Island only costs $1 per order taken out of the book. It is free to enter orders into the book, even if your order gets executed on SelectNet, so you can start using Island instead of SelectNet right away and saving at least $1.50 per trade while getting more executions. It’s much faster than SelectNet too.

Island also has a matching function that automatically pairs off matching orders. This means more executions for all Island participants.

Finally, Every trade on Island is completely anonymous, both pre- and post-execution.

IClient is a program that acts as front end to the Island Trading System. It lets the user view orders on Island, enter orders into Island, and execute Island takeout orders. It also lets you use tickers to monitor all orders entered in stocks you are interested in.

IClient was written as a sample program to show how easy it is to interface to the Island system. It is written in FoxPro, the lingua franca of the information world. The code is very straightforward and easy to read. Because it does pretty much everything you need to access Island, some firms just used IClient as their primary interface. That's OK with me, but remember that this program was just written as a simple demo, so don't complain if it's ugly or doesn't work exactly the way you want it to. If you start using Island a lot, it will probably be worth it to integrate Island into your in-house trading system. The Island spec is so simple that it will only take a few hours for your programers to learn. Nonetheless, IClient is great for getting into Island just to try it out, without doing any work.

After you receive an execution on Island, you need only write a ticket for the trade. All ACT reporting and clearing is taken care of for you by Island. Just write a regular ACT ticket with DATK as the contra. The contra will change to ISLD as soon as we get the necessary NASDAQ data line working.

While the Island system is capable of trading down to 1/1024ths, all prices in IClient are displayed in 1/16ths.

1. Get a computer to run IClient on. You will need at least a 486 with 1 megabyte RAM and a VGA color screen. You will also need a U.S. Robotics Sportster or Courier 28.8Kbs modem on COM2 if you want to connect using an normal telephone line. Dialing up with a phone line is the easiest and fastest way to get connected. Latter, you may want to install leased lines.
2. Contact me or the sponsor firm and let us know that you want access to Island using IClient. You must provide your firm's MMID for ACT. I will setup a port that will give you access to the Island system. You will get a phone number and a password. You will need both of these to connect. Don't tell the password to anyone who is not authorized to enter and execute trades.
3. Get a copy of my WREMOTE software. This program lets you connect using regular phone lines and a modem. It is available for download on my web site at WWW.JOSH.COM. If you do not have accesss to the web, let me know and I will FedEx a floppy disk.
4. WREMOTE comes as a compressed file called PACK.EXE. To install the program, just execute PACK.EXE, it will create about 10 files in the current directory.
5. To connect to Island, type WATCHER 2 1-212-555-1212 and press enter. The 2 means use the modem on port COM2. The 1-212-555-1212 should be replaced with the phone number you were given in step #2.
6. You will hear the modem dialing and connecting. Soon, you have to type in your password.
7. You should now see the IClient screen in all it's glory.
8. When you first connect, you are in test mode. You can do everything except enter orders in non-TEST stocks. This gives you a chance to safely play around and learn the system. If you execute orders in TEST stocks, these trades will be ACTed to you just like real trades.
9. When you are confident and ready, call me and tell me to enable your IClient. Ten seconds later, you will be able to enter and execute real orders on Island!
10. Start off by just redirecting you normal SelectNet orders into Island. You will get more executions, and save at least $1.50 per trade.
11. Now that you love Island, it is probably time for you to integrate Island into your internal trading system. IClient is great, but you are limited to just one terminal, and it's ugly. If you don't have your own trading system, talk to me about setting up your NADAQ workstations to be Island-enabled. There are also many commercial trading systems available like TCAM, Townsend, Watcher, and CyberTrader that offer direct access to Island.

The IClient screen has three display areas along the bottom of the screen. Each display area shows the open orders in one stock. The currently active area has a border around it. Only one area can be active at a time. Pressing the <TAB> key moves one area to the right, <SHIFT-TAB> moves to the left.

To hit up a stock, just type the four or five letter symbol and press <ENTER>. If there are any orders on the book for this stock, you will see them appear in the area. Bids are on the left with the highest bid listed first, Offers are on the right, lowest first. The area will continue to update reflecting orders being entered into and executed out of the book.

Press <F1> to display the help page. It just shows a brief reminder of the functions or various keys.

Press <F2> to display the Ticker Page. This page shows you any time an order is entered into the book for any stock you have set on your tickers. The ticker line shows you the order as entered, the Time In Force for the order, and the current best bid and best offer on the book.

To add a stock to your tickers, hit up the symbol in the current active display area. Press the <+> key to select the color you wish orders to appear in the ticker window. Pressing <+> once will add the stock as a white ticker, pressing <+> again will make it yellow. You will see an "*" next to the stock symbol in the display area indicating that the stock is on you ticker.

You can remove a stock from your tickers by hitting up the symbol in a display area and pressing the <=> key.

Pressing <F3> brings up the open orders page. This page shows any orders you have currently active on the book. You can scroll though the list using the <Up Arrow> and <Down Arrow> keys. Pressing the <End> key will refresh the screen, removing any non-open orders.

You can cancel any open order by scrolling to it, and pressing the <\> key. You should see the status of the order change as it is canceled.

You may see flashing blue down-arrows indicating that there are more orders beyond the bottom of the window. To see these orders, scroll down using the <Down Arrow> or <End> keys.

Pressing <F4> brings up the all orders page. This page shows every order you've entered today, regardless of it's status. All the same keys that work on the Open Orders page work here.

Pressing <F5> brings up the executed orders page. This page shows every one of your executed orders from today. Each order is followed by either (MM) or (OE) indicating how you should enter you side of the ACT trade. All the same keys that work on the Open Orders page work here.

Press <F6> shows the debug screen. Here you will see every message that is passed between the IClient and Island. This is intended to help developers by letting them watch Island traffic in real time.

When a message is first received, it pops up over the screen. Pressing <F7> will clear the message pop-up. Pressing <F7> when there is no pop-up will switch to the message page. Here you will be able to review any messages that you have received during the day. Messages just alert you to something like outstanding ACT trades, or system alerts.

The dialog window is always visible in the upper left corner of the screen. Here you will see every event that effects you orders, including entry, rejection, execution, and cancels.

To enter an order, first hit up the stock in the active display area. All order entry begin by pressing a Shifted key. The active Shift keys are:

<Shift-B> Buy 1000 <Shift-S> Long Sell 1000

<Shift-N> Buy 2000 <Shift-D> Long Sell 2000

<Shift-V> Buy 500 <Shift-A> Long Sell 500

To enter a Bid, press <Shift-B>. The order entry template will appear in the area with the default of "B1000". Press the semicolon followed by the price you with to pay. All prices are in fractions. For example to Buy 1000 shares at 12.5, you type "B1000;12 1/2" and press <ENTER>.

You can adjust the price an 1/8 at a time before you enter the order using the <Left Arrow> and <Right Arrow> keys. For example, you may find it easier to type "<Shift-B>;13<Left Arrow>" rather than typing "<Shift-B>;12 7/8". If there are already orders in the stock, you can bypass typing any price at all by just using the arrow keys to select your desired price.

You can manually enter any number of shares up to 9999 by backspacing over and typing the desired quantity.

By default, IClient enters order with a Time In Force of 3 minutes, however, you can manually enter a TIF after the price by separating it with a semicolon. For example: "B1000;10 7/8;10" enters a buy 1000 shares at a price of 10 7/8 that will time out in 10 minutes.

A Time in Force of 0 enters a Fill or Kill order. Fill or Kill scan the book for a match, and if no match is found, are returned unexecuted. A Fill or Kill order will not be entered into the book, it is a take out only order.

A Time in Force of 99 enters a Day order. Day orders do not time out and remain in force for the rest of the day.

Regardless of the Time in Force, any open order may be canceled at any time by selecting it on page 3 or 4 and pressing <\>.

If you are trying to buy stock at or above the NASDAQ inside ask, or sell stock at or below the NASDAQ inside bid, you must enter your order as a Fill Or Fill. This prevents you from entering an order that could lock or cross the NASDAQ inside market and committing an NASD rule violation. If you don’t use Fill or Kill for orders at or better than the NASDAQ inside, Island will reject your order.