I learned at the Online Trading Expo in Anaheim (August 2001) that TradeStation is now a broker, and the TradeStation software (which used to cost about $3K) is included in their trading platform. Has anyone used them as a broker? If yes, what is their experience?
Well, I tried to sign up with them a few months ago because I wanted to try out their new software (was interested in the automated trading features). The people were the worst of the salesmen type and insisted that just to toy with the software you must open up a 75K account (could have been 50K, don't remember now for sure). Their attitude, pricing and lack of ability to kick the tires (in addition to many, many negative comments from the Silicon Investor tradestation forum) led me to drop any thoughts I might have of doing business with them JB
I have been using TradeStation Securities for a short time now and haven't had any complaints yet. I've generally learned not to say that any broker is good until something goes wrong and I get to see how they handle it. But so far, the people seem very friendly/helpful/responsive and the software has had no problems at all. Note that for me they set the minimum account opening at $30K. After they approve your account, they give you a couple weeks to fund the account. So in essence, you can play with the software for a bit before you actually send any money. There is no monthly fee for the software, but they reserve the right to close your account if you don't do at least 10 trades per month.
>But so far, the people seem very friendly/helpful/ >responsive and the software has had no problems >at all. Excellent. Have you used any of the auto trade features? If so I'd be interested to hear any general comments if you have the time. JB
I have not used the auto trade features and probably won't. That's a bit too black-boxish for me. However, the Easy Language scripting language has been around for a while and you can do some pretty cool stuff with it.
Axiom, for me they set the minimum account opening at $30K. Last time I checked it was a $50K minimum. Did you work a special deal with them or is that the going minimum amount these days? Seems like a fair starting number because you really need at least that much due to the new SEC regs ($25K minimum for 4X margin) with a small amt added to allow some room for drawdown.
>for me they set the minimum account opening at $30K. >Last time I checked it was a $50K minimum. I remember it something like you Magna. It definitely wasn't 30K when I tried, cause the 30K number makes sense with the PDT rules. I still think it's stupid (and counter productive marketing wise) to not let a potential customer play with the software for a day before opening an account. I remember RT, REDI, TradeScape and several others that let me do this when I was shopping for my first account. Oh, well -- it simply cost them a chance at this customer.
Just went to their website and the minimum is $30k for an equity account, $20k for a futures account.
My problem with TS is the commissions for the emini....$12/RT. Now with IB it is $4.80 so at 100 trades per month that amounts to a difference of $720. For that difference is the software really worth it? If they get wise and lower the commission rates then maybe they will come and try wondersoft TS!
Actually if you have $30K that you don't absolutely need, opening an account with Tradestation as a backup equities broker is a pretty good alternative. You can use their software for just 10 trades per month, which comes out to $150. Plus, that's 10 trades you don't have to pay to your primary broker.