How long are all you who posts here , customers of Point Direx? Do you feel that quality of service is stable, is going up or is going down Also have you another broker as backup solution and which one ?
Are you aware that you can go to their site and view your acct. via Direxnet? It shows the commissions and the SEC fees. It's under the 'confirms' tab. It doesn't show the route used for each trade though so it's difficult to truly confirm the proper charges exactly. As long as it's within a few cents of my figures I'm okay with it *so far.* For me, it still beats the hell out of paying a ticket charge. I just received my first monthly statement from SWS and it doesn't show any fees....commissions or SEC. I haven't had any need to try and contact them for a while but when I was first needing some questions answered I always got through to the trading desk. Looks like they could still use some work on the bookkeeping end.
I've only been with them a month, and no other backup on my end. Hopefully they will improve. They do have the potential to become very competitive. Mike S, I use the direxnet web site. It's misleading by not showing ecn fees. If you buy 1000 shares with Redi for example at .0060 a share, that's $6.00. Now if you sell the same, that's another $6.00. So $12.00 per round trip. Ten round trips a day will cost you an extra $120.00 per day in addition to the commissions and ecn fees. I'm not complaining about paying the fees because every one does. I'm just stating that these substantial ecn fees are not showing a deduction on your balance and buying power, which would obviously be less than what it actually is. I was originally told that SW's web site may be more accurate, but I haven't been able to get any info from them to confirm this. My ecn fees amount to between $1000-$2000k a month which aren't showing on the reports, making you believe your doing better than you actually are. Are my correct? .0070 per share commission + .0060 per share REDI {example} and then SEC fees.?
i talked to one of the managers in the orlando office, and he said that they are coming out with a new release of Direx Net in about 2 weeks or less. He says it is much better and more detailed. i did not ask him about fees for ecn. i will try to get that info. I have been with them for about 6 months now and am very satisified with their product. I think that they will not disappoint with their direx net product just like thier trading software. Hans
They mentioned this to me too. The lack of ecn route info was my main complaint so I'm assuming this is part of the fix. They also mentioned that a new Platinum upgrade was due soon. The current version works fine for me but one improvement I would like to see is the ability to clear stuck "greenies" with a couple of key strokes, much like the existing ability to clear stuck market maker quotes.
I use GTT Trade log for my year end trading report for IRS. Are traders at PD entering trades manually for annual trade reports for year end tax purposes or can you download the whole year at one time into some sort of report software.
Violating the pattern day trading rules brings swift retribution at PointDirex. This afternoon I could no longer make any trades, and upon enquiry I was informed that Southwest Securities (PD's clearing house) had "closed" my account for violating the pattern day trading rules. No warning. No second chance. PD says that it is "out of their control"... So be forewarned - if you have an account balance under $25,000, watch those day trades. I have been using PD Level 1 for a couple of months. This was my first Direct Access broker, and I felt that the product was merely average. Orders seemed to go through reasonably well, but I could not claim to have "lightning response" as some other users have described. The order entry screen could not be modified, and the included chart is hopeless. The bid/ask figures are prone to freezing, even though time&sales is working. (This can cause incorrect prices to pop into the limit order box. You have to double check the limit price before sending the order, or you could be in for a shock.) There is a severe limit on the types of orders you can place, and you can have only one order at a time for any stock. Error messages can be cryptic. Obtaining trade confirmations and account balances has not been reliable. Account balance information, when available, is confusing. On the plus side, connections have been reliable (no downtime), and the commission rates are good. Customer service (up till today) has been good.
Mad, I'm still learning myself. It doesn't seem that one will be able to do a year end download. Maybe if we go through SouthWest.
I have spoke to the programmer at GTT Trade log and to some people at PD, they hope to try and figure out how to make Trade Log work with PD statements. There might be something better than GTT Trade log though. I have had some problems with it. These companies could make a fortune if they offered to manage and print year end trade statements for all their accounts. I only had about 1200 trades last year and I started entering them by hand. I gave up before I reached February on my records. I quickly paid the $275. for the GTT Trade log software only to spend about 3 more days trying to fix problems with it. It turned all my short trades into long trades. I finally finished my report on April 14th. I am going start working on my trade report in January from now on. I used to do the same thing in school. "Due Friday....start on it Friday Morning"