I know this is all a little late, but I've had the SogoElite platform for about a year now and I've been having great success with it. I like having my watchlist, buy & sell buttons, real-time monthly charts, real-time daily charts, and my list of purchased stocks all in one window. It makes trading pretty easy and one-step. The one strange thing about it is that they don't guarantee connectivity with any type of internet service - DSL, dial-up, or wireless. Seems a bit shady to claim that they offer a platform but won't guarantee that it can connect. But it makes sense that they can't guarantee that the internet service provider's product is going to work. At any rate, I've been connecting fine after the first month kinks were all worked out (I signed up as soon as they offered Elite - I was using SogoTrade before and couldn't short at the time so they were still getting it right since it was such a new platform.) I'd recommend it for the cheap round-trip trades if you don't mind having an application downloaded on your trading computer. $1 in, $1 out, $10 data service fee. Not too shabby. I have a full review here: http://emmaharveytrades.blogspot.com/2008/11/sogoelite.html
I've used it in 2007 before I sold all my equity holdings. Overall, positive feedback & good value. I'm thinking of re-opening an account and can't find a better option than them. Some issues here and there, it is a low cost operation so you have to be realistic.
Thanks Emma Harvey, sounds like a decent alternative for those who trade small lots ... and that .004 may prohibit trading large shares but i like those live charts and things. Peace birdman
Lightspeed is cheaper by more than half. Was going to open an account but then the ship hit the sand. Waiting now to see what happens with the brokers.
Thanks for the insight and when the water clears - update us if you remember. Lightspeed looks good, but in the current financial condition one especially want to stay safe.
I'm in my final minutes of agonizing between SogoElite and just2trade... I love the fact that Just2trade has an API (so I can write a PocketPC trading app for it when I finally get around to it), but SogoElite's $1 fees for small trades are SO low, it's hard to say "no". Please tell me whether the following are accurate perceptions about SogoElite: * SogoElite doesn't allow "GTC" limit orders for equities. You can't put in an order to buy 100 shares of Microsoft for $18.02, then forget about it for the next few months until it either expires or gets filled during a random moment of market insanity. It has to be re-entered every single day. * SogoElite DOES allow you to place a limit order to buy or sell equities for extended pre-market trading that continues into the regular day session if it's unfilled, then continues into extended evening trading if it's still unfilled. * Although you have to re-enter your limit orders every day, you DON'T have to wait until 8am or 9:30am to do it. You can enter "tomorrow's" orders anytime after 8pm. * There's no charge for orders that get canceled before being filled. * Only Level 1 quotes are available. * If your activity falls below the point where it's worth continuing to pay them $10/month, you can NOT have them simply disable access to quotes and waive the fee, but you CAN pay them $10 to transfer your cash and portfolio to a SogoTrade account. Also... if you initially funded your account via wire transfer, how long did it take them to finish setting up your account so you could make your first trades? Thanks!
Mecro - I couldn't agree more! Also - I'm certainly going to look into Lightspeed, I've not even heard of them until just now! Miamicanes - unfortunately I don't set limit orders or trade after hours but I do know you can trade trade during extended hours through your platform with no problems as well as continue to receive real-time quites after 3p central. You can also turn off your ability to trade during extended hours if you want... don't see why you'd want to but someone else might! Yes, unexecuted orders do expire at the end of the day: http://elite.sogoinvest.com/Help/ExtentedHour.aspx I didn't fund my account with a wire transfer but I did see on the form that "If your wire request arrives at SogoTrade/SogoElite before 1 pm EST, it will be sent the same business day. If your request arrives after 1 pm EST, the wire will be sent the following business day." But that's after you mail in the Wire Request form to New York and for me being in Texas that's about 3-4 days for them to receive it. Its also 20 bucks to wire. That's another downfall to SogoElite/Trade nothing seems to be requested electronically - you've got to mail in any changes, deposits, requests unless you're transferring from another brokerage or between Trade and Elite - which is $10.00 per asset and not just $10. Which it seems to me that it might be worth holding your SogoElite account and paying the monthly data fee given the time it might take to have everything properly up-and-running after the transfer. But, I'm a swing trader and trade on a daily basis so being out of the market for a few days or even one day will cost me a pretty penny.
> which is $10.00 per asset and not just $10 Ouch. That definitely complicates the decision. For the next few months, SogoElite would almost certainly save me $50-100/month over Just2trade... but if there's no cheap way to get my stocks "out" of SogoElite, a few months of inactivity might start to get expensive. For what it's worth, if cash flow isn't a problem, and it would cost more to transfer shares than to just sell them from my old account and immediately buy them back at the same price with my new one, is there anything non-obvious that would make it a bad idea? Or is that the normal way people who need to move shares for whatever reason usually do it if they only have a few open positions and plenty of cash to finance the new shares until the old ones have settled? I'm a bit annoyed with SogoElite at the moment... I wired the initial deposit to them before noon, and they STILL (as of 4:46pm) haven't credited it to my account. If my Just2trade account ends up getting credited first (their wire was sent at 3:30), there's a good chance I'll end up going with them instead. Sogo's fees are lower, but Just2trade's API is VERY appealing to me. In real life, I'm a software engineer with semi-specialty in j2me and Windows Mobile development... and a HTC Touch that's just BEGGING for a compatible trading app