The first one was opened and closed after a few weeks. The reasoning was he said a new minimal capital base was required. That's why I sent him additional funds to top up over $5k. To this day I don't know why he didn't just open the account for me the second time around and everything would have been fine.
Thank you for the information. I'm sorry to hear what has happened to you and I hope you get your money back when the lock-up period ends. We appreciate you keeping us informed. I'm still a bit confused about the bounced check. Why would he send you a check after he said you need to wait until the lock-up period ends?
Thats the thing, he never mentioned the lockup period. Remember, I had the first account open then closed on me. Then the second account never got opened. So thats why I asked for my capital back. He never once mentioned a lock-up period to me and just kept on saying he would send the check out. He kept delaying until I said I would have to warn others and file some complaints, thats when he finally sent the check, which was a huge mistake if it is shown that he never intended to pay and another piece of evidence when i choose to take legal action. He recently said he would send something ( of course I've been hearing this all year long ). I'll post an update if anything happens.
Did you resolve your issue with Thomas Lanzana yet? I hope your complaint has been rectified. If not, please tell us where you stand with this firm. Thanks!
Unfortunately nothing has changed. I've been busy and haven't been able to work on this. But funny you ask, I just started to talk to some lawyers about this and will take action soon. I will have to take this to court and put a judgement against his name. I actually have a list of things I'm planning on doing but was hoping he would try to work things out. Next thing is file the complaint with the Sec. Will keep everyone informed. I guess this thread will become a How-To for people that got ripped off.
What's sad about this is you did not do the necessary research before you gave your money to these entities and now you will probably end up spending more than $5k on lawyers...I hope a lot of want to be traders read this thread and learn from your mistakes however this is probably the 20th such thread I have read on ET. Best of luck!
I am having issues as well. I have contacted the SEC about this and they have confirmed that Lake Street Trading is acting as a broker dealer and needs to be registered. They insinuated they already have an open file on Lake Street and warned me that I should only be dealing with registered broker dealers. I requested to close my account and have my money shipped back to me before its too late.
Good to hear from someone else. When did you make the request to close the acct and have the funds returned?
Not sure whats going on but just wanted to say I have known Thomas for about 3-4 years, trading with his firm in the mornings as I work afternoons in the auto industry which is my true passion. I have not had any issues getting capital back or receiving any profits when I have a profitable month trading. Once my one year contract was up I was able to pull capital with no problem. The other thing I think is cool is the software he has provided. I was struggling trading and his software has taken a lot of pressure off my trading, but like I said I only trade mornings which is the more active time period anyway. Although it has been slow the past few months, hoping volume and action picks up in 2013. Oh one other thing, I have been able to negotiate a higher payout. My understanding of the law is that a prop shop can not offer 100% payout unless of course you are a pure retail trader. So from my experience if you have been with his firm for a while and are making some money you can push him for a better payout. Every little bit helps in this economy. I feel lucky because I basically have a full time job to relieve me of the pressures trading can put on an individual. Anyway good luck and have a great new year. Lets all hope this market picks up soon .