I'm thinking about trying Tradestation for their quotes & as a broker. If anyone has left them, what problems did you have? (I'm looking to avoid stepping into a vat of trouble, if one exists) Thanks. PS: If anyone has any good info about them, that would be good to hear too. How are their quotes? How are their executions? If you'd rather private message me, that's good too. Thanks
I left due to: 1) Lousy interest on cash balances (1.5% or thereabouts) 2) Inability to manage a portfolio of positions intelligently. 3) I was encouraged by several of their reps (both sales and support) to lie about my experience to be approved for trading certain markets. 4) Higher option commissions than IB. 5) Several hundred $ per month in platform fees.
terrible service !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes, their rates are good, and with decent volume you won't have to pay platform fee, but the service I received was awful, the interest on available cash is virtually nil (unlike my IB account where balnces >$10K get very competitive interest), and phone calls took forever to be answered. If you try them, hopefully you will receive better service - you may love them - but for me, I am done with them.
When they left Bear Sterns and went self clearing. With Bear they had the best short inventory of any broker. now, the edge is gone. regards
I use TS and I have been very happy w/ it. I dont trade trough them since I didnt like there matrix. However, if you open an account, make 10 round trips, and only want cme data, it only costs about $35 ( plus commisons). But if you dont make any round trips, the platform is only $99, still a good price. The data quality is of high standard as far as I am concerned. I use intra-day volume charts, so accurate data is imperative for me. I haven't seen a drop out or delay in the data for a while. I just looked at esignal ( i used to use them, but left when there data couldnt keep up in fast markets- ts has no problems) and for there platform and the cme data feed it was over $200. So for the price, quality, and the ability to code in EL, TS is a very good product. Every product has detractors and drawbacks. Since your main topic is why people left TS, it attracted mostly detractors. I know that you asked if people were happy tell you why as well, but a lot of people just look at the title of the post and go from there. Maybe make a post of, "Tradestation, why you are with them?" or something like that. Just my .02
You're going to have to lie about your experience, Fully, for #3 because if you have no experience in those markets most brokerages just wont approve you. but as for the rest of your concerns with TS, I acknowledge those.