Buyer Beware: Tradestation will flag you as a professional if you don't use gmail, yahoo, etc

aquarian1 · Dec 1, 2018

Robert Morse said:
For equity markets, to get the non-pro exemption, you have to be a natural person that is not a registered person with any regulatory agency or managing the funds for others, or using others funds to trade. Every entity or trust is pro-market data.

Not my definition. I think the SEC should step in but they won't.
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being a non-pro does NOT mean using a public domain email.

IB sends out a questionnaire and there are many criteria - not one of which is disclosing your email communications via "we spy on you" yahoo, google etc

File a compliant now.

This is heavy-handed buulisht.
Even if they let you continue you have lost time =money

Police state

manonfire · Dec 1, 2018

gaussian said:
I don't normally like to talk negatively about brokers. I have had a generally good experience with even brokers that were really raking me over the coals on commissions.

Today I was flagged as a professional because I do not use gmail, yahoo, or other public email address. I use a personal email domain that I control because I am very privacy conscious. For those out of the loop being marked a professional means they will charge me expensive data rates among other things.

I called Tradestation to explain my situation and the nice tech support person told me there is nothing they can do and my only option is to open a new email account with a public email service. I tried to explain I can't, and they wouldn't work with me.

So if you use Tradestation and don't use a public email service find a different broker. Tradestation uses email domain as a method to determine who is a professional rather than actual professional credentials.
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Can you post a redacted copy of email? That would clear up a lot of questions.

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Buyer Beware: Tradestation will flag you as a professional if you don't use gmail, yahoo, etc

aquarian1

manonfire