TradeStation

Ever since I closed all of my long term trades: nat gas and lumber, I haven't done much other than having so many issues with TradeStation Client services regarding withdrawal.

This is just a lot of BS, so if you have other things to do, please do so. This is more of broker experience / review.

As some of you know TS changed their relationship with RJO Brien, a futures clearing form over the new year day weekend, I waited to request a withdrawal hoping everything is settled.

Tuesday:

I requested a check withdrawal on 1/2. The next day I checked my statement showing the requested amount was deducted correctly. So far so good! However, 2 days later, my phone started ringing showing it's from TS. I didn't answer because last time I requested a large amount, TS kept calling me to see if there's anything wrong etc. I didn't want to get bugged, so I ignored the calls.

But next day, my phone rang two more times while I was away. I was curious, so I called back. TS said the check withdrawal can't be completed because of issues with RJO. TS kindly offered a free (otherwise $25) wire transfer. Great! TS even said if I filled out the wire form by 10AM, I'd receive it in the same day. At this point, since it's treated as if it's a new withdrawal, I wanted to withdraw all of account. I made sure the amount I initially requested as well as what's remaining in my account would be wired. I filled out the form and rushed to the fax machine. Everything looked good.

Wednesday:

Now the disaster starts. I checked my TS statement and obviously the money didn't go out that night. So much for rushing. One day? Fine. I'll wait patiently.

Thursday:

Next day, I called TS and why money didn't go out. They said it'll go out that evening. After I got off the phone, I checked my withdrawal status online and found that only the remaining balance was approved. I called TS again. A rep told me don't worry. It's only showing on our front end program. You'll receive all the money. I trusted this, of course.

Friday:

Not to surprise, on Friday, I only received what was left in my account. On top of that, I was charged $25 for the wire fee. Why $25! Where is the money that was initially deducted for the check request? I called TS and I was able to talk to even a person from Cashiering department. She gave me her name and the money from the cancelled check would go out that day.

Close to 4pm, I suddenly realized that if the canceled money was deposited back to my account, all the money would have been sent find. Obviously whoever processed my wiring request, didn't see (or care about) notes on my account. Chances are it'll happen again, so I decided to have them the canceled amount back to my account asap. Instead of this ideal plan, I got a customer rep saying Cashiering depart is closed, so no one can do that right now. I even tried to talk to her supervisor, but she claims that no one's available, but she assured that the canceled money including the wire fee charged would be sent out today.

I hate when that kind of thing happens on Friday afternoon. There's nothing I can do until Monday morning. It's so annoying. Not to my surprise, on Friday night, I checked my statement, I found that the canceled money was credited back to my account. But there's no sign of wire-transfer. No sign of wire-transfer fee credit.

Monday:

I gave TS a call as soon as they opened. Every time I call TS, I had to explain the same thing over and over again. It was not an exception this time. A rep told me since it was requested on Friday, the wire should go out today. I made sure it better include the fee I was charged.

Of course, when I checked my statement, nothing happened. At this point, I have no plan going back to TS in the future at all. In addition, I'll discourage people to use TS as well.

Tuesday:

I called TS. A mono-tone lady answered a call as if this is some typical call. Instead of explaining the whole thing, I asked her to read my account notes since I had all the reps wrote down the conversation I had with them so far. She gave me an incident #, and again she will verify the transfer and call me.

I told her, 'I'm pretty sure the wire didn't go out and will not go out. Besides, I can't take a word from TS any more. I want the wire feel to be credited right now, send me a check for every penny I have with TS via overnight fedex delivery, of which fee is paid by TradeStation. She said first she'll verify the wire status and initiate a fedex delivery. Either way, she said she'd call.

Of course, no one called me other than one guy from TS asking 'why are you closing your account'. I explained what happened, so he was just reading his manual, 'if you come back... blah, blah, blah...' He didn't care about what caused the issue.

I know exactly what's going to happen. the check will not come tomorrow. It may come Thursday at best. Besides, I'm pretty sure it'll not include the wire fee I was charged. Sure the fee is not much, but it's just so annoying and I want it right.

The story doesn't end here. Maybe TS is not the only one fussing about withdrawal. When I wired money last week, I sent it to ThinkOrSwim. I tried their demo and I liked what I saw. But shortly after, I will probably leave only a portion of the money I wired in, so I initiated an ACH transfer on Friday. The requested amount was deducted right away, I mean , in real time. Since I wired, I thought the money was available asap.

Monday I checked my bank account, there's no sign of ACH from TOS. Tuesday, still no sign. Around lunch time, I receive 2 emails saying it can't be done because since the money is wired in, I have to wait for 10 business days. I got pretty upset because if that's the case why TOS even let me initiate the request. Why did they take the money right away and didn't want to find out what's wrong on that day or even Monday? They 'gladly' postponed my ACH request to 1/25, that is 13 days away while they are keeping my money not making it available. Of course, I called back and I want the money credited back to my account asap. Sucks, but I have no choice but waiting. I'm a software engineer, so it's not hard to write a program when someone wired the money and issue a flag in real time if they're trying to withdraw.

As many of you know, brokers enjoy interest earning from clients deposits. This is from one of former TS salesmen I keep in touch with. I believe that's exactly what TS and TOS are doing by not releasing money easily. It may not be so much, but I bet it'll be quite a bit from dime here dime there.