I trade with tradecast on a retail basis now, tried redi,realtick, both with prop firms and they both were sad systems. No problem with you, but seriously can they compare with the watcher, or tradecast, or gr8trade?????not to mention the behemouth systems in place at gsco,lehm,mlco,fbco,or the rest of the dealers????
Do not be fooled guys there is a huge difference in the overall quality of the software that is used by most retail firms vs. the software used by most of the pro firms. As far as I can tell the reason for this is because most of the pro firms trade NYSE stocks and most of the retail places focused for so long on Nasdaq stocks. You have guys trading on Rediplus that literally have never traded on anything else and therefore are clueless as to how bad it is. The reason they defend it is that it is not bad âfor themâ. It works fine "for them", but for someone that has used the better stuff, redi + is like a shareware version of other products.. Seriously, I used to think rediplus was a year behind some of the other platforms in product innovationâ¦.no it is 2 behind two years at least. Yeah traders trade 100, 200, even 500K shares and more a day on it. But so what? These are mainly NYSE tape reading type traders mainly trading around 2-3 positions at a time. If your trading is geared around following just 2-3 positions at a time or you are trading a fairly fixed strategy like pairs where you have more opens you donât need a robust trading platform. Redi+ is fine for that. Of if you trade the same stocks day after day after day, redi+ is fine for that. However, no trader in there right mind would trade baskets of stocks with rediplus or any similar POS. Well I take that back because I have tried it, but perhaps I wasnât in my right mind. Lets say that no trader would trade multiple positions with redi+ given a choice between it and a more retail based nasdaq friendly trading platform. The fact is if you take a typical Nasdaq trader, a scalper or basket trader that is used to a platform like gr8trade, cybertrader, tradecast or realtick and stick him on redi + he will eventually either throw the keyboard through the monitor if he tries to trade the way he was accustomed to or he will have to adapt to a more NYSE type of trading style. Of course that will not work for nasdaq stocks because 1. you can only trade a few Naz stocks in size and 2. you canât read the tape on the Nasdaq like with the NYSE, never mind the benefits of things like price improvement, etc. That is precisely why Nasdaq traders have learned to trade smaller positions but more of them. Or they have learned to set alerts or limit buy and sells and stops with their trading platform that gets them into Nasdaq stocks quickly and effectively and the software holds these orders in their sofware's memory or on their server, not on ARCA's book with the specialist. Scalpers do not use the mouse. It is all hot keys. They have keys set that will offer out invisible on a particular ECN, keys that will buy the offer plus a (delta amount), keys that will swipe only ECNâs, keys that will offer out .001 (whatever) below/above the best inside bid or offer. They have keys for everything. One key will allow them bail on every long or short they have open if they like. Hot keys for everything. Nasdaq traders often trade off of patterns. They will set alerts on stocks for when they have broken a support or resistance level. You canât even set an alert with redi+? Want to have the software use a trailing stop for you on a positionâ¦.ha Good luck. Want to keep track of how you are tradingâ¦.canât do it effectively. As a basic example, if I buy a basket of Semiâs 500 shares each, and am long 14 stocks or even if I just happen to have 14 open positions I want to know exactly what each of those positions is doing all the time. I want to be able to see with every tick which stocks are moving against me, I want to be able to sort them by position size, I want to know what my open and closed profits are in each position, is the position at the high of the day, how much has it pulled back from its best price of the day since I have owned it, etc. etc. In short, I need to be able to manage the portfolio I have built. When I am watching my gross P and L, if it is getting slammed or going up, what is causing it. With the right software, all of this is extremely easy to find out. You can add to winners, cut losers fast!!! With redi+ or some other POS software you wonât have any idea. Not quickly you wonât. Redi+ last time I looked would not even show what your current profit or loss was in a particular OPEN position. I.E. if you made 3400 in GS in the morning and you are now short in the afternoon, the position monitor will show you that you are say up 2400 in GS? That may be true but wouldnât you prefer the position monitor to show you that your current GS position is costing you 1000 dollars. Maybe some big offer is killing it right now. If I am in a couple of other positions, it may not immediately apparent to me that this GS position is getting clocked right away. Why would it, the position monitor still shows it as green. In gr8trade for example, that position would be sorted tick by tick right up to the top of my position monitor if were getting hammered, and I would immediately know that âhey this position needs my attention NOW!!!â But that is only one example of a dozen or so where redi+ lags other platforms. There are plenty of others. PLENTY. But donât tell that to the guys that praise redi+ they donât need that stuff. They are trading few positions and they donât need a massive amount of speed keys to direct their orders. They think much of that other stuff is just bells and whistles. Get real, itâs the difference success and failure. Gene however is right about one thing. Redi+ is mainly an order execution systemâ¦.however I would add âfor NYSEâ. Believe me when I pull up a stock in the level II, I want that box dynamically linked to three different charts, a daily, a five day, and an intraday. I want to have some decision making tools built into my execution system. Seeing what I am trading in three different time frames might be a bell and whistle for some traders but for me it is critical. Iâve ranted long enough, sorry about that. But anyone reading this should know that depending on their style of trading (nasdaq traders especially), the trading platform they choose could be relatively insignificant or CRITICAL to their success or failure. Look around there is good stuff out thereâ¦.hell Instinet just paid a boatload one of them last year.
