Laser Sucks!

Quote from john12:

red ink what was the problem with laser today?has anyone called guys like serge or other higher ups with genesis and demanded an answer if they're working in fixing this?

I wish I had taken a screen shot, but i have taken many in the past and it doesn't seem to help.

The problem was a stock would be represented on the level 2 as 10.12 (bid) x 10.05 (offer) and printing 10.12 on the time and sales. Sometimes when a stock moves the offer doesn't lift and vice versa if it's going down.

Genesis is well aware of the problem and are working to fix it, they just can't seem to. As far as I know Serge doesn't work there anymore.
 
Quote from john12:

even though you're not using laser frontend the quote issue should still effect you

As you pointed out, I don't use the Laser front end for order entry (using API order entry from colocated servers instead). Also, note that I trade almost exclusively based upon Level I and time and sales data, and dont use Level II data at all in my trading.

That said, I had 2884 tickets today totaling about 520k shares and did not notice any problems for my trading today. My best indication of stale quotes would be for my slippage numbers to be unusually high on the day. My slippage numbers today were actually lower than 'normal', so I'd have to say that I did not see any issues or problems with my trading today.

However, I don't mean to suggest that there weren't problems today. Clearly something was not 'normal' for internet Laser users, as Genesis broadcast several alerts of issues in the last hour of trading.

If I had to speculate on a cause (and just guessing here)... I would guess that a possible cause is that Laser uses TCPIP messaging, which ensures that every single message (every trade, every quote, etc) is received by the client. Other firms use another internet protocol in which the messages are sent, but no effort is made to ensure that the client received the message. As a result (again, just guessing here), when clients have internet issues (ISP problems, using more bandwidth than what they have available, etc), it might bog down the quote/charting server for others using the same server. Whatever the cause, I hope they can get it working better soon. I know that these issues can be extremely frustrating for a trader.

Best of luck.
 
That is just awesome ...Eric...which brings about some interesting points....

I would just like to have a template...that would show L1 quotes...the bid...the ask...stock name....and one click trading....
One click Bid...or one click ask...you are done.... L1 quotes....

This would really streamline the front end for me....and I would trade probably 3 to 4 x what I currently trade....

L2 is not necessary for me....and I probably should/could automate....but for whatever reason I would rather put in my own 200+- trades per day....


This way ...there would be no big resource need for lots of L2s...and it would help me...and increase my business to Laser...

And maybe there is a way to do this now...and maybe I just do not know about it...

........................................................................................

Right now I put up a lot of charts and L2s that are really not necessary if I had different capabilities of displaying the info I need to make split second decisions....

What is confusing to me is that I never change the template....some days are perfect...some mornings are perfect...
I honestly do not have an answer for these issues.....
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What would normally be a good solution for me would be to simply link the watch list to L2...but the problem with this is ...that if you do not have an L2 running with a stock that you have a position in....sometimes the load to L2 from the watch list hangs....and seems to endlessly run in L2 without being able to put in a trade....if you have several L2s...you can attempt 2 or 3 entries...and one may work....very cumbersome...

The other oddity is that the chart price seems to be accurate....when the L2 is not.....

If the stock would reliably and instantly load from the watch list...I believe this would work for me.....but it just does not work reliably at this time....
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I do not view these issues as major issues...and I have full confidence that Genesis will resolve them....
 
Quote from Red_Ink_inc:

I wish I had taken a screen shot, but i have taken many in the past and it doesn't seem to help.

The problem was a stock would be represented on the level 2 as 10.12 (bid) x 10.05 (offer) and printing 10.12 on the time and sales. Sometimes when a stock moves the offer doesn't lift and vice versa if it's going down.

Genesis is well aware of the problem and are working to fix it, they just can't seem to. As far as I know Serge doesn't work there anymore.

Today was retarded - complete mess towards the close, my LII's froze and the ticker turned red trying to refresh itself..

But the stupidest problem of all is that you CANNOT put an ARCA bid or offer to lock the market AND also cannot be the first to start an ARCA level, there has to be an ARCA on that level and you can join them, but heaven forbid there is NO arca on that level and you tr y and start that level - it will immediately say - ORDER CANCELED ON ARCA - INVALID EXCHANGE METHOD.............WTF is that???????
 
Thats a lot a money just for internet conection.
I hoppe it is worth it


Quote from EricP:

My T1 is through Sprint, and it's pretty expensive at $1k per month. Depending on location, I think you can get T1's for as cheap as a couple of hundred per month these days. Also, FWIW, I have only six level II displays and eight charts open at a time on my default Laser screen.

Regarding bandwidth, a full T-1 line has 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth, smaller than the 3.0+ that many cable ISP's provide. However, as I understand it, with a T-1 line, your bandwidth is dedicated (i.e. allocated to you and only you). On the other hand, a with a cable ISP, you are sharing your bandwidth with all of your neighbors, and even though you might get 3.0+ Mbps during most times, that bandwidth can drop considerably, for example, when a neighbor is downloading a large file, etc.

Note that I am far from an ISP expert, and maybe someone else can confirm or clarify this. I'm not sure whether this is a legitamate advantage of a T1 line or not, but seems like that is what I recall.

Best of luck.
 
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