I was given demonstrations of MLX and Tradespeed over webex a while back. Both seemed like good execution softwares. But neither had charts. I recall that Tradespeed charged a per share rate on top of your clearing rate from Merrill, so it can be an expensive piece of software if you trade high volume. MLX was free. I chose Sterling because it had charting and some other little things the others didn't, and it was being used by more people than the other two softwares were. I second the statement that you should call and ask Merrill. They should give you a demonstration of the other softwares just like they did me.
I cant help you on basket trading as I do trade options mainly. I hve never used Sterling. Sorry. Call ML to find out more.
Thanks again all. I will be talking to ML about its internal platforms tomorrow but was hoping to benefit from others' experience. Does anybody know if ML Pro has an account minimum before it allows a custy to use a third party platform? Also any ideas on a reasonable range for commission rate (both execution and clearing) for somebody trading 500K shares a day?
You should check out a new Platform being used by a couple of small firms. It's called Obsidian. It is currently tied into ML for executions and positions. The platform goes for a flat fee of $350 a month and the best part is they are a front end gateway only. So that $350 gets you everything including Data, with access to ML's Smart route. Obsidian also does not charge any commissions on trades so all you have to worry about is your ML commissions. The platform is lightning quick and has reporting that can export directly to excel with full formatting. Check out http://obsidian.silexx.com/. If you like it I know they will set you up with a free demo to try the platform out for a few days. Hope this helps.
I use Obsidian. They also have algo trading servers and program trading systems (which are extra). They are tied into Penson, Goldman, and Merrill Lynch.