TradeStation Reviews

by Clifdonger, 11/8/2018

Pros: No benefit whatsoever

Cons: The trading platform doesn't work. Tech people are totally clueless. Support is non-existent.

I've had an account for about three weeks. I'm afraid to place a trade. The simulated trading platform doesn't work. Generates trades for some event that occurred two hours ago. You can't get the platform to generate trades overnight while you're away from the computer. I'd be a fool to try this with real money. By the way, I trade only ONE item; and yet, their system couldn't even handle that. Don't be fooled by the bells and whistles. This is the worst broker AND trading platform on earth. They say it'll cost me $125 to move my account to another broker. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!

by skrubtrader, 10/29/2018

Pros: Platform good as some others, but falling behind fast, once was the best.

Cons: Worst fking cust support ever on the planet

Run as far and as fast as you can or you WILL REGRET IT. On hold for 52 mins. I have never been treated so bad, they may not be around much longer, RUDE. Very sad, years ago they were the best. NOW THEY SUCK

by Patrick, 10/9/2018

Pros: None

Cons: No customer service. Horrible to deal with. Broken software. Only runs on PC.

Just try to transfer an account out of tradestation. Nearly impossible to accomplish. $50 desk trade fee. $500 charge if you want certificates. half an hour on hold to get to anyone in customer service who are grumpy and don't want to help you.

by Brandon, 9/24/2018

Pros:

Cons:

I had read reviews on which broker to trade futures with.

It seemed like Tradestation was always in the top 2.

Apparently, whoever compiled the reviews was biased, or they had never tried reaching the phone number for their customer support.

I set up an account with a user pw, etc. When I received an email confirming that my account was set up, I tried following the instructions on that email. I had some problems and decided to call TS for some help. This was during a weekday during normal business hours. The first call was made during late morning hours. I was on hold for more than 10 minutes, got tired and hung up.

I decided to call back a couple of hours later. This time, apparently their system recognized my phone number, because a message indicated that I would be placed at the beginning of the queue. After about 10 or 12 minutes I had enough.

My current broker is Etrade. I have never, in 5 years waited this long

by kris, 9/17/2018

Pros:

Cons: Poor Customer Service!! 9/17/2018

Reset numbers are provided for your account, when called, the platform desk refers you the multi numbers you have been waiting on to service you before calling the reset numbers. Always a recording and long wait times! Once they are in possession of your money, getting any assistance is IMPOSSIBLE. DO NOT OPEN ANY ACCOUNTS NO MATTER HOW CHEAP THEIR COMMISSIONS ARE. You are wasting your money and time!!!! Same garbage, different day!!!!! Have been trying to contact their Client Services for now three days!!!!!!

by The real deal, 9/13/2018

Pros: Hey Thomas

Cons:

Every broker does that you fucking retard. Go back to robinhood

by Thomas, 9/11/2018

Pros:

Cons: 4th order blocked - you can only place 3 orders a day !

I funded my account with 10K
I wanted to place several trades at different prices of 3 different stock.
Altogether I wanted to place 9 orders (3 orders of each stock at different price).
After placing the 4th order - you get this bullshit : EC501: Day trading margin rules, too many opening trades.

They now request customers to fund the account with 25.000$ in order to be able more trades, even though I have 10.000$ free cash with them.

They claim if you place more than 3 trades you are a daytrader - but NO OTHER brokerage firm has this stupid rule in place.
What a waste of time.
With any other broker you can place as many trades as YOU want providing you don't go over available funds.

What a JOKE.

by John, 9/7/2018

Pros: Nothing

Cons: Terrible Service

Terrible service, bad manners, slow answering from support, long hold times, bad software tutorials. Before you even think about transferring 1 cent to them, call their support 3-5 times at different times of the day. No manners, bad support, lack of support and all. Wouldnt + dont recommend them. Pulled out all my funds after about 2 weeks. Would not recommend them at all.

by John R, 8/21/2018

Pros: None

Cons: Too many to list

Customer support is horrible and they change policy with out notifying their clients.... Shameful behavior...

by allana, 8/8/2018

Pros: NILL

Cons: YES

I also lost about $175,000 to a Greenfield Capital broker and 2 fake binary option website as well but I am sharing my experience here so as to enlighten and educate everyone that is losing money or has lost money to a scam binary options, dating scams and fake ICOs.

