Tradestation 6 appears to be slipping on their execution times for QQQ trades. I generally trade in 10,000 to 20,000 share blocks and lately have been unhappy w/ TS executions. At times over the past several sessions, my QQQ orders have taken up to 2 minutes to go through!!! (at the market). This problem is limited only to the q's. Anyone out there particularly happy with their broker "specifically on QQQ trades." Thanks - I appreciate the info. GD
I trade the QQQs pretty exclusively here as well. Not near the size you are trading. However, with the recent changes affecting the QQQs, I wouldn't exactly immediately suspect tradestation as the primary source of the problem. just my 2c -momo
Sounds to me like you must be routing to "Intelligent"...that's a big no-no on QQQ. For a very short time TS preferenced ISLD in their Intelligent routing for QQQ, but now that they cannot see any quotes for ISLD, I bet they don't. Which means you are sending a large order in the open at the mercy of the AMEX QQQ specialist. Bad news... --Derek
-- actually I think TS is still preferencing ISLD. It's just that ISLD QQQ volume has declined significantly since they are no longer displaying quotes. I spoke with an ISLD rep today and he confirmed this. It really sucks not being able to see the ISLD book. A 20K block could be taken care of w/ relative ease several weeks ago -- now you break a little sweat while waiting for your fills. I'm still trading the Q's (in addition to my normal trading w/ pairs and NASDAQ) -- but Q trading ain't what it used to be! The ISLD guy did say that they've gotten hundreds of calls from ETF traders over the past several weeks and that they are looking into ways of making ETF trading more attractive (like it used to be). GD
Not trying to be an a-hole, but the question is WHO is your broker. Your replies of "Ours are just fine" and "Our execution times are fine" do little to help me out. Let me rephrase: Name of your broker: ______ Speed of execution (10-20K shares @ market): ______ Routed to: ______ Thanks.
A minor point here, your question was "Anyone out there particularly happy with their broker "specifically on QQQ trades.""; I answered with "Yes ours are alright". I believe that was quite responsive. The broker is not an advertiser here so if you need that I will PM you. Speed is 1 to 2 seconds; they are one leg of an arbitrage. The routing is proprietary; sweeps through several tiers on different route utilizing limit orders, not market orders.