i must first say that i have always looked up to schonfeld and say that i kinda think of them as a captain of the industry. i have a few friends that recently started there (within the last year) and they all tell me how old and crappy the software is. they don't even offer you level2 and trading nasdaq is almost impossible. secondly they say the fills are really bad and that pretty much every trade you put on you are giving away a few pennies in slipage. i know schonny has never really been shop for scalpers, but what gives? poor software and bad fills, that doesn't make sence to me....anyone have any insite or thoughts? have you ever heard of a place like schonny selling order flow or anything of the like? why else would the fills be so bad?
They're a nasdaq MM (see monthly vol chart) MM Id= (SHON) Are they charging traders per share and also making a mkt?
Well there older order entry system blew because they were trading for dollar moves not 20 cent moves like they have to now, so a lot of times the traders just sent market orders. Then as the market got tighter they did hire some scalpers for nasdaq trading and used a 3rd party software. Unfortunately they had to hook up their own backoffice/risk management software to this 3rd party software which destroyed the reliablity. The software constantly went down several times a day and a lot of times was not accurately telling you if you were still in a position or not. They finally decided to develop their own software for scalpers. Like any new software it had/has a boat load of problems with speed and reliability. I could never understand why this firm would spend this much money on office space and backing traders, but not put the same amount into their software. From reports I get from him the software has improved since it was released but still is slow. I had a friend there who was asking for some kind of news service. At the time the office manager said that CNBC news had all the breaking stories and news that they would need and was plenty fast. Who knows what planet that guy was on.
i know there are a lot of rumors about firms like hold brothers and schonfeld goinh out of business, but are they really based on anything solid? BTW, if Schonfeld goes go out od business, i thing thier crappy execution and software is a big part of the reason.
like i said, i haven't used, it but it does seem silly to back your trader and have such crazy office space, without giving your traders the tools they need as far as software goes. I think steve schonfeld is probably trying to pump all the money into his clearing operation and into the hedge fund that demitri runs foe him. CNBC is a total joke, I understand that schonny now gets news from Ogg wich is ok, but like most news service, not totally reliable.
From frieneds at Shoney, and from office tours, all the above seem true. However, it is true that if you produce you can get whatever you want, bloomberg, etc, but you will have to pay for it. For a newbie, with no capital, if you can get in the door, I still think it is a good deal. If you have experience and capital, why not use it and be independent? Or, if you have experience, and profitable record, and don't want to use your capital, and can get an interview with one of the executives to make sure you get what you need to trade properly, it still is a good deal. With regards to the office manager and the CNBC quote above, so many office managers have been fired, they are probably afraid to rock the boat!