I am not sure why people would be worried about TS going belly up. Wouldn't the accounts be SIPC? Perhaps, you would get your money, just would take forever? Are there any precedents out there? nitro
When a firm goes belly up the clearing agent transfers the asset to the nearest open firm that is around. That is the beauty of having a clearing frim. The problem comes in when the Clearing firm is shaky. In the early 90s bear stearns had a lot of firms go under and they just kept going by transfering the accounts. So be wary of the clearing agent. They own the horse while your brokerage firm feeds the horse. .
The cash you have at TS or virtually any other brokerage is probably swept into a money market fund. At TS, in particular, the option I've chosen is a treasury bond fund operated independently from TS - they even send out their own separate 1099. Now, if the money fund (or the US Treasury) were to go down then I think I might have a problem. Similar would go for other kinds of money market funds, of course. Likewise, if you kept longer term positions in the same account (which I don't), you might have problems if Bear Stearns suddenly went down. Supposedly, you'd still be protected (up to insurance and other limits), but others more experienced than I have told me that people who've had investments at firms that have gone out of business have had to wait years to get everything back. I've heard stories of people who never were made whole - though it had only been years since the original problem. I can't really give more specifics than that... Maybe someone else can... You'd also have a problem if the earth exploded - and it's been looking a little shaky to me, lately, so I dunno... maybe we should start a thread for offworld brokers...
First off the last thing a trader needs is to worry if his broker's doors are gonna be open the next day. Second, why would I want to completely rework my trading process based on a new platform if it wasn't going to be around in a year. remember ...just my humble opinion.
not that I REALLY consider it a major issue... but... if you want the view from the co. and Robertson Stephens, go to: http://www.tradestationzone.com/ and check under "Headline News." Site doesn't allow me to paste direct links to the reports, apparently... Not a recommendation for you as a trader or as an investor - just information from one observer of the scene to another...
Kymar, That is funny about world exploding Maybe all of us should concentrate on strategies that make money than worrying about you broker closing their door.
got my account switched over to the new rates as of today... now this is fun... being able to shave my way out of position... instead of having to worry about whether the wiggle is worth the ticket... staying in the game but not by opening new positions or having to chase or defy the market move... I'm sure that the IB folks and real scalper types do this all the time - but combining it with an advanced platform makes it's very cool... sorry to sound like a shill, but just reporting... sure do hope they make this work...
Kymar, Any outages today? IB keeps getting disconnected today. I'm seriously considering Tradestation. Thnx, pretzel
if IB have an outage as it seems they do all the time - how much does it cost to get out of a position by phone - or can you get out by phone - and do they waive charges if it is their fault?