Hello All,
First, I would like to thank you all for helping me to make an important judgement call. A few weeks ago I was on a winning Apple trade through TS and realized I had not placed a protective stop on the trade. I went in, added the stop, thinking it would only be triggered if the stock dropped back to the trigger point. I clicked submit and, guess what, the stop was triggered right away and it turned a winning trade into a loosing trade. I only lost about $5 but the point is, I lost on a winning trade due to difficulty getting the platform to do what I wanted it to do.
At that point I stopped using the account and started using my Charles Schwab account. Zero issues. Very happy.
Fast forward to last week. I thought maybe I should give TS another try. I went back to the tutorial videos, made notes and basically figured out how to do what I wanted to do in TS. I was about ready to start using TS again, but the issue of the trigger being inadvertently pulled on a winning trade was still a mystery. So, I came here. Low and behold, I find out people have had all sorts of issues with TS.
So then I think to myself, am I willing to stake thousands of dollars on this platform? No, I’m not. There are issues with orders not being executed in a timely fashion, there are issues with people making the wrong selections (because the platform isn’t intuitive at all) and on top of all that, it reminds me of the earliest operating systems from the 1980s.
So I decide I’m going to close the account. I call TS. They tell me there is a beta version which is more intuitive. I tell them that they know there are issues with ease of use and yet they have not addressed them. I also explained my issue with a stop being inappropriately triggered. I told them I assumed it was because the price had gone through the trigger point earlier in the session but I still wasn’t sure. They informed me that there is a setting which, in fact, does execute a stop if the price has passed through it earlier in the session.
Getting to the point... I consider myself maybe advanced beginner. I want to educate myself and have taken the time to do so. I work days so most of my trading is set up the night before. I want to spend my education time learning how to trade, not learning a platform that’s hard to use. So, to anyone out there trying to learn and struggling with TS, there are easier platforms to use with plenty of functionality. I’ve been very happy with Charles Schwab’s platform. I also just opened an TD Ameritrade Account and, at first glance, was also very impressed with the ThinkorSwim platform.
Thank you to the prior posters in this forum. You may have saved me from making a very serious mistake.
I too, closed my TS account after not using it for 5 months and seeing platform fees and data fees that amounted to $250 which I was promised not to see when I opened my account. Of course the sales person came up with a bunch of reasons why I was charged. These reasons were ridiculous as well.
I was offered a refund and to switch to a different "promo" but I declined. Once you lose trust it is gone.
I also use Thinkorswim and I find it very professionally done. I had no problems over the past 10 years using TOS
The following user says Thank You to Jemo for this post:
Well I now have a complaint as well, I just noticed tradestation never gave me $1000 in dividends from my American Airlines haha, I might be closing it down also
I recently opened a TradeStation account and have closed it just as quick. The main issue I have with TradeStation is an issue that I should never have with any brokerage firm I ever work with, and that issue is getting ahold of someone. I sent in help request ticket for an issue on my account on 1/21/2021 and I get a response on 2/7/2021, not acceptable. You cannot call support, they make you use a online call me back system that doesn’t work most days and fills up quickly. I have therefore dumped them, good platform and miss the old days when they were a standalone (Omega) platform and you got your own broker. However if you can’t get ahold of your broker in a very timely fashion then you have a serious problem.
The following user says Thank You to cashtrader for this post:
I have been a TS user for a couple of years now and can honestly say I love it for what I use it for. I trade algos on equities and futures. I have the TS Select plan (min $2000). I pay $0 fees for data or platform and get free futures data with my equities account. $0 commissions. I trade A LOT and have seen no issues with timely order fills. Trade execution seems on par (only issues I have had are my fault or internet connection related). I have thought about this customer service thing though. It does usually take me at least an hour to get someone on the phone or in the online chat function. I have not found an emergency call line but also haven't needed it yet. I would suggest going through the online chat function early in the morning and ask them if they have an emergency line you can call if necessary. Would not be surprised if they do for the right client. I'm just wondering how other brokers are as well though. Can't imagine they are sitting there waiting for your call, my guess is they have a wait as well... Especially right now with all the post Covid activity in trading.
The following user says Thank You to ShadowFox for this post:
Broker: Primary Advantage Futures. Also ED&F and Tradestation
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little GE, GC, SI & Bitcoin
Posts: 3,968 since Dec 2013
Thanks: 3,258 given,
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I used to think that TS Customer Service was pretty good. Sure you might wait 10-15 mins to get somebody but they usually resolved my issue very quickly and politely. Post Covid though its been terrible. Phone lines no longer taking calls. Online chat often unavailable (I assume due to high volume). Even when you do get in queue waits are over an hour and sometimes as long as two hours. Definitely one of the companies that has struggled to adapt to Covid.
The following user says Thank You to SMCJB for this post:
TS has a good platform and has had a good platform even back in the 00’s they had a good platform, but the service level is just not acceptable. My other brokers AMP & Ironbeam, I send a support email or call the desk and I have a response ASAP. I know people on here don’t like AMP, but I’ll say this much, I send Dan (owner) an email with an issue and he’s on it ASAP. When I can’t get ahold of a broker/bank who holds my capital in a timely fashion it causes me to wonder what the safety of my funds are. TS taking nearly 3 weeks to get back to me about a critical account issue is just beyond acceptable of a broker. I used to have both a series 3 & 63 and the NFA is very clear on customer accessibility. I am not going to, nor should I even have to time my customer contact calls in order to get ahold of someone, issues can arise in trading at anytime.
The following 2 users say Thank You to cashtrader for this post:
I also had the same impression about TS. The platform was slow and got stuck very often (at least 3 times per week).
Also I found quite annoying the hundreds of seminars and videos on the web that all seem to point out how marvelous the platform is, just because it allows you to build some custom OCO orders.
This is something that every platform has and if you insist so much on this feature it sounds like a scam to me.
Jesus Nava is the one who is always making this videos to explain the platform, and the videos are so slow! they seem to address complete beginners, then it's enough you dig a little bit below the surface and you discover that there is very little you can customize in TS.
Just to make an example there is not even a decent market profile tool in TS and to have Volume profile you have to pay an external service.
This is completely ridiculous. I can have everything for free in SierraChart and the platform is 1000 times more stable.
Also I don't like the fact that they are advertising on Chat With Traders.
The following 2 users say Thank You to SBtrader82 for this post:
Well for me it's a sign that they cater to the general public and that they are much more interested in gaining new client rather than keeping the old ones.
They could invest less on advertising and just improve the support.