Avalanche , I think you make some very valid points on REDI+. If you are used to a hot key system like the Watcher, REDI+ may not be for you. I do say that Redi+ is a very good all-in one order execution system. We have used many of the others platforms, but REDI+ works vey well for our traders. REDI+ , is mainly an order execution platform , you need to use REDI+ with a charting package. REDI+ now has improved Hot-Key functions. While not as Hot-Key friendly as the Watcher or other systems, with REDI+ , you can point & click, have hot keys or Double click on a position monitor and execute etc. REDI+ does not offer basket trading, however , we can write a program(basket) and link the program to REDIFIX or Active-X. REDIFIX is probably(FIX Protocol) the largest FIX platform for program and system traders. We get executions in 200ms<(less than 200 milliseconds on ECN match's).REDI+ is used for Basket Trading(REDIFIX),by Spear,Leeds & Kellogg and many hedge funds. Execution speed & reliability will vary from firm to firm, based on network connectivity, hardware & server capacity. We have a custom product designed for basket traders called ROX , that is used by many floor traders & hedge funds. I think ROX has great basket features(seperate P & L for each basket, Buy basket Up/Down 1% , up 1/16 etc). My point is that it is hard to please all traders. The basket trading functions on ROX may be better for arbitrage traders, but REAl Tick might be better for NASDAQ scalpers etc. The speed of order execution depends more on network connectivity then the software. Someone mentioned how much better TradeCast was than REAL TICK. I think the EDAT software you use, really is a matter of your comfort level and support from your introducing broker. We have very few complaints from successful traders. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec., LLC. gweissman@stocktrade.net
reading all the comments on here makes me glad i am into futures! whatever money you guys make trading shares - you deserve it - if the trading platform is this much hassle! i take it the IB TWS for stocks does not even merit mention in this debate?
there should be a rule that any firm owners cannot advocate products that they personally bebefit from especially if its software thru a firm they clear through.
stevet, Trading NASDAQ on an EDAT system can be complex and everyone has their own favorite set up for software, charts, hot-keys, point and click , right click etc. Depending on how many positions you are trading and if you are a scalper or postion trader, everyone will have their own opinion. I have used REDI,RealTick, ROX ,Instinet terminals and have seen just about every EDAT software system demonstrated by sales people & traders. The speed of software execution has alot to do with connectivity of your network and many times slowness can be caused by software integration problems and not enough RAM on your computer(just to name a few problems). REDI+ requires 256 Megs of Ram minimum . One firm I know that uses REDI(pro firm) constantly has problems we do not. I believe their problems can be traced to old computers(not enough RAM) and network connectivity issues. How come we don't have these problems? That is the only explanation I can give. Our top trader on a risk reward basis was written up in a book called Electronic Trading Masters : Secrets from the Pros by Allen Jan Baird. He turned 15K into over 1.5 million in 1998 daytrading on a type only system ROX! Sure it was a great trading market , but the moral of the story is it's the trader, not the software that makes the difference. I think REDI+, Real Tick ,Tradecast & The Watcher are all decent products. Probably the most talented traders on the street(MM's ,Hedge Funds, GS Prop desk etc.) are using Instinet terminals, which have to be slower than any EDAT software mentioned. We use REDI+ becasue it is an all-in-one system that fits our need and our traders like it. If our traders did not like REDI+, we would not be in business or we would switch to another platform. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec. , LLC gweissman@stocktrade.net PS OVERtheLINE-I try to be balanced in my comments and I'm not saying REDI+ is the best out there for everyone. REDI+ works well for us-Gene
REDI is used by trading firms because of the clearing relationship with GS. It is the only sw offered by SLK. The prop firms have to say only positive things about REDI, they have NO choice. Otherwise, they would be shooting themselves in the foot. All the negative comments about REDI are very true.
Just a note. We can use any software we want( we offer ROX as a back up or for basket traders). REDI+ is a decent all in one order execution platform. REDI+ performance will vary from firm to firm based on many factors including network maint. , WAN or internet , exchange problems, Server(capacity) and computer hardware(amount of RAM , software conflicts etc.). If REDI+ was a having major problems, we could switch to another platform anytime . When times are tough, traders tend to blame their trading problems on software, computers etc. Sure REDI+ isn't perfect, but if REDI+ was really "bad", REDI+ would not be the largest EDAT software in terms of share volume and we would not use the software. Stop by our office for a REDI+ demo and I think you will be suprised at how well REDI+ works. We have Computers that are two years old or less(256 megs ram or more ), Two WAN T-1's for REDI+ , networks maintaned by professionals. If we have a problem with REDI+ (every execution platform has problems once in a while), we troubleshoot and fix the problem and do not complain. If your introducing broker has problems with REDI+ all the time, give us a try. We do not have 1/4 of the problems some traders say REDI+ has. I believe some introducing brokers do not have the staff or knowledge to support direct access software. The introducing broker, not REDI+ should be able to solve and handle most problems in house. This is one of the problems of our industry. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec., LLC. gweissman@stocktrade.net PS The top traders on wall street probably use Instinet terminals without complaint. I won't even comment about the speed and ease of use of an Instinet terminal.
We get executions on ECN matchs's in 200ms< , that's miliseconds on our network. REDI+ is an execution platform, not really designed for charting, alerts etc. We use REDI+ with Bridge and AT and things work well for us. You can't please everyone, but if all our traders could not trade successfully on REDI+, we would switch. Many of our top traders trade over 400,000+ shares a day on a busy day with no complaints. Gene Weissman Lieber & Weissman Sec., LLC gweissman@stocktrade.net exce26-Do you trade in house or remote?