I have unfortunately been a Trademaven client for 3 months. I have not dealt with a more messed up company for a long time. After the total Trademaven/Transact meltdown of 2-14-06 we were promised great things on our account transfers to Man Financial. I am a fulltime day trader and it hurt a great deal financially to sit out the markets from 2-14-06 to 2-28-06 but I did. Then it was moved to 3-1 and then 3-2. Pre market on 3-3 I fire up Trademaven and nothing works. I call in 3 times with no answer. After the market opens I get someone and they tell me that I need to wipe out the new release from 2 weeks ago and put in a newer release and I will need new passwords that they install. They had not bothered to send out a single email to any of their clients telling them in advance what to do to be able to trade that morning. They were trying to get clients back on line 1 client at a time as they called in. I did all that and then went to trade. I got into a position and when I went to close it would only allow me to close 1/2 of it. By the time they got it fixed I had lost $200.00 in profit from my limit order. I thought I better check on my larger account. It wasn't there. I made 4 phone calls to Trademaven to find out where it was. I was assured each time that somebody would get right back to me. By 2:30 P.M. est. nobody had so I called Man Financial where the Transact accounts were moved to. They had no record of my second account. I am totally through with Trademaven. They could not find their butts with both hands. In my opinion they do not deserve to survive as a company. This is my experience with them. If you deal with them I hope your experience is better.
I forgot to mention and so did Trademaven that instead of the margin of $500 per contract at Transact ,Man Financial was $2000.00 per contract as told to me by a Man Financial Rep when I called in to ask what had happened to my number of contracts. What was Trademaven thinking? Trademaven knew this up front and didn't say a word to their clients. How self destructive can a company get? I would have moved my account in a heartbeat if I had known about this and I am moving my accounts now that I do. I am looking at Velocity Futures with either Ninja Trader or X-Trader, Goldenberg with X-Trader or JR Futures with either Best Direct Fast or X-Trader. I trade mainly the emini. Any suggestions?
Thanks for sharing your horror story, really. I have Velocity with X Trader, they are pretty darn good IMO. I am considering using Ninja Trader with TT data. I think you are on the right track, no suggestions.
Right now I have three accounts: - Global futures - Open e cry (switched from Trade Maven) and now a small account with JR Futures (introducing broker of Peregrine Group) As Global customer I pay 3.5 $ R/T for the emini contracts with them (no minimum volume required) Best Direct Fast is the Trade Maven platform but they have own servers (PGF servers) so the connection is really stable It seems to me that JR futures is a very good choice, but I believe it is still too early.... time will tell.... I am satisfied with OEC and now I am testing JR futures and...for now all it's good JR has the lower commission Globalfutures is too much expensive with Strategy Runner! Lorenzo
Lorenzo, I am looking at JRFutures as well right now and plan to open up an account with them (and close the with TM). Could you please keep us informed about your findings/experience with JRfutures. Last month I ran a comparative test between BDF and TM for 3 weeks, but with all the Transact datafeed mess it couldn't be an objective comparison. On another note, I am quite surprised by the low level of complaints here from TM users about their recent changes and the consequences. As a result of their meltdown with Transact, the end user has now to pay an extra $30.- per month and comply with an intraday margin of $2000.-/contract (as pointed out above). Is everyone happy with these changes? Who knows tomorrow they'll change the R/T fee?
Im in the same boat (trade the emini), I was about to open an account with TradeMaven, until all of these problems since the first of the year. Im in the process of looking at my other options. If anyone has any advice, Id be greatful.
- Is the same Trademaven version that hides the bid/ask volume when moving the cursor over the DOM when placing an order? - are the JR commissions competitive with those from Transact?
Yes the same Dome (same problem - TT agreements) As Global customer I have 3.5$ R/T for the e-mini contracts Their regular commission is 3.9$ R/T Lorenzo
Use Ninjatrader with the new TT fixed adapter that way you don't have to worry about that. Going to bve a great product.