However , I have been able to recover all the money I lost to the scammers with the help of a recovery professional and I am pleased to inform you that there is hope for everyone that has lost money to scam.
you can reach out to them by searching for Miguel Aruso (cybercrime Investigator) on Quora.

by steve, 7/24/2018

Pros:

Cons: awful platform

This platform is so slow and glitchy it is practically worthless. Anytime the market starts to move at all your system will freeze or crash. Do yourself a favor and take your business elsewhere.

by HUY, 6/20/2018

Pros: NONE

Cons: If you Open a IRA Account Then Check out other Broker before you open 1 with TradeStation

Huge mistake opening an SEP IRA account at TradeStation. Customer service is absolutely the worst. Unless you experience it, you simply won't believe it. They only help you before the account is open. After the Account is open they do whatever they what after they have your money. I wish I see this website before I open an account with them.

by DayTrader, 6/19/2018

Pros: You can automate your trades

Cons: Rude Customer Service

Their customer service are not really helpful and so rude.

by Andrew, 6/18/2018

Pros: 0

Cons: Don't use them

Wait about an hour to be told you can't open an account even though its for paper trading. The representative was very confusing and not straight to the point. I would never use these guys for live trading. But due to my courses from OnlineTradingAcademy, I'm left with no other choice but to paper trade with them. Currently Active Duty in the military, the representative acted quite disrespectful when I mentioned my net worth. Implying that I shouldn't even think about trading due to my financial state. I find it very un professional that I was turned down when all I want to do is pursue my dream and to learn how to trade properly in a paper trading account. Terrible customer service, long waits, and people who don't care about Military Service Members.

by Kris, 6/7/2018

Pros:

Cons: Thinks twice about opening an account!

June 2018 Constant updates to fix software issues which creates other issues; horribly long customer support waiting time only to be redirected to another number and still no response. The platform has features, BUT THE ONGOING issues outweigh the cool factors! THINK TWICE ABOUT OPENING ANY ACCOUNT WITH TRADESTATION!!!!!!

by JB, 6/6/2018

Pros: among the very few available for retail investors in my country

Cons: their proprietary Easylanguage is horrible

If you have to use a platform to run an algorithm trading strategy as a retail investor, this might just be the only one available.

But the proprietary language is just damn horrible to work with. This is quite likely the worst modern programming language I have encountered. Prone to error and difficult to debug.

by steve, 5/1/2018

Pros: plartform is garbage

Cons: platform is garbage

completely unreliable, do not use unless you constantly want to lose money, completely unreliable and glitchy.
crashes constantly
cannot get in and out of trades to save your life, platform is trash

by BestTrader, 3/23/2018

Pros: Platfrom

Cons:

Good fills, cheap commission, great experience if you know how to use the platform.

by steve, 3/20/2018

Pros: none

Cons: terrible platform

completely unreliable, terrible platform, do yourself a favor and dont use this service. Clunky, slow, interface is terrible, unreliable and crashes constantly for no reason

by Joe, 3/12/2018

Pros: Offers a veterans discount of $0 on commissions

Cons: Poor service, poor attitude, poor support

Thought I would continue to share my experience. Every time I contact my relationship manager, Joel Santeramo, he sends me off to customer support. I finally asked him to tell me exactly what he might be there to help me with. Deafening silence.

As to customer support, as all have attested, atrocious. So far I have 3 emails pending with no responses.

I finally got my account funded. How it takes 10 days for a transfer of cash from one broker to another is beyond me.

With full access, I find that Tradestation actually *does* provide OFX support so you can feed Quicken, Money, etc. It is hidden in the tax documents area. So far, it does not seem to be a complete implementation which might ultimately be the death knell for me. We'll see.

The initial cash transfer should show up in an OFX data download but so far does not. Without complete information you would be left adding some transactions manually that are quietly sitting on their computers. I've been with many other brokers and this is a first on that type of issue.

by TTR, 3/8/2018

Pros: The platform, if it worked, is a great idea.

Cons: No customer service. Don't care about you or your trading success. Platform is pretty but useless. No Quickent support.

The platform is EXTREMELY unstable. The matrix, which is a big selling point, jumps around when you try to enter an order, the screen goes black for several seconds, it freezes, it calls up the format box,...it does EVERYTHING except enter your order. Customer support, I stopped calling. average wait is 35 minutes, often much longer, and they just redo the same thing they had you do last time you called. Have tried several times to get problems escalated. Never happens. I don't believe they have an escalation department. I trade in a room and all TS users report the same problems. I am migrating away and I believe others will as well. Do yourself a favor and stay away. Find a different platform and save yourself endless hours of waiting in customer-No-Service and hundreds of missed trades.

by Marylyn, 3/8/2018

Pros:

Cons:

