I opened what became my TD Ameritrade account at National Discount Brokers in 1996. They sold out their biz to TD Ameritrade eventually in the 90s. Anyway, I've been a client for a long time. At the moment I've got puts on ZSL and CEF (Central fund of canada) in my account. I tried to send some money into my a/c from paypal to buy more CEF on August 1st. Eventually I noticed that the payment had bounced. It took me a week of emailing to get the story from TD Ameritrade. They had turned off ACH (bank transfer). TD Ameritrade had previously told me that I couldn't use their system as a pass through account (i.e. just as a bank). Fair enough, so I didn't. But it seems that they are unable to shut down outgoing payments without stopping incoming payments. And it took them a week to explain that limitation of their system, with me sending back queries to their (very slow) responses. It is a shame because I could have done pretty well on CEF if I'd been able to get my money there at the time I wanted. Now I'll have to switch to another broker. I'm thinking Charles Schwab One (international) - I'm outside the US.
TD let me down today, again. There system kicked me off 4 times, while entering a trade. Worse, in final 5 minutes of trading their system slowed down to the point of freezing right as an order was being placed. That cost me. Not my issues, theirs. Upon calling, was told how to log on. Again, I told them I had to be logged on to be kicked off or frozen. They did admit that system difficulties were being experienced. This is a repeat occurance and the slowing is periodic like last months options expiry Friday as well. Ten I had to pick up a phone to get them to transact for me. I balked at the fee and they agreed. I'm done. On here looking for a new brokerage.
I'm worried about trading my ZSL puts with TD Ameritrade. Liquidity is tight anyway, but I read on these boards that TD Ameritrade trade on their own behalf. That could cost me. As you say, time to move on.
I've been with TD since the Datek days. I agree with you. They are quickly becoming one of the more expensive outfits and their platforms for the most part suck. The only reason I stay with them is because I can wire money in and out all day where others have holds or send checks , etc. Tradeking will hold wires for 30 days. I get worried about companies that hold my money. Tells me they need that cushion and are probably poorly capitalizd. JMO
I mainly use the command center and everytime I bring up the trade ticket it freezes up for a moment and sometimes freezes completely. Sucks!!
Oddly, it was a ZSL exit I was about when their system froze yesterday. Called again last night and talked with somebody there with more horsepower. He admitted they had a bad week with the system and especially yesterday...which he attributed to them fully absorbing ThinkORswim this week. I thanked him for that candor; and, asked his take on the prior disruptions. He had no words. I asked for some compensation and he had my ticket charge permenantly reduced from $9.99 to $5.99. Still, I'm done. Others here have suggested a couple of brokers. One has very low costs http://www.eoption.com/commissions_fees.html of $.10/contract; or $.25/if DirectAccess. A consideration, given my volume. Hope others will comment about direct access brokers to help me select one.
But in all fairness to TD Ameritrade -I have to add a few lines. Iam a TD Am International customer for quite some time. I day trade US stocks and mostly Energy,GDX options sitting from middle of no where in Asia and trade from my notebook with a wireless USB internet. I trade mostly thro Quote Tracker and I did not have a single problem this last week during the whole TOS integration fiasco. I trade around 100-150 round trade /month minimum. I pay now $5 ticket (from 9.99>7.0>now $5) +0.75 /contract for options. Being a international customer ,I just can not open a/c with all and sundry brokers. I just International wire in and wire out-no problems. IB is cheap and best. But TD AM customer service is good.
Thats interesting Kevin. Are TD Int'l customers allowed access to world exchanges? I've wanted to trade some on Toronto, but was told no-can-do. IB sure opens up Int'l everything.
Like some of you, I have been with tda since datek days. the platform issues have gotten worse in the last few months. If you noticed the datek streamer, always had issues. I would assume the TOS platform will never work as it once did. 10 yrs ago, customer service was just that, a service you could count on. these days you are lucky to get someone on the phone who can quickly help with a trade. I recently was restircted from the chat rooms, as I was chatting with others about platform issues. when I confronted them about it, I was told I had been warned about inappropiate postings . It was all to funny as the only things posted were facts, and in a professional manner. and when they refused to show me the post that restricted me from chat, I was quickly reminded of the complaints, i made, of platform issues that were blamed on me, " our system is fine, it must be on your end". I moved 2 of three accounts to another broker. I now use the charting , with proprietary indicators, that I can't move , to confirm entries and exits, while placing the trade thru another broker, at a discount. It's now a win win for me lol