sullux thanks for the info I really appreciate it. Yesterday I was thinking about possible ways to play the Fed move on SPY. If I wanted to play something like this right before the move began, and then move was against me, I'm wondering what would be my best protection 1)beforehand put in a stop limit order. so for SPY make the stop 20 cents from my entry price and the limit 30cents. when the market rallies hard against me, obviously my stop would be hit very quickly. would I get filled as the geyser is rising against me, or would it move right past me leaving me unfilled? 2) beforehand put in stop market order , with stop 20 cents away from entry price. but in this case, a very quick 1 point move because of the Fed, could I have 1+ points in slippage? ouch
sunggong, Even when Scottrade was behaving properly, extremely busy times (like the first 60 seconds of the day) would cause 10 to 15 second delays. I have only tried two brokers, so I can't comment on many others, but with MB Trading I have never had any execution slower than 2 seconds from the mouse click, even when the market was going completely ape-sh--. Quotes, on the other hand, get hung up with MB during busy times while Scottrade's quotes were practically perfect all the time.
DataCruncher, No problem. As to stop limit orders, I've never used them so I can't say. I usually use trailing stops, often jumping out on the top (or bottom) of a fast trend, with the trailing stop as more of a safety net. As such, I use only market.
Yes, that's true. I've also seen my orders get "stuck" when the market is very busy. (Like the opening few minutes.) That's just the way it's going to be with the non-direct access broker. My trading strategies do not involve getting in the second market opens, so this is not an issue for me. Also, since I use limit orders only, slippage is also a non-issue. If I used the market order a lot, then yes, Scottrade is not the best broker. Slippage can be pretty bad when the market is flying around.
I agree 100%. I had Scottrade too and realized the executions sucked so I switched to IB. Absolutely amazing difference between Scottrade and IB. I did a side by side comparison too just to compare the executions. I had my Scottrader and IB trade sessions open. I set up each for market orders of 100 shares of a stock trading at about $114 and change. I clicked on the execute button on both within 1 second of each other and got filled with IB .69 cents better than Scottrade. That one trade was $69 difference. So, not to mention the awesome pricing from IB, you get incredibly better fills on the orders. Glad to see you realized it and moved on to a better broker.
I hold my positions anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of hours, depending on what kind of setup I'm using. Quick scalping with Scottrade is an art. Contrary to popular beliefs, it can be done successfully and cheaper if you have the proper strategy.
Scottrade is great for your longer term accounts such as IRAs. No fees whatsoever for inactivity, cashing out to move it elsewhere, etc. I wouldn't use them for my main broker for reasons already well stated by others. But certainly look into them for longer term accounts so you can avoid inactivity fees or annual fees charged by other brokers.
Thanks for the side-by-side example, traderich. Thanks to everybody for comments and conversation. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has had a problem there. I guess it's a human thing: even if you are practically certain of something, you still second-guess your own experiences until other people validate you. From what people are saying, it sounds like IB would be a good alternative if I end up having any problem with My current broker. Of course, I'm in the process of writing my trading software to MBT's API, but that's another issue altogether...
I know that generally non direct-access brokers sell their order flow, which can cause bad fills. I am curious about TDameritrade 1) if you use their direct routing option is this as good as using a direct access broker? 2) someone said they trade against you. how would you be able to tell? 3) is their Strategy Desk software basically way too simplistic?