I was faithful to TS up til last year, 15 years!! UNTIL, I saw their true colors!!

Tradestation Securities doesn't want you to make money... it's just that simple!! They would rather you lose $$$ over & over... and burn thru your account.... COMMISSIONS BABY!!

Early last year (2011), I finally, after years & years became quite profitable!! I was doing on 1, 2 & 3 lot trades only.... and making from $1500 - $3500 per day!! YES, PER DAY!!

And, part of my mental trading process was to get that $$$ out of my account, ASAP!! Simply mental on my part.. don't ask!

SO, I was having them mail a check to me every 1-2 days for anywhere from $2000-$5000 each!! Hey, It's MY MONEY... I WANTED IT!!

Until, one day I got a call from a guy, who identified himself as Shivon Swarth, have no idea if that was his correct name or not, doesn't matter!!

He proceeded to tell me... I couldn't take money out of my account like that... I WAS ASKING FOR TOO MANY CHECKS!! And, that I could only do 1 or 2 a month from now on... of course, when I asked where does it state that??? His reply was... "WELL, IT'S OUR POLICY! You'll have to stop immediately!!" When I told him that I wasn't going to change my NOW PROFITABLE TRADING STRATEGY... simply because it was... "too many checks!" I wanted to SEE THIS "POLICY" IN WRITING!! He refused to show me... wouldn't transfer me to his supervisor AT ALL!! When I finally tracked down the "supervisor", Tom Hammergren (maybe not real either)... HE NEVER WAS THERE... AND NEVER RETURNED ONE OF MY MORE THAN 20 MESSAGES TO HIS VOICE MAIL!! That SAME DAY... SHIVON, called me back, and said... they were CLOSING MY ACCOUNT... and that "THEY DON'T WANT CUSTOMERS LIKE ME!!"

WTF... They don't want LOYAL or PROFITABLE customers?? Which one was it???

I had both a Futures & Securities account with TS at the time... which at one point had over $200,000.00 in them!!

To this day... I still can't figure that one out!!

Don't get me wrong, I still like the PROGRAM... TRADESTATION... BUT, the TRADESTATION SECURITIES part... NO THANKS!!

Worse part is... my check requests were ALL done via electronic, online... BY ME ALONE... NO HUMAN INTERVENTION ON THERE END AT ALL!!! I guess, it was just too much for there computers to handle... 1 check every day or two!! Go figure!!

PLEASE... if anyone else has had a similar experience... please contact me!!

PS... my INTERACTIVE BROKERS ACCOUT, which does it all in one account... they will give me 1 free, check, wire or ACH per month... then THERE WRITTEN POLICY says, simply enoungh... $1.00 per ACH there after.... NO PROBLEM!!

Guess what.... IB had NEVER CALLED ME to say too may ACH's!! ca-ching!!

Here's the way their TV commercial on CNBC, should really go.... "HEY, TRADESTATION... I'm old, I'm clunky, I'm a dinosaur!! We'll be extinct soon enough by treating customers like that all the time!!" "Maybe, someday... we'll figure out HOW TO DO ACH's... but til then... ONLY ONE CHECK PER MONTH, LOSERS!!"

2. The platform. Ay ay oy vey! It used to be state of the art and now it is a hopeless heap. Sure it still does EL, but so does Multicharts. I do not know what happened at TS but it feels like either they rested on their laurels and fell behind or they have had some upheaval in their engineering department. May be the platform program has become such a beast they can't get to all the changes required to get back on top. For now the platform is their second greatest liability!

3. Their greatest liability right now is that it takes three years or longer to get any changes made if at all, per forum remarks of other TS users. I have made suggestions that have been duly logged but no action taken. The platform is at a standstill in terms of user friendliness growth. All the while multicharts, Think or Swim and all Worden products are making HUGE strides forward in usability. There are others that are also making huge progress, I see it every time they advertise their latest and greatest. Tradestation? Hello? Go look at how fast charts load in Worden products. TOS just updated their servers last weekend, they have lots of performance now in addition to their new feature roll outs.

Here is the problem as seen through my lens: The TS platform is older and has too many unwieldy issues that prevent it from being easily upgraded. That is one possible issue. Another is they are simply not hiring enough programmers or they need to get rid of the untalented ones and hire better talent - that costs money - I know. The platform needs help, it is not robust, I clear my cache every weekend, I have to or I see half of the data or less by mid week. I would love to see a section of programmers dedicated to handle the needs as suggested by traders in order to make the platform better and smoother for trading easily without hang ups when you need out fast.

From a corporate strategic point of view TS simply MUST address this issue and rather sooner than later, the compettion is on their heels.

4. I let them know and lo and behold I get a call by a very concerned and friendly person, who is in product development no less with a phone number to their direct line! may be there is hope. It sounds like they are trying to get a handle on this and I might imagine is it a very big job. But today a lost over 2k because I could not put in my options spread order. At that rate I won't last long in these markets. I am assured that they will fix it but i am not sure if i can afford to lose that every week. I was offered to call in the orders on the phone and that will have to be the stop gap measure.

All in all the TS people are doing an amazing job with what they have. Their task is monumental. I encourange them to go for it and show their competitors what they are made of. I'd rather stay with TS and I would love to see a new flourish to match or exceed the progress made by others.