TD Ameritrade Held Me Hostage In a Bad Trade- Where to go now?

Discussion in 'Retail Brokers' started by lbhere, Jan 30, 2020.

  1. lbhere

    lbhere

    So, as a day trader, I sometimes get into a trade that I need to get out of right away because price moves opposite of what I am anticipating.

    Monday I went long and the order never seemed to execute. My order just popped around on the screen. I was never given confirmation of a price and Active Trader did not show a running P/L as it should have. But my activity log said that I had one working order. What?? But I could find it nowhere to cancel out, for if my long order had gone through, then I was actively losing money.

    I went everywhere on the screen to cancel and/or flatten my order, to no avail. Because I did not have confirmation, I could not flatten anything.

    I logged off and logged back on. Nothing. The buy order was still just popping around on active trader as if it was looking for an execution.

    Eventually, I was able to sell. But I was $400.00 down. I called TD Ameritrade and told them what happened. They said that the Market Maker was "slow to send the confirmation" back to them. WTF??? A good ten minutes slow??!!

    They would not reimburse my money that was held hostage to their issue. They told me that I should have called while the order was still open, and then they could "probably" have reversed it. "Probably"?? I am supposed to sit there and watch my account go down even further into the thousands and hope that they will "probably" give me the lost money back?? It took over a HALF HOUR for them to answer my phone call!

    Needless to say, I am stressed out over this. Now I am afraid to get in near the bell, where I make a majority of my money.

    Where should I go?? IBKR? Lightspeed?? I hate the idea of moving and having to learn an entirely different program. But....but I can't trade with the fear hanging over me.

    PLEASE HELP!

    -LB
     
    VPhantom, Nobert and murray t turtle like this.
  2. d08

    d08

    AMTD is crappy, they sell their order flow as well. Go with IB or Lightspeed.
     
    VPhantom, jys78, damon_achey and 5 others like this.
  3. interdim

    interdim

    What type of order and market were you trying to trade?
     
    MoreLeverage likes this.
  4. IBKR Pro (what I use) or Lightspeed seem like two good alternatives compared to the mess you find yourself in. With IB at least, they are reasonably transparent. I can't imagine a conversation like this except if I am using IBKR lite.
     
    GregorySG9, VPhantom and jys78 like this.
  5. S2007S

    S2007S

    Wow I thought that would happen with those Robinhood and webull trading apps that everyone says has the worst fill... not like that professional company Ameritrade...
     
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  7. guru

    guru


    They just recently started offering free trades/commissions, and probably still trying to figure out best ways to get paid, possibly auctioning off customer orders to market makers.
    If the news of these tech issues spreads, AMTD stock may take a hit...
     
    nooby_mcnoob likes this.
  8. lindq

    lindq

    In my experience the best platform for trade confirmations and immediacy is IB TWS (Classic view). TD's TOS is cluttered and confusing.
     
  9. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    Without going into details, we are getting a lot of calls from day traders that are unhappy with the current "free" offering at TD.
     
    S-Trader and CALLumbus like this.
  10. interdim

    interdim

    The OP needs to address the issue of what type of order was entered and for what market. It's possible the same experience could have occurred elsewhere.
     
    #10     Jan 30, 2020
    S-Trader, comagnum and KCalhoun like this.