Freetrade does not allow Direct Routing to ISLAND (contrary to their own help files)

T

taumeson

FYI, a number of people mentioned that freetrade.com, while not allowing Direct Routing in general, allows you to route to ISLAND if you use the CommandCenter tool (which is available at a fee)

This is also affirmed by their help files on their website (Help, Buy/Sell Stock help, Direct Routing)

However after opening an account with them and subscribing to their Streamer Service (which allows use of Command Center) I find that I can not place direct routes to ISLAND. After sending an email to their helpdesk I am told the following (quote entire reply)

Dear Valued Freetrade Client:

We do not offer direct routing at Freetrade. Our commission structure cannot absorb the extra costs like ECN fees that are incurred with direct routing.

The help file you are referencing is a standard part of the Command Center, which is part of the Ameritrade system, and our help file is the same.

If you need Direct Routing, you might want to consider an account with our sister company, Ameritrade and can find them at www.freetrade.com

Sincerely,

Client Services
Freetrade by Ameritrade
Division of Ameritrade, Inc.
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So I feel pretty violated by this... I havent experimented with Freetrade's "autoroute" enough to know just how shitty of a price they give you (they say in their help files that they make $$$ off of routing to firms which can in turn make money off "the spread") but now that makes me feel pretty suspicious...

Anyone else use freetrade? their thoughts? Is this something they just reciently changed because they were loosing money on people routing to Island?
 
I used to be with Freetrade, but after several bad fills/executions, I moved my account to Interactive Brokers. Commissions are reasonable, platform is easy to use, and the executions are FAST.

-FastTrader :cool:
 
I can't complain on fills, I use limit orders a lot but the times I've used market orders they have come in ok. Hey I sold the Q's with a limit order at 31.47. Now how many people do you know of that did that?

Any other broker offer free limit orders?
 
Quote from MRWSM:

I can't complain on fills, I use limit orders a lot but the times I've used market orders they have come in ok. Hey I sold the Q's with a limit order at 31.47. Now how many people do you know of that did that?

Any other broker offer free limit orders?
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To me, the trades just seem suspicously sluggish... like a noticable gap in time between where the market is and the time my limit sells get executed... maybe it's just me being paranoid because of their routing disclaimer, but I think i'll have to opt out of freetrade anyway... their software packages suck (streams timeout and dont auto-reconnect unless you manually change the values you want to look at, and I've already recieved a 'ghost' trade... saying I bought 1600 shares of QQQ even though the trade actually never took place !!!!)

So just a warning... though I guess the warning about the software has more to do with Ameritrade than "FreeTrade" persay.

-Jason
 
Quote from taumeson:


...saying I bought 1600 shares of QQQ even though the trade actually never took place !!!!)...
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To clarify, I put in a Limit Buy for 1600 shares in "Command Center" via FreeTrade and the purchase was recorded in the Command Center window, but upon trying to sell those shares it said I didnt own them... Manually looking at my account via the FreeTrade website shows that the LimitBuy never took place, and closing/re-opening Command Center made the ghost transaction disapear.
 
Quote from taumeson:



To clarify, I put in a Limit Buy for 1600 shares in "Command Center" via FreeTrade and the purchase was recorded in the Command Center window, but upon trying to sell those shares it said I didnt own them... Manually looking at my account via the FreeTrade website shows that the LimitBuy never took place, and closing/re-opening Command Center made the ghost transaction disapear.
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That's not good. I never tried their command center. Probably never will.
 
Does someone know who is the next cheapest broker
with unlimited shares with "direct access order routing"?

I am looking for net $5/trade for unlimited shares including ecn
passtrough fees.
 
Just did a calc with IB vs LowTrades.com

Assume 3000 shares BUY transaction

IB would be..
500 shares * $0.01 = Commission $5.00 plus 2500 shares * 0.005 = commission $12.50 . TOTAL commission $17.50

LowTrades...say thru ECN ARCA
$5.00 plus 3000 * 0.005 = commission $9.00 TOTAL commoission $14.00

I have seen there software and it looks crappy, IB still the winners ...

What do you think....
 
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