have a better handle on the level of interest your target audience has - i.e. service, fill time, price, software - based on the aspect of the thread you create.

Besides, you can still use the casual Don Bright method of slipping in an occasional 1 line plug in the middle of a post while avoiding the big hype stuff. (No disrespect to Don intended).

Best Wishes,

Paul

 

I personally wouldn't do business with any broker whore who gets into a sparring match on a message board.

Whore = flapping his jaws about his cheap r/t comm. without mentioning his b.s. add-on fee.

 

Here's the deal from my perspective, riskless. You shouldn't even be posting links to your site. Period. You say you will tone it down but your tagline for every post includes a link to the site. Please don't do this. We don't like it. Can you imagine what these forums would become if every vender populated these threads with their spam? Your comments on the software differences were fine being as you included comments that you contributed toward the development of the software. Just leave it at that and let the rest of us decide the significance of the claims keeping that in mind. I recently PM'd Barron in regard to a post I had written but didn't actually post because of these very issues. It was a link to Bernie Schaeffer's Market Outlook for 2003 which I thought was very insightful. The link was to a print page version with no other links to Bernie's site or services but even with that I decided not to do it. Unfortunately even though I took the time to PM you Barron to get your take on whether I should post it or not since it's your site, you never bothered to respond to my PM which to be honest I always consider a bit rude. Sorry. That's how I feel. I took the time to be respectful and inquire about your thoughts in regard to these type of posts but you never responded. Anyway, I appreciate that there is only a small amount of spam that makes it through to these forums. And riskless, a lot of other people feel strongly about their services or software or hardware or whatever too, but save it for an ad. These comments aren't meant to be personal, don't know any of you, but just some comments on these actions. Peace. Good trading all.
PS Not saying I haven't or won't post links to other information I find useful, but it's all in the way it's done and also about one's personal relations and involvement with the vendor or site. Even this can perhaps get tricky as I can see people sending their subordinates to these forums to spam for them. That's why I asked you Baron and am still interested in your thoughts on these matters.

 

"PS Not saying I haven't or won't post links to other information I find useful, but it's all in the way it's done and also about one's personal relations and involvement with the vendor or site. Even this can perhaps get tricky as I can see people sending their subordinates to these forums to spam for them. That's why I asked you Baron and am still interested in your thoughts on these matters."


Slapshot,

From the beginning I have made it clear that I was involved with FFastTrade for the reason that you listed above. I didn't want to be the anonymous poster because I wanted the reader to realise that I am biased. I don't Bullshit and I'll take the heat, even from Pricks like Naztrader. I spend a lot of time on this board because I hope that I can pass along some good info to posters that have less experience than I do. Along the way, I do have an agenda: To offer the best possible service for the best price possible. I may be a bit passionate about getting that message out. However, I will tone it down!

When we signed up to become a Sponsor, I was told that we could add the link to my signature. We did that. I would not have even thought about it if it wasn't offered. I will continue to use the signature, because it links to our FREE trial on our simulator and judging by the number of people that have signed up, I think it is useful to ET members.

I probably won't post as much because I really don't want to tarnish what I am trying to build here. In any case have a Great weekend.

 

Riskless,

I am not the one who objected to the link on your signature line, please re-read my last post and the guy that posted 2 down from mine.

I happen to think that your link in your signature line is a perfectly acceptable way to keep it available because that does not 1) interfere with an existing discussion thread 2) inconvenience people who are subscribed to a thread with e-mail alerts in their mailbox that are generated by your ads.

Those were my only objections - I thought my last post was crystal clear and I made an effort to suggest some alternative ways you could still make your business presence well-known without being obtrusive.

So feel free to post one more reply to me about this if need be and then let's move on...

Sincerely,

Paul