What is the whole story about ? TRAD changed price structure in April 2002 (base data fee 99.95 $) and your account was opened in April 2002. If they got your application (resp. received your funds) after March 31 then I guess they just put your account on their new price schedule. I downloaded account papers in March, then: Plop ! New fee structure ! They change it every two months, pretty stupid (IMHO). Really dumb was the 795 $ per month pricing ! (*LOL*) www.tradestationzone.com/doc/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArtID=205
"What really bugged me about using ts to trade was that I couldn't get the exact amount of transaction on each trade until I receive the statement at the end of the month. I had no way of knowing how much commission I was paying each day from their software and web site. They made P/l and tax tracking a pain in the neck. " I beg to differ on this point. On the data fee issue, their price structure has always been clear on both the old and new price structure. If you cut and paste your daily transactions from the account manager into an Excel spread sheet, it is simple to write the equation to calculate acquisition and sale commissions. With that said, I do wish that they would provide this information electronically for you. I also wish that they would electronically provide the information files for import into std tax programs.
I wanted to try TradeStation mainly to test their trading system. Because I have my own data source, I didn't want to pay the $100 data fee. Their salesman offered me the option of signing up for the old commission plan of $15 per trade with no data fee. Once my account was activated, I also called in to make sure that I was on the old commission plan. During my first two weeks with TS, I did a total of 14 trades, paying TS well over $200 in commissions. TradeStation should be pretty happy with me since I could have saved more with the new commission plan. There is no way for me to obtain the exact amount of transactions for my P/L calculations from online because of the additional ECN and SEC fees. If you think you can get the exact amount from your own calculations, please go check with your monthly statements.
I have finally received all of my money, minus the interests, from Bear Stearns (TradeStation). What I don't understand is why TradeStation was treating me, a good customer, like crap. I was doing trades and paying them nice commissions until I saw the incorrect data fee. Why won't they promptly credit me for the data fee? Why give me all the bullshit and rude treatments? And why the long hold on my account closing request until I came public with my story? I am not advocating that people should not trade with TradeStation. That's your own decision to make. I am just telling you about my own experience. To be fair, there are good people at TradeStation, like customer service rep Carlos who tried to help me out through all this. But their customer service managers, their accounting, and compliance depts are at the root of the problem. Once a mistake was discovered, they were either unable or unwilling to correct it for me. From my perspective, there is no difference between the two. The lesson for traders out there is that you should always watch your account, and know the company that you are doing business with. If a broker is abusing your trust, let others know. This forum has been a powerful force in getting TradeStation to act. I wish to thank everyone who have supported me here. Good luck to all!