I wonder if anyone has any opinions on how I should fight this. First I hate using Datek but since I trade from work and I'm behind a firewall Datek is all I can use right now but after this not for long. I placed a trade yesterday it was supposed to be a quick scalp in QLGC (I know should have never done this using Datek) well I placed the order and it just sat there for over a minute so since usually the fills are a lot quicker I decided just to get out. I tried to cancel the order and once again it just sat there so after 4 minutes I called Datek, I was on hold for 23 minutes the order is still showing trying to cancel. Finally when I got through the guy on the phone checked my order and said that I was filled and they are having a problem with reporting executions. I immediately told him to close out the position so he sold 1000 shares at 44.48 for a .11 cent loss. So now I mad as hell but happy that it was only an .11 cent loss. I came home from work and looked at my account but wait now it's showing that I'm short 1000 shares I call Datek and wait for almost a half hour on hold only to be told that yes it looks like my account is short but they are not sure and they have to open a case which will take 48hours to investigate. This is insane how can they not be able to tell me if I am short or not!!!!! Now what do I do on Wednesday morning? My plan right now is to be on the phone with them as early as possible and scream and yell until someone tells me if I am flat or short. What if this thing gaps up and I am still short :eek: This is the worst nightmare and is totally ruining Xmas for me. I just cant belive the way they are treating me like oh well maybe your flat or may be you'll be down a few thousand. Is there anything else that I can do to fight this? Thanks
As far as I am concerned, Datek is a pile of ****. You cannot even swing trade with them. I don't even trust them with a long term hold. Run away ASAP! The last time I ever traded with them was about 2 years ago. I was swingtrading QQQ and Datek couldn't even pull off a limit sell order. The price was hit and after an hour and a half it was still unsold. I was not at the computer at the time. When I got back home, I called support and the nut said the specialist was too busy that morning to sell my shares. Right. That was it for me and my Datek days... If you want more horror stories, just stay with Datek, you will get more! :eek:
my company is a Datek customer as well. while i cannot really complain about the executions (we've done about 700 round-trip trades so far), i agree with previous posters that their overall service leaves a lot to be desired. to me it looks like, more often than not, their problems are caused by limitations in their IT infrastructure. being a programmer myself, i can sometimes imagine the exact bugs/shortcomings in their software that's causing particular problems. all this is sort of ironic, considering that Datek advertise themselves as a "tech-heavy trading solution". it almost seems as if they chose to cut their tech budget to half and spend the money on marketing. - jaan
Well, just got of the phone with Datek and I finally talked to a normal human being. She looked at my account and determined that I should have been filed on the original long and that was their fault for telling me that I was filed when I was not. As of right now there was no purchase and the resulting short sale is going to be a broken trade. So my account is cleared up as if nothing happened. This still does not excuse the way I was treated before and I am definitely closing my account, just not sure where to go yet? I have to admit that most of my Datek trades in the past have been executed within seconds and I notice usually through ISLD but when something goes wrong and you have to sit on hold for over 20 minutes while a trade is going against you and then been told that they are not sure if I was short of flat is inexcusable. Anyway, I did have one question about the broken trade, what happens to the other side of this trade? Thanks
In this case, since your short sell was a normal order, i believe datek will absorb the loss themselves, rather than cancel the trade for the other party, which they really can't do anyways. For what its worth, this happened to me a couple time when i was trading with Datek and each time they refunded or broke the appropriate trades. Stuff like this happens at alot of online brokers from time to time, since orders systems do go down making it difficult to verify actual positions.
I use to use Datek to swing trade when I first started. When I was exiting a position on EGRP, it didn't execute and the price went away from me. I quickly canceled it and and entered another order that went through. On my statement, it showed two sold orders but I didn't see it online and my equity was normal. So I assumed it was an error on the confirmation mail. 3-4 months later, After EGRP split, went up 10-20 points and then down 30-40 points. It turns out, I have EGRP shorted from that day I exited my EGRP position. I had made 3k from the lag from their system. I was day trading for the whole 3-4 months with my 10k of capital. It would not have been possible for me to hold that position. I probably would've covered when it went up first but I didn't even know I had the position. I wonder if EGRP never went back down and went higher, would Datek have eaten the loss on error of their system? Or pinned it on me since the confirmation had 2 sells on it but it looked normal online?
This morning i couldn't trade Eurex futures. I was in an overnight position, and the market turned against me. I wanted to close my position, but that wasn't possible. Even the telephone trade desk could not close my position. I think they should have some kind of backup, so that even if IB's connection with the exchange is broken, they can trade for their customers. I know they advise a backup broker, but this just isn't nice. Observer
I think there was some kind of miscommunication. 15 Minutes later they could close my position. Please ignore my former post. Observer