Perspective

9 Comments

    • ON: Fri Apr 25th 05:34 AM
      Commented on:
      E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?
      Voice of Reason, why not register to see their demo, you can always provide a "dumb" email address. Think Or Swim (TOS) offers a great charting package. They have their own real time charts which goes back about 20years and has scripting ability so you can write your own indicators or customize as you see fit. They also offer Prophet.net charts for people that like to go crazy with indicators. As far as news you get live CNBC tv, Live market news audio (different from Shadow Trader), and a live data feed that can be filtered for a particular stock. Oh another interesting, but fairly useless, feature is on their charts they have a CNBC indicator, a little symbol appears on the time line where their stock was mentioned on CNBC. A real-time intra day scanner is also part of the package. As far as research (fundamentals) you'll have to refer to Yahoo/MSN/Google. I've always used Yahoo for fundamental data so I'm not familiar with any broker's research capabilities. I'm a day trader and do 99.9% of my trading with IB and keep TOS as a backup. But if I were a swing only trader and wanted a complete package TOS would be it. Too bad their 1.5cent/share commission is 200% more than IB's 1/2cent.
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    • ON: Wed Apr 23rd 11:56 AM
      Commented on:
      E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?
      Well ,Voice of Reason, I would have to agree with you there, Think Or Swim is a dumb name like I mentioned before. But they do backup their slick interface with some nice features especially for options traders. You can also trade futures in the same account. One nice/funny feature they have is a Shadow Trader chat room. Basically a guy who sits around all day making commentaries on the market and brings attention to certain stocks. The guy also takes questions from users and you can see his charts in real time. The best part is during slow times he gets out a trading improvement book and starts to read it to you! Even if you're at work listening to him all day long would provide some very good market information and trading education. Features like that are sprinkled all over their platform, go take a look.
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    • ON: Tue Apr 22nd 08:33 AM
      Commented on:
      E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?
      ezmaass1, I understand what you are trying to say. I also think Think Or Swim is a dumb name but they do have a pretty slick interface and some decent tools for options. They're the Apple computer of the trading world.

      Anyway, I was not only talking about the software platform but also mentioned the commissions and the breadth and depth of the trading at IB compared to Etrade. But my original response was addressing a post that claimed Etrade had the best platform. My point is not to convince everyone to leave Etrade for Think Or Swim or IB but to correct them when they say Etrade has the best platform, which in terms of functionality it certainly does not. However, everyone is entitled to the user interface design that they like. So if that person said "I find Etrade's platform best suited to me" then I wouldn't have responded.
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    • ON: Tue Apr 22nd 05:52 AM
      Commented on:
      E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?
      Voice of Reason, I like your name because it's so antonym like. First of all YOU need to go to Think Or Swim's site and look at the demo before you embarrass yourself any further. Second didn't you read that part where I said IB let's you trade ANYTHING from their platform? Can Etrade trade everything? At this point the answer should be clear. But I'll provide details anyway, this means Futures, Options, Currency, Single Stock Futures, BONDS, and of course Stocks. They also have the most extensive list of countries that you can trade. What does Etrade have like 7 (and they made a big deal about it, lol). They have a pretty niffty interface for spread trading for those that like to do things like pairs trading or complex options trading. And if this wasn't enough IB is direct access to the market. And to finish it off their commissions are ridiculously cheap like 0.005/share and $1/contract for options. So when I buy 200 shares of Apple it only costs me $1 in commissions. Basically if we were to submit orders at the same time I'd beat you to the market every single time and pay much less. So the correct question is what does Etrade have that others do not??????? But I do like their commercials.
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    • ON: Tue Apr 22nd 05:28 AM
      Commented on:
      Love Amazon the Company, But Can't Stand the Stock Here
      Joseph, you completely missed the point with AMZN. It's not just a retailer, it's a technology innovator that also has a huge retailing business. I suggest you do more than just shop around at AMZN and dive a little more into their other services. Like their new service for small businesses, not only do they serve as a virtual back end they also provide supply chain management services! They are becoming to the consummer/small business what Oracle and SAP are to big businesses. That my friend is more than just a retailer like Sharper Image. In addition they are constantly innovating on the technology side with products like the Kindle, not ground breaking but you get the idea that AMZN isn't just sitting around just selling gadgets like Best Buy. AMZN is much like google (but with less talented people) and they seem to be hitting their stride finally. It should get very interesting from here. I do hope they disappoint when they announce their earnings, I'd love to get some of their stock in the 50s.
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    • ON: Mon Apr 21st 04:58 AM
      Commented on:
      E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?
      E-Trade has the best platform? Are you guys joking? Anyone heard of Think Or Swim? Even Interactive Brokers's non user friendly interface is offset by the incredible array of trading capabilities (basicaly can trade anything) built into their system not to mention their rock bottom commission prices. I also find it funny that Mrs. Reed says E-Trade has a reputation for solid security, is that so. I would recommend people to head over to EliteTrader.com and do a search on E-Trade to read about people's experience on their accounts getting hacked. E-Trade it seems is actually one of the worst ones. Although I think they did beef up their security but it just happened fairly recently. I was a former customer and I did not leave them because they sucked per se, I just needed more from my platforms and moved to the two I mentioned above. I would however like to see the company turn around because I like their commercials.
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    • ON: Fri Mar 28th 05:29 AM
      Commented on:
      Bear Stearns’ Bailout by the Fed, JPM: A Century Old Conspiracy
      Why do people believe in such stupid things in this day and age? Actually with all the information tools available these days how can junk like this not spread around like a bad virus.

      Umm, where should we start... How about all the other central banks in the world, are they also conspiring with the US Fed?
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    • ON: Fri Mar 7th 03:25 AM
      Commented on:
      In Which Direction is the Price of Oil Headed?
      I thought the major reason behind oil's run is the falling dollar. The countries that use the dollar or are pegged to it have seen it rise vs. countries that use Euros have pretty much seen oil at steady levels.
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    • ON: Sun Jan 13th 11:19 AM
      Commented on:
      Syntax-Brillian: Too Little, Too Late?
      BRLC is going down. The 2nd tier market for TVs is a dying industry as more and more mainland Chinese manufacturers crowd the market. Sales may increase but the overall margins will shrink. Only those 1st tier innovative companies will survive. Who the heck will want to pay any kind of serious money for an Olevia tv that weights twice as much a 1st tier tv w/ less than stellar quality??? Seriously TWICE as much, isn't the whole idea of flat panel tvs to go smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient? BRCL will continue to drop.
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