The Online Trader? thoughts?

barfly11 · Jul 21, 2006

Hi,

I am new to this forum and looking around at a few of the threads here regarding DMA solutions, and was wondering if anyone had heard, or used a product called The Online Trader (http://www.theonlinetrader.com/eng/index.html)?

I have downloaded their trial version and it looks very good - multi-asset, fast and reasonable pricings...but I am yet to hear someone else's review of the product....

If anyone else has used it, or know someone that is, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

barfly11 · Jul 24, 2006

anyone?

jorgeamado88 · Jul 24, 2006

I've used The Online Trader for many years now - I think around five years or so. I think it's pretty good, and they'll give you a free trial. If you plan on trading Nordic stocks I would choose this over any other platform, but not for futures or forex.

Also, be aware that at times they have problems with quote dissemination from the stock exchanges - sometimes it's the exchanges (most frequently) and sometimes it's them. Can't believe this is 2006 and quotes go down.

Pretty solid charting I'd say. Their trade reporting is about 0.3-0.5 seconds after the exchanges (I trade Oslo Stock Exchange and reside in Oslo, and I have a java broker feed which beats TOT on this) but order book updates are on time. This is way better than eSignal which are even slower.

They offer the Norwegian chat channel which is helpful if you trade Norwegian stocks and is a mid-size trader (however you define that).

They have integrated order handling with a few brokers, I haven't used this feature and handle my orders separately for now. I am currently negotiating with one of the brokers to switch part of my account and get them to pay for TOT in the process.

You're mentioning price. Well, they're not cheap, but I think considering what they're offering they're not too pricey either. Some of their exchange fees has been bloated, I don't know why. I don't think that's a positive, it kind of gives me that eSignal "we'll suck you dry"-feeling. When exchange-fees are so low in the US (for level 1) they should not have to price it up.

Their option analytics is nice for someone not going too deep into it - you get the greeks, but no visuals of vol-smile and so on.

All in all it's a very solid platform. I don't think I've had a crash the last 3-4 years for sure, so it's definitely stable and far into the development process. They provide updates from time to time, and add new features on request (I've been in their beta program for some time, and they listen to feedback).

Hope this is helpful - if you have any more questions I'll try to answer them here.

barfly11 · Jul 25, 2006

Quote from jorgeamado88:

Some of their exchange fees has been bloated, I don't know why. I don't think that's a positive, it kind of gives me that eSignal "we'll suck you dry"-feeling. When exchange-fees are so low in the US (for level 1) they should not have to price it up.

.

Thanks for your response.

This quote got me a little though, as this page lists the exchange fees http://www.theonlinetrader.com/common/exchangefees_2006.htm.

Are you saying these have been increased?

I work a mid-sized European bank and we are after a solid DMA solution for us and this looks like it could be the one. As so far I have heard nothing but good things about the system from their users and partners.

Thanks again for your reponse

jorgeamado88 · Aug 2, 2006

Quote from barfly11:
This quote got me a little though, as this page lists the exchange fees http://www.theonlinetrader.com/common/exchangefees_2006.htm.

Are you saying these have been increased?

I work a mid-sized European bank and we are after a solid DMA solution for us and this looks like it could be the one. As so far I have heard nothing but good things about the system from their users and partners.

The fees you've got a link to are very different from what I'm paying. If you go to http://www.theonlinetrader.com/nor/pricelist.htm you'll see that the difference between Oslo SE level 1 and 2 is 200 kroner, whereas you're being quoted a 90 kroner difference. So I'm probably getting ripped off because I am Norwegian (this is not surprising or unusual, by the way). You can also from my link compare the datafees for various US exchanges to the exchanges' official fee structure, and you'll see it's higher.

However, all of this is irrelevant if it doesn't apply to you or your clients

They're just pricing their product differently to different markets, and that's just the way they do business.

Good luck, I am a happy customer (aware of being fleeced, but so are many eSignal customers I guess). Been using it for many years now, cannot remember how long.

EDIT: Actually the Oslo SE prices you've got on your pricelist are the new ones from Oct 1st, and the ones I linked to are old. The new prices are here: http://www.theonlinetrader.com/nor/pricelist_01102006.htm and the new difference will be 150 kroner for me.