What is more important than cheap commission?

Discussion in 'Retail Brokers' started by alain, Feb 27, 2002.

  1. nitro

    nitro

    Yeah, that's what the IB guy told me. _THEN_, will _ANYONE_ on ET that trades anywhere but IB tell me if, on a listed stock that trades 5+ millions shares a day, their bid/offer is displayed if it is the best bid/offer? Or anyone at a prop firm, what is your experience with this? Gene? RTHarp?

    I have no problems if I do this on something like BLB either. But try it on TYC, or GE, etc.

    Yeah, that's true - _EXCEPT_ I have tried to get out on occassion, put in an offer,watch the stock trade where I am offering it a million times, (I see it on one of my TS from one of my feeds) and I don't get filled. No matter what I do, nothing worked. I refuse to put in a market order - eventually, I was _LET_ out, a half a point later :mad: So I don't know what to make of what you are saying.

    I haven't tried this, simply because the NYSE is the most liquid place to trade the stocks that I trade (all in the SP500, many in the DOW) and I love price improvements, which I must say, I get alot. But maybe I will try it.

    nitro
     
    #11     Feb 27, 2002
  2. nitro

    nitro

    I have not tried another broker, but I am seriously considering it. I am looking at PoinDirex, Andover, TradeStation, etc. I particularly like Andover, as they may have OO orders, have per share pricing and use REDI+ which is what Bright and others use. (Since I plan to be at a prop firm soon, I wouldn't mind getting used to the software - tho I don't know where I will end up, so...)

    Magna above seems to like CT, but I do not think that they are geared towards per share. The fact that they use RealTick is interesting though, as they may have OpenBook availalble...[assuming it's useful - I have heard both sides on this, but nothing like trying something yourself.]

    nitro
     
    #12     Feb 27, 2002
  3. ron2368

    ron2368

    I will get back to the topic of which is more important.

    Last year I opened a small acct at IB to test the waters. With my limited trading there I think its super fast and commisions are fantastic.

    My main account is with Preferred which I found here 3 years ago. I have a few problems with preferred that are going to force me somewhere else( which I can expand on privately). The customer service at Preferred is very good for a broker. They answer your questions and mostly try to work with traders. Phone calls and messaging is Prompt.

    Ib scares me and thats why I dont have much cash there. The commisions are great but beyond that its no-mans -land. I tried to call them 2x during market hours... forget it. So except for that one day a month that you will be on the verge of insanity... the commisions are great. ( I keep repeating that to myself).

    So commisions are important, trading is a business and thats overheadbut comfort is important too.
     
    #13     Feb 27, 2002
  4. Catoosa

    Catoosa

    nitro:

    Htrader and IB gave you the correct answer on the actions of the specialist. I look forward and hope for the day when NYSE uses only ECNs and no specialist. The specialist for NYSE listed stock is like having one market maker handling all the order flow on a NASDAQ stock, and you know what that would be like. The specialist holds all the cards for he is the only one who see the order book, he sets the spreads by trading out of his own account, does not have to update the shown bid/offer with the best bid/offer until the specialist allowed time limit to do so has run out, does not show the true size of the market, may complete your trade long before he post the results, tries to disguise the market so he can handle the order flow through his own account rather than matching orders, moves the bid /offer down when he wants to buy and load up his own account and then move the bid/offer up to unload the stock out of his account, and use every trick he has to skim off the bid/offer spread.

    As far as other brokers, I have used a lot of brokers and trading platform since 1972. I now have 7 monitors full of trading platforms and broker accounts running at the same time. When it comes to data and charting, nothing beats RealTick 3. When it comes to a trading platform, nothing beats IB TWS. However, IB still needs to make improvements to TWS. The methods you have to use to change the share quantity and share price when using IB's TWS are antiquated compared to the methods use in RealTick 3.

    Catoosa
     
    #14     Feb 27, 2002
  5. catoosa...
    wow! have you been trading for 30 years....
     
    #15     Feb 27, 2002
  6. Htrader

    Htrader Guest

    One possible explanation is that the stock was just plummeting at this time and your limit order was superceded by a ton of market orders. In times of heavy volatility, the specialist might often have tens of thousands of shares of market orders already in his queue waiting to be executed. A good example is HAL a couple of weeks ago. The specialist opened the stock at 17.95, a huge gap. I saw selling pressure, so I sent 2 market sell orders in. The first block got filled at 17.75, and the second at 17.25!! The second order was sent in like 10 seconds after the first, there was just that much selling pressure. HAL went below 17 in a few more ticks. Thats why I almost exclusively use market orders to exit my positions. In a fast moving market, limit orders might not let you out.
     
    #16     Feb 27, 2002

  7. Yes IB is terrible ...... that is why 90% of the Elitetrader broker threads are related to it.

    Think about it.
     
    #17     Feb 27, 2002
  8. BSAM

    BSAM


    Sky's not falling Robert. Relax. And no, I'm not saying IB is perfect. But, for example, how many folks on this message board will EVER have 5 positions of 5000 shares open at the same time. Much depends on one's style/risk tolerance. Would you not agree?:cool:

    BSAM
     
    #18     Feb 27, 2002
  9. Athos

    Athos



    And apparently 90% of traders lose money. Think about that!:D
     
    #19     Feb 27, 2002
  10. You gonna blame your broker if and/or when you fail?

    I see that ebay has cheap mirrors for sale tonight.

     
    #20     Feb 27, 2002