Think or swim/Tdameritrade acted up this week

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by greeneveryday, Jan 25, 2020.

  1. Twice this WEEK Tos lagged in executions. I had 10 contracts to sell for Bynd before it collapsed 5 mins after and Tos did not execute it... Resulting from +2K to - 1K....Another time was I tried to grab Amzn put and did not get filled until 2 mins later.... Which of course after amzn dropped over 7 points from my mouse click.

    Anyone here can recommend me a better execution broker?? Heard tasty is pretty good...but some said it lags as well
     
  2. FSU

    FSU

    Were you trying to hit the bid and buy an offer? If not, was your offer/bid being displayed?
     
  3. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

  4. I picked ask at market order after limit order was not executed... Yet nothing happened...
     
  5. guru

    guru


    But you didn't answer the previous question from @FSU whether your bid/ask price was being displayed? Did you see your price being displayed at the exchange as the best bid or ask?
    If you don't know then you have nothing to complain about because you first need to know the answer to this question to even understand the problem.
    Right now your problem doesn't seem related to any broker, so changing the broker may not help. Brokers simply send orders to exchanges, so what else can a different broker do?
    While you could easily verify this by checking whether your order was being displayed as the best bid/ask at the exchanges, which would show in the options chain.

    Generally you need to find a buyer or seller for your option, and there aren't many of them. Even most liquid options trade at less than 1000 qty per hour, so it's less than most penny stocks. You'll rarely find another buyer or seller for your options, so your only chance is for a market maker to accept your price, meaning that your price must be really good, otherwise you'll have to wait for an interested buyer or seller to show up.



    You mentioned that the stock was moving fast, while it seems you already waited and lost an opportunity to get out using your initial limit order. While mixing-in a market order seems to mix multiple issues together and now there may be no way to be sure whether you had a problem with your initial limit order or market order. And saying "nothing happened" shows another issue on your end. You need to know for how long "nothing happened", like until today nothing happened? What did you do to make something happen?
    Basically you need to resolve lack of clarity in what you're describing and then you may gain clarity with what actually has happened :)
     
    Flynrider and athlonmank8 like this.
  6. birdman

    birdman

    I had a market order for a liquid stock rejected this week at TOS. I didn't look too close at the rejection message but the market order showed on screen for I'd guess 30 seconds or more - very unusual.

    It's not uncommon for TOS to have tech glitches from time to time. They had one, January 2 i think it was, where all orders were rejected on TOS and Ameritrade platforms for about half the day or more.

    I don't have much experience with other brokers, but with most service sectors, one just has tech problems / other problems from time to time. I like the TOS interface and hope to keep using it. It serves me well most of the time.
     
  7. FSU

    FSU

    I don't know what this means, are you saying you placed a market order and it was not filled? Are you saying you were trying to buy at the ask?
     
  8. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    greeneveryday-On a side note, IMO, market orders in Options are a very bad idea.
     
  9. ajacobson

    ajacobson

    A lot of data here except for the critical pieces. It's beginning to sound like this wound was self-inflicted. Seeing a $3000 swing because I wouldn't use a market or simple limit.
    Did you ask your broker or request time and sales?
     
  10. I guess I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Basically bid and ask appeared and I picked on "ask" with limit order and nothing got filled. So I decided to proceed with "market" order since I wanted to be filled. And still nothing got filled.
     
    #10     Jan 26, 2020