They have default overlays. Once you modify you change and save under your own file name using 'save as'. And then each window, for instance the stock box or level II, has multiple defaults. All are customizable to fit whatever you need. It's funny...it's complex and has a ton of information, but is easy to set up. The other nice feature is that you can contact real tick for a 2 week demo. You can customize all your information, your charts, ect., and they carry over if you become a client. The only thing you can't customize is hot keys, as you're with a demo and the only 'route' available is the demo route, being that you're on a demo. You can actually setup your hot keys, and later change your route once your account is in place (that's when all availabe routes are available). They have all the ECN's, plus market makers if you're interested. RML has the rebate program automatically in place with ECN's. Nice.
I used RealTick for years, and it was pretty good most of the time. At times it would lag or freeze. What I didn't like about it was the order entry. Either you had an order entry window in the MM window or you double-clicked on a Lev II line to pop up an order window. The first way took up way too much screen real estate, unlike SS Pro which incorporates it into the LevII window more efficiently. The second way was slow and you still might have to adjust the price. The other thing I didn't like too much was the charting. The charts were pretty good, certainly comparable to SS Pro, but they weren't as customizable. Also, they lacked the tab feature SSPro has. If you wanted a 5 minute and a daily chart, you had to use up two windows. As I recall, RT offered some pretty powerful free scanning. Not an important feature for me, but I know a lot of people like it. You could also use some add-on scanning services. For me, I didn't think RT was worth a premium to CT. In fact, I preferred CT over RT. I can see that others might come to a different conclusion, but no one would say RT is not a top notch product.
Thanks for your imput. All thoughts are appreciated. I have four monitors so I have plenty of room to strecth out. I also use Wizetrade which I have been very succesful with. I never used the CT or Schwab charts. Rich C338
RT must have made some changes since you've used them. By using the F7 key, I believe, it puts an order entry into any screen. Obviously I use the order entry with the level II info, along with time and sales. The order entry, btw, is all customizable too. Pretty cool. What I mean by that is that you can lenghten or shorten fields, elimate fields all together, change names, or even add fields or short cuts. For example, if you want a hot key to short .05 cents below the bid price, 2,000 shares, you can set up a field in your order entry area. What you're describing almost sounds like IB. It certainly isn't RT. The charting in RT is pretty handy too. Brian Shannon of Alpha Trends absolutely loves the charting of RT. You can get a sample of what type of charting can be done with RT by going to youtube and searching alpha trends, or Brian's username of thermal1. He knows his stuff, that's for sure!
I understand there are options. I just didn't find them as convenient as Cyber/SS Pro. The charting is ok, but for me it wouldn't do some of the things SS Pro will. I'm not saying Rt is not a great platform, only that for me I preferred Cyber, which also was a lot cheaper. Plus Cyber customer service was vastly superior to any RT broker.
Cheaper? I'll be saving about half of what I normally pay for commissions (saving about 13-15G) from switching from Schwab CT/SS Pro to Real Tick. This is in regard to equity trades, as I don't do options. You're right about customer service, though it has somewhat dimished since the transition.
I would add that this is the start of my second week after switching to realtick. Overall, I am very pleased. There is a learning curve, but so far I have figured out that the charts are similar but there is not a 20 open limit and the gradient colors are way cool. also, There is a keyboard shortcut to change timeframe or you can assign charts to a tab that looks just like cyber if i want. The whole application lens itself to customization including a page toolbar and layouts for just about everything including order stats and bp. The one really big feature of Ct I miss is the alerts that can place orders to close a position. Realtick has nice conditional orders like one cancels another, but not as functional as the old cyber aleart to order feature. On the other side, realtick allows stop and market orders to ecn's, very nice. The order speed seems as fast as cyber and light years ahead of SSP. I would say it is a tough choice comparing cyber to realtick, but SSP is not cyber so there is quite a difference. I miss that little short available box too. Oh, and for me the price ends up being about the same. Now, if I could just figure out how to print...