to limitdown:
The software I use, as DATTrader pointed out, is indeed based upon the original Watcher software. The entire platform is designed around momentum trading. We have your standard L2 windows w/ T&S, market scans, risers/fallers, position manager, futures/market ticker, *very* rudimentary line graphs (absolutely useless), and a few other basic options.
The only notable way in which the Watcher-derived software packages differ from the RT3/Cybertrader/REDIPlus/etc type packages for L2 trading is the position manager. The position manager constantly scrolls by with information about market participants ticking in your box (with different filter levels -- every tick, only price changes + bid/offer joins, or only price changes). At my firm, we also have access to the complete INCA, REDI, MKXT, ISLD, and ARCA books, not vital, but a big help nonetheless.
Another feature we have that's a *huge* help that I would probably find lacking were I to trade at another firm using another platform is that information for every trade order executed at our firm is broadcast to every trader. You'll receive time of execution, size, counter-party, and whether the stock was bought at the bid, sold at the offer, sold at the bid, or bought at the offer. Since our firm easily does 5-20% of the volume in some of the Nasdaq's more active stocks, there is a *lot* of useful information to be gathered.
Since a lot of people pointed out that L2 trading requires reading "into" the box as opposed to simply staring at the box, you can imagine that the trade execution information is incredibly useful. With a platform that excludes this feature, such as RT3 or REDIPlus (probably why Don Bright finds that L2 trading is silly), you have to work a lot harder to figure out what's going on. Trading something like a CSCO, this information may not be as useful, because someone like GSCO, MSCO, FBCO, LEHM, etc may pay lots of offers and hit lots of bids when they're not even on the inside market. But in something a little less liquid like a TMPW or EXPE, being able to see MMs hit the bid or pay the offer when they're 50c from the inside market gives you a bit more information as to where the stock may be headed.
