Quote from tomf:
Hi,
normally I wouldn't care to reply on such a biased thread but I've just been out and had a few beers so I hope you won't care if I give my 0.02cents.
Beyond any doubt Echo provides a good "climate" for traders, they have structure and professionalism as foundation. But (I speak of 1 year experience of trading with them) they carry out ideas from traders, etc. on a very slow basis. Let me give an example...
I offered them to make their new website... I was told "we have something going". Look what they have now... every professional website designer would close his eyes (I made GreenTree's). My offering was one year ago!!!. Same for a chat for internal traders.... we have something going ... I know that they don't have anything yet.
This market environement demands that every company offers its traders everything possible to achieve his goals. Every trader has it's own strategy, style and way of trading this market. So it's the company's duty to help him with this effort. This is just something Echo doesn't provide at all or lacks behind other companies. Hence my conclusion is that they don't offer the responsiveness a company should have in this business whereas they would have a solid company foundation as basement. So, my opinion is... If you want an "old settled" company with solid foundation, Echo is definitely an option .. but as soon as you want to be treated as real customer and want your ideas to be fulfilled (which is essential in this market environment) better look twice before you pick your choice
So what is it that you do? Build web sites or trade?
I will go easy on you since you admitted to being under the influence, and I certainly don't mind if you offer us your two cents. I will take issue however, with your claims, statements, irrelevant comments and possibly your grammar and composition.
What kind of example is the amount of time it takes to design a new website? What does that have to do with carrying out a traders ideas? What does that even have to do with trading? Once again, I ask, do you trade or build web sites? If your idea of a traders idea is to get your firm to pay you for designing a web site, then maybe you should give up on the idea of trading in your time off from building web sites.
As for an internal chat medium (assuming that that's what you mean by "chat for internal traders"), what is it that you would want? Someone to type in all their trades and ideas to you so that you can read and follow? I know I don't want to watch anyone trade who has the time to type in a chat forum all that they are doing and thinking. However, if that is what you want there are plenty of those websites on the internet that you can subscribe to for that. This one here has it and it doesn't even cost anything. Maybe you would like a chat medium so that you could communicate with the ECHO staff if you had a question, comment or problem? Well we have always had that ability as I am sure you must know. Finally, as it seems you are uninformed, we do have an audio broadcast available to our traders.
Let me tell you a little story.
I went to a restaurant last night and I got great service and the food was great they really treated me like a customer. I really felt like a customer, I was a happy customer.
ReferenceQuote from tomf 10/26/02:
I've been with Echo since january and don't have the slightest regret that i joined them. The support is awesome... if you have a problem or a question you can always reach them via IM or phone. The software is top notch and the guys in there are always friendly and helpful. Maybe i should add that I trade with them remote from Germany on a DSL line and the connection speed and order execution is damn fast. conclusio: if you want to go prop definetly have a look at them =)
Then they came over and gave me the bill, and with the bottle of Cristal and dinner and everything it came to $750. I was so upset because I only had $300, so I told them, "look, I am the customer and I think the customer is always right, and this bill is more than I can afford." They were very nice about it, they even let me order some dessert after that. I was a very happy customer. Then, I realized that I needed a glass of Grappa after my dessert and you know what they said? They said that if they gave me the wine, my bill would be about $900 and since I was only going to be paying $300 they thought that I should not have the wine. They were still friendly about it, even though they were going to lose money on me, but I just could not believe it. I got very upset because I could not have an expensive glass of dessert wine for free. So as soon as I got home that night after having a few beers I went on a restaurant review forum on the web and I gave them my '0.02cents'.
The moral of the story for those of you who missed it is: ......
To be continued...

