Was informed two days ago that my account had been put on liquidating trades only. "We would like to inform you about a business policy that will impact your TD Ameritrade accounts. We have made the business decision to no longer open new accounts or handle new business transactions for clients located in certain foreign countries. Our records indicate that you reside or have citizenship in one of these identified foreign countries. As a result, we've had to limit your account to liquidating (closing) transactions only... and any opening orders (orders to establish new positions) will be cancelled." The official reason is:- " Regrettably, TD Ameritrade is currently unable to service accounts for your country. This is a result of a thorough legal review of established brokerage regulations in your country, among many other countries. There are not further details I can provide. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. Best regards, Michael Sondag Apex Client Services, TD Ameritrade" Any ideas why this is happening?
Bad News For Canadians: "You Have 30 Days To Close Your Account" Clearly something big happened in US regulation without an official announcement in the media. Instead "folks" are just getting letters out of the blue.
Sounds like a Canadian law/regulation causing the issue than a U.S. one with respect to Scotttrade. I doubt this is a U.S. law causing this. (with respect to the Scottrade article/issue- no clue what is going on with TD Ameritrade since they have office in U.S. and Canada...)
My best guess is this is a business decision based on the time, effort and cost to the broker that is incurred by their regulator, FINRA. With us, a small introducing broker, during our exams from FINRA they is a lot more time and focus on foreign accounts then domestic.
Can fully understand that as my wife works for a Canadian company out here and says the regulators are a massive PITA and do cause loads of extra work. Why would TOS give zero notice that the account was on liquidation only? No 30 days to sort out your affairs just a rather rude and bullying first email:- "Thank you for choosing TD Ameritrade. To make sure you can continue enjoying all the benefits of your account, we need you to send the following information: Social security card for XXXXXXX. Your account has been restricted to liquidating transactions only until we receive this information. If we do not receive the social security card in 14 days, we will no longer be able to hold your account. This can be faxed, mailed or emailed in......" No notice period at all after trading the account for many years.
The only restriction is no opening trades, until you send the required info. Lesson learned: Always have at least two trading accounts with two different brokers.
Thank you for the slightly condescending post, but you will be relieved to hear I do have at least two accounts with two different brokers. However that was not the point. They have known for around 10 years that I am not American and live in HK. Why suddenly ask for a document they know I can not possess and put the account on liquidation only? Any decent ideas OptionGuru?