# Straight through processing



## cuttlefish (5 July 2006)

I placed a sell order (via comsec pro-trader) this morning at 10:25:35 but it didn't get processed until 10:25:50  - thats a 15 second delay between hitting the go button and the order getting filled and it was an at-market order. I watched numerous orders go through while it didn't go to market. I thought comsec had straight through processing, but I know sometimes they manually intervene as well (and 15 seconds is a long time so to me it seems like its had a manual review before placement?) 

Normally when I place an order its instantaneous - I hit go and it appears immediately in the depth in what seems like under 1 second.

Just curious if anyone knows anything about this side of things and how it gets treated with comsec and/or other brokers?  What are the criteria for manual intervention etc.?

(I've sent this question off to commsec as well so I'll put their reply up when it comes through).


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## Happy (5 July 2006)

Few times I had doubts, congestion was the explanation and not necessarily on stock in question.


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## mit (5 July 2006)

I find that it happens to me with at market orders but if I put a limit order at the offer price it seems to go quicker. I also put a limit at the offer incase the offer has shrunk when I click the button and I end paying more than I expect.

MIT


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## cuttlefish (5 July 2006)

thanks - this was a sell order at market and I was happy to clean out the bid - a stop loss is a stop loss. luckily overall it was quite a profitable trade but the delay still cost me a couple of K which was annoying. 

I've sent a question to comsec but they seem to take a few days to get back to support emails     nothing like customer service.


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## mit (6 July 2006)

cuttlefish said:
			
		

> thanks - this was a sell order at market and I was happy to clean out the bid - a stop loss is a stop loss. luckily overall it was quite a profitable trade but the delay still cost me a couple of K which was annoying.
> 
> I've sent a question to comsec but they seem to take a few days to get back to support emails     nothing like customer service.




What I forgot to add that I get the feeling that Market Orders are handled manually while limit orders go straight through and that's why there is a delay.

MIT


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## cuttlefish (6 July 2006)

ah ok - funny because if you're putting a market order on its a pretty aggressive/immediate thing to do so you'd want the fastest processing possible but it might be the slowest way if what you say is true.  Though if they want to avoid the risk of silly price spikes maybe manual processing of market orders makes sense.  So maybe its better to put a limit order with a very wide limit than a market order.

It'll be interesting to see what comsec says about it (when they get back to me in a few days with their prompt customer service   ).


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## 123enen (6 July 2006)

If this happens again try to look at the order through "view equity orders".
Sometimes you will see "processing" or you may see " in oats"( don't know what that means -I think it is an internal comsec system.

I'm sure comsec has internal rules relating to volume or value,( especially if margin lending is involved) that sometimes requires internal approval.

YES -even if it is a sell order - how stupid.

I have meant several times to question this but never have.


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## cuttlefish (6 July 2006)

yeah I was looking at the order status - it was just saying 'processing' the whole time, then eventually came back as in market then a split second later completed.  The order history shows the placement time vs the execution time with the 15 second delay as well.


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## carmo (6 July 2006)

I have been caught on a "at market order", never again. Though it still beats the good old days of using a broker when I always seemed to pay the "high" of the day on the stock I was buying!!


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## cuttlefish (6 July 2006)

carmo said:
			
		

> Though it still beats the good old days of using a broker when I always seemed to pay the "high" of the day on the stock I was buying!!




yeah good point - how things have changed.   Live market depth and straight through processing  - what a luxury.


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## cuttlefish (27 July 2006)

I've got a history of investing but experimenting with trading lately - both in options and stocks. 

Anyway, after some issues with some trades getting put into manual processing lately I've gotten feedback (finally) from comsec technical support.

trades > approx $10,000 go into manual processing. Seems like not all do from experience but if you put trades above $15K they seem to consistently get put into manual processing. Sometimes this only takes 10 or 15 seconds but other times can take up to a minute. (and comsec support confirmed this fact that it can take up to a minute).

Also if you trade the same stock multiple times in a day (3 trades seems to be enough) you get put into manual processing as well - again up to 1 minute wait. 

Pretty ridiculous so I'm going to have to change brokers. I've heard people talk of WebIress - just curious what is this platform like - is it a desktop application or web based. Are there any issues with straight through processing? Does it provide true live data?

Things I like in protrader include: live prices, live depth, live IAP, VWAP, 'live' (supposedly) options prices and depth though I'm not convinced, live course of sales, alerts, news, multiple trading windows,  order entry popup on alerts, conditional trading etc.  - its a pretty good platform overall - pity about their backend processes that mean you end up in manual processing for sneezing.

Does WebIress have all this sort of stuff? 

I've also heard people mention TraderPro - whats that platform like?

And on any alternatives - whats their story on straight-though processing.

thanks for any replies.


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## sails (27 July 2006)

Here is a link to the WebIress demo on Morrison's site with delayed data: http://www.morrisonsecurities.com/int_trading.htm - about the centre of the page you will see the heading "WebIRESS" then embedded in the paragraph it has "click here" for the demo.   That way you can check it out for yourself to see if the platform is suitable for you -   Morrisons are STP for shares, warrants and long option premiums.  But if you want to write options, that has to be done with a phone call and they charge extra.

I think Trader Dealer also have a demo on their site, but not sure if options are STP with them.  However they do allow several trades in one day for one fee - check their website for details.  Each broker has different pros and cons...

One nice thing with WebIress is options IV.  By typing in the share code + "IV" into a price chart(eg BHPIV that will show the IV for BHP).  I really like WebIress and it does have a lot of features.

Hope this helps!


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## spitrader1 (27 July 2006)

cuttlefish said:
			
		

> I placed a sell order (via comsec pro-trader) this morning at 10:25:35 but it didn't get processed until 10:25:50  - thats a 15 second delay between hitting the go button and the order getting filled and it was an at-market order. I watched numerous orders go through while it didn't go to market. I thought comsec had straight through processing, but I know sometimes they manually intervene as well (and 15 seconds is a long time so to me it seems like its had a manual review before placement?)
> 
> Normally when I place an order its instantaneous - I hit go and it appears immediately in the depth in what seems like under 1 second.
> 
> ...




if your sell order was taking down the bid more than 5 price steps usually a seats operator will have to get involved. not sure if yours was five or not but this is defiantely a case where they intervene.


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