Will you stay with Cyber/Schwab if they only offer per trade pricing?

I short 4000 shares of SVN at 1.38 using their crappy SmartEx. I go to bid 2000 on ARCA at 1.30 and get filled. I look at my position and it shows I am long 2000 SVN and Short 4000 svn. I ask Live help how is that possible and they don't answer for 4 minutes. I try and enter another bid for 2000 on ARCA and I get a message that says I can't use ARCA since I have a long and short position in the stock and I need to use the SmartEx. ridiculous this crappy software.

I place my bid get filled and now it shows I am long 2K and Short 2k.

I reply in the live help while I am still waiting for a response that I closed out the position and they need to clear my account, and that their new software is terrible.

What a clusterfuck.
 
So far today, I talked to Ameritrade, Nobel, Firtsrade and tradeStation.

Ameritrade has no demo and no real view of the layouts. The best the rep could do was to tell me where the closest office is to my home and they could show me there. Makes you wonder how, a company can survive in today's world when they can't keep up with todays technology. Yet they guarantee 5 second trades LOL.

TradeStation: The name fits them well. Look at their layouts. Could take 6 months to figure out how to manuver to make a trade.

Nobel has demo downloads. Will play with them over the weekend.

Firstrade is web based and all order go through their MM. (how do they survive in this direct exchange trading world)?

Is anyone else looking? please paste your thoughts/reviews.
Thanks
Rich C338
 
Quote from Rich C338:

So far today, I talked to Ameritrade, Nobel, Firtsrade and tradeStation.

Ameritrade has no demo and no real view of the layouts. The best the rep could do was to tell me where the closest office is to my home and they could show me there. Makes you wonder how, a company can survive in today's world when they can't keep up with todays technology. Yet they guarantee 5 second trades LOL.

TradeStation: The name fits them well. Look at their layouts. Could take 6 months to figure out how to manuver to make a trade.

Nobel has demo downloads. Will play with them over the weekend.

Firstrade is web based and all order go through their MM. (how do they survive in this direct exchange trading world)?

Is anyone else looking? please paste your thoughts/reviews.
Thanks
Rich C338
More...

I think it depends on your style of trading. I can see real value to tradestaion's versatility, (although 6 months looks fast), but I scale in and out so much with small size that most of my trades would be priced at the higher rate. For someone trading more volume per ticket but not huge, it might make good sence, particularly if one wants do do some basic form of auto-trading. Also someone trading big volume may like ameritrades flat fee and 5 second deal.


I too am going to try to make a decision this weekend. I am pretty well narrowed down to omnipro or realtick.

I would love to know what you think of the software downloads from noble. I really like omnipro for the most part. I just can not figure out if it actually has pre-market charts or not. Also, I would miss a 2 min chart, oco orders and I wish the page management were better/faster. Realtick has all of this and way more, so it is just boiling down to can i live without a few features i really like of just pay more.
 
Quote from spyglass:

I short 4000 shares of SVN at 1.38 using their crappy SmartEx. I go to bid 2000 on ARCA at 1.30 and get filled. I look at my position and it shows I am long 2000 SVN and Short 4000 svn. I ask Live help how is that possible and they don't answer for 4 minutes. I try and enter another bid for 2000 on ARCA and I get a message that says I can't use ARCA since I have a long and short position in the stock and I need to use the SmartEx. ridiculous this crappy software.

I place my bid get filled and now it shows I am long 2K and Short 2k.

I reply in the live help while I am still waiting for a response that I closed out the position and they need to clear my account, and that their new software is terrible.

What a clusterfuck.
More...


now that is scary. i hope you are still in the 50 free trade window. otherwise yet another way to increase broker fees
 
E*Trade allows boxes, too. I've gotten into a couple of them unintentionally (at E*Trade, you have to explicitly choose Buy To Cover, not Buy, to close out a short position).

Both Schwab and E*Trade can flatten these positions for you, at no charge.
Not sure Schwab's Live Help can do this, as they won't do trades.
 
I like the layouts in E-Trade but their demize scares the hell out of me. Their share price has dropped from $20 to $3 over night as several traders are leaving. Looks like they are headed into bankruptcy.
 
I looked at Etrade too. Their platform looks ok, but you never know until you actually run it day after day.

As I recall they charge per trade but consider a fill over the course of one day as one trade, so that could be good for big hitters. Also, they and some of these other brokers charge you for going ECN but don't give rebates. That is pretty much a non-starter for me, as I typically add liquidity. I certainly don't advocate rebate trading per se, but when you run the numbers you just cannot avoid seeing how big a factor rebates can be, if your trading style will generate them. For someone who typically goes market or takes liquidity, a broker like Schwab that doesn't charge for them is ideal.
 
dino,
Who do you deal with at Nobel? I just checked out their Omni Pro demo and I have some questions. Definetly one to be looking at in making a final decision.
Rich C338
 
I am getting close to opening a realtick account. I really like, and will use the page manager and conditionals orders. I just have not been able to find any other software that does this as well. I still like omnipro, but now am concerned if a java application is going to provide reliable data. Also, omnipro pages load painfully slow. Still a sweet little application. I guess I could just use another data feed, but that kind of defeats the purpose of an integrated platform. Would love to hear from anyone who knows about the perils of java.

A latecomer to my shopping list is laser from geneses. I think the price and speed are totally fab, just lacking in overall features. Looks perfect for scalping, but I am a timeframe, or two up from that. Also, if I could find a discount retail broker that offers sterling pro or redi, i would check them out as well.

Thanks so much to everyone that is contributing all the great information here.
 
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