I really need to get a new broker

R

ron2368

I have been using Preferred Trade for about 18 months. I found their name at the EliteTrader site and they seemed like a huge improvement over NDB which I had been using.

Most of my trades are single day or multi day swing trades, I do about 12 rt per week. For data I use Quote.com which is fairly decent except in very active markets it can be slow. That does not impact my trading method but can be stressful in the 1 or 2 times a month where I need to make a trade decision and qcharts is dragging.

I like the Preferred software, its really easy to use and virtually trouble free. Their customer service is horrible, long phone waits and they either dont return messages sent thru their software or reply an hour later which I find unprofessional and intolerable. They have deteriorated alot this year. I am also getting tired of getting screwed by their 775 trade feature, which they route to herzog and nite. I have spoken with Preferred about these problems 3 -4 times over the last few months and my impression is they could care less.

I downloaded trials for
rediplus... way too much complicated stuff I dont need and hard to use
cyberx2.... really wierd software, ugly, froze my puter repeatedly

Thats where I am at, I am open to any suggestions. Thank you
 
Check out Interactive Brokers, www.interactivebrokers.com

I left Preferred about 18 months ago due to the exact reasons you cite. I can't imagine they have gotten any better since I left and it's scary to imagine that you've tolerated it for as long as you have.

Cybertrader is head and shoulders above Preferred, but I haven't used CyberX for at least a year, so I can't comment about it specifically. I get Cybertrader Pro and the cyber data feed for free due to my trading level, but lately have been trading more on Interactive Brokers.

IB's fees are the lowest I've found and I have had very few problems with executions. They great fees and excellent executions on options and futures as well. I have been impressed with the additions and changes to IB as well as the monitoring they do here on this site from users posting feedback and updates. Cyber used to be more pre-active, but has fallen behind in tweaking what they have and in rolling out the newer features. For example, options writing is still not implemented @ Cyber after being sucessively promised and the later delayed for the last 18 months. The Schwab relationship has not helped Cyber, except to make it more of a big corporate environment, which is a big negative IMO.

I use Quote.com (with all it's problems) and Trade Prospector www.trade-prospector.com , a Trading scanner, support and resistance system and an options analysis tool. With the right tool, any broker will perform better.

There is a site (apparently independent) that has comments from traders about many brokers which also might be of assistance. It is http://www.sonic.net/donaldj/

For myself, I prefer to have my trading tools independant of brokers so that I can evaluate them on what I pay for - EXECUTIONS and make changes when required with a minimal amount of trading impact. I find if you can be a little self-sufficient in some the of news, research, charts and scanning functions, then any broker will suffice. At that point, then I can judge the broker on the merits of the trades. This is when IB really excels.

My .02 :)
 
I would second BigEd's comments.

IB is definitely a top choice broker with the lowest commissions. The trading platform is very flexible and fast. As BigEd mentioned, we have discovered some small problems over the past year and IB has done a good job of addressing and rectifying them. Most of this has been aided greatly by "def", who works for IB and helps get the problems addressed by those who can resolve them at the company.

The customer service at IB is pretty good overall. The phone gets answered quickly in my experience and most reps are helpful and knowledgeable. Like any organization, there are a few who could use some work...they are worked pretty hard up there.

One of the great things I've found about IB's commission structure is that it allows you to scale in/out without facing big commission charges.

I also use QCharts and have had the same problems as you and others. Options quotes at QCharts are the worst. There are many stocks that QCharts claims "have no options available" that have been optionable for a year or more.

Good Luck.
 
I second all of the above comments. IB is best for intraday and swing trades, and options trading, which I do mostly now. Don't use IB for scalping, though. I had Datek and My Track, but I closed all of my accounts there. There is no reason to look further than IB if you are not making a lot of rapid-fire day trades.
 
stockoptionist,

IB is best for intraday and swing trades, and options trading...Don't use IB for scalping, though...There is no reason to look further than IB if you are not making a lot of rapid-fire day trades.

Would you please talk a little more about this. Reason being, I currently trade thru Cyber and was looking for a cheaper order-execution platform (probably not to replace Cyber, but in addition to it). Problem is, I do alot of scalping.
 
Magna,
First off, I'm not a daytrader; I've tried daytrading before but it doesn't fit my trading style. So I can only speak from my experience. The reason I think IB is not very good for scalping is that you can't just simply click on a market maker on a Level II screen and then send an order. To be sure, for IB, you still set up multiple lines on the IB screen with various market makers, but that's still not from a Level II screen, and it's a lot of hassle. I believe you can do that with Cyber, don't you? In any case, this is just my view; and I don't have a very strong opinion on that. Your experience may vary.

stockoptionist
 
nice to see some positive comments, thanks.

as for scalping, this may have been more of an issue before best_ecn and before supersoes. however, with the hot keys and best ecn, i believe IB is at a minimum on par with the competition.

however, if you do indeed want to route an order to a specific market maker, IB currently will not allow that option.
 
Ron

Ive used Cyberx2 for a couple of years now. Its a very reliable and ez to use platform. Got to use a cable or dsl service for the best stability. If you think Cyberx2 is a weird and ugly platform, your really gonna hate Interactive Brokers, its about as primitive as you can get. U can also try Andover Trading or Equity Trading.

Sterling
 
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