One wouldn’t really think much of this, all I really wanted to do was invest and be part of it but the way I was lied by this brokers was terrible, to easily take money from all in the name of investment and when I wanted to make withdrawals every single attempt was fruitless with constant hassle to invest more I really can’t say more than I have already said. I would really consider myself to be one of the very few lucky ones as I was able to have my funds recovered from this scam Binary option brokers, although it was through unethical means as far I am concerned but what can I care after how my hard-earned funds where taken from me, these guys are the best in less than 7days all my funds including bonuses had been recovered, If your broker lost your funds trading Binary options Geminihacks.com are more than able to get your funds back without any traces best of luck people.

by Antony, 3/2/2018

Pros: cheap

Cons: slow fills, slow in fast markets, Poor service, poor attitude, easylanguage support don't support at all

freezes during high volume. terrible customer service. easylanguage support is a nightmare....worse than built a wardrobe on your own....days to learn to code every shitty little thing in easylanguage ...and they never help you ...after 3 terrible years i'm moving to IB and Multicharts

by Joe Higgs, 2/27/2018

Pros: Offers a veterans discount of $0 on commissions

Cons: Poor service, poor attitude, poor support

I opened an account last week and was assigned Joel Santeramo, a relationship manager. The first issue was I needed the details on the vets program to be sure that I understood what I was getting, particularly that there was no end to the program.

That turned out to be true, but reading through the incredibly small print on the web site, coupled with them using a light gray font on a white background was ridiculous. Hard to have confidence when there is the appearance of hiding something.

Next, he would not accept an electronic signature. I've done ACAT transfers with Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, TastyTrade, Options House and eTrade with no issues. Joel was not all that helpful on this.

While that was transpiring, I decided to confirm that Tradestation provided OFX support for download of transactions into Money or Quicken. I could find nothing about this on the web site. An email to Joel got the response, "I don't think so". Very helpful. A second email to clarify has gone unanswered.

I did call customer support, waited the requisite 20 minutes and got the nicest person ever, Nicole. Rather give me a useless answer off the top of her head, she put me on hold for a minute to go and check.

Sure enough, Tradestation does not provide this basic service. The best they can do is give you a spreadsheet download.

While I literally could have save a few thousand dollars a year in commissions, going back over a decade to using spreadsheets for financial management wasn't going to happen for me.

fwiw, I have had account or relationship managers at every broker I've used. None have been worth their pay. Joel could be the poster child.

by Blake, 2/26/2018

Pros: Good Platform

Cons: Phone Call Wait Times Regularly over 30min, Some Customer Support Staff Provides False & Misleading Information, Delay ACH Withdraws and Wire Transfers Without Just Cause, Over Half Support Emails are left Unanswered, Account Modifications and Wire Changes without Customer Consent

I have been with Tradestation for a couple years. Once I started trading actively I encounter how horrible this company is for any type of trader. During any period of the day phone support regularly takes over twenty minutes to answer. I have waited over an hour at times. The trade desk has better response time but are unlikely to help resolve any type of account issues. If you think emailing customer support will be more convenient that is not the case. From my experience half my emails for critical information such as account changes without authorization were ignored. When I did receive a response they failed to address the issue and ask you to contact customer support. Depending on the customer service representative you receive will vary in the information they provide. Tradestation in my experience sent me out a letter confirming an account change I did not authorize. I called them as instructed in the letter, which the customer service representative had no record of sending. Their back office is absolutely sloppy, customer service reps feed incorrect information and false information securities regulations which they are not licensed. One example is one customer support rep and a broker confirmed a wire would go out on a specific day after being delayed five days. Then the next day I follow up to yet another delay where they re processed my Wire without my consent to withhold my funds for an additional day. To make matters worse they claim they will only send wires out during the late afternoon which causes another trading day loss. Avoid this company at all cost.
The years of negative reviews are true. I took the risk because I thought they may have improved but I have experienced first hand to this nightmare company. Their platform is not worth the hassle. Fees are expensive compare to alternatives. Loosing numerous trading days and not being able to withdraw money with the time frame they represent is a hazard one should avoid.

by Dena, 2/18/2018

Pros: none, they charged all kind of fees when I clised the account

Cons: Statements when account is closed.

I have the same problem, they have a legal responsibility to send you your 1099, or allow you access to retrieve them, my bookkeeper said if I can't access them, he will file a complaint with the IRS. Good luck I guess.

by Dom, 2/18/2018

Pros:

Cons: Previous trades.

Once you close your account you cannot retrieve your statements for tax's, fee's or otherwise. I have spent the last two weeks calling and you will be on hold until your hand gets tired, I