You can email me later. Tell me the size of the account, how often you trade, what you trade and where you are from. I'll give you some information and we can go from there. This is not a proper place to discuss your requirements. A conversation would be faster, My email is below. Bob
Well here is the customer response from Tradezero. "We don't sell your info to anyone so whoever told you that is false. Your order is immedately sent to the market. It could because your trying to short a stock that is going down really fast with a ton of volume." So in other words shitty software/routing technique?
Discount brokers are essentially distribution-channels for HFTs. You might wonder why HFTs don't themselves set up retail brokerage divisions to gather orders and cut out the middleman. But they don't want the regulatory & customer-support hassles of dealing with retail clients (imagine supporting some of the perma-complainers on ET!) and also they want the plausible-deniability afforded by buying retail flow in bulk rather than gathering it themselves -- that way they can't be accused of trading against their own customers.
I still don't really understand how HFT works but the way you put it made it sound like a complete scam. Btw, I've made hundreds of trades with Tradezero and when I reflect back I realize that most of my trades would immediately take a sharp turn in the other direction right after I got filled with a market order. This doesn't happen when I use a trading simulator using the exact same charts & techniques I use to identify stocks. Is it possible they were frontrunning every single one of my market orders and exiting right after I got filled? It happened too many times to simply blame it on bad luck or poor timing.
TradeZero Support Nov 3, 20:12 What we can suggest is that we can try troubleshooting your system with a tech. Understand that we pass through all orders to the market. We do not hold orders, we do not execute orders in principal, we only pass them thru. I don't understand the significance of this response but I get the feeling they're hiding something much bigger. Anyways, I am convinced and will likely be switching brokers in the near future. Idk if you heard of Virtualbrokers or Questtrade. (Also, discount brokers but located in Canada with better rep.) Do you think I just run into the same problem with these guys?
Yeah, now that I think of it they outright lied in their email response saying they just send my order to the market. Whichever 3rd party they're sending order flow to have delayed my market order more than once. Says so right on their faq. How does TradeZero make money if it offers $0 commission?. Rebates are paid for order flow by various market centers including EDGX, ARCA and NASDAQ. Tradezero Original response. Understand that we pass through all orders to the market. We do not hold orders, we do not execute orders in principal, we only pass them thru. They're trying to clear their own name from any unethical practice and yet they're directly affiliated with the ones who do. How ironic is that?
If they live off of rebates there is no reason to delay transmitting the order. If they delay and you cancel there is not revenue. Even if they selling flow to someone like Virtu - still no reason to delay - did they need an uptick to accomplish the short?
Well there is a reason. They short ahead of me and then fill me in late so they could cover for a profit. Why else would a 3rd party pay for order flow? http://www.businessinsider.com/brok...orders-to-high-frequency-trading-firms-2014-4 I doubt my own volume was the deciding factor for their ponzi scheme but perhaps they received multiply short & sell orders from the same ticker and saw an opportunity to screw us over. That would explain the abnormal 10-15 sec delay. (They were too busy dealing their own transactions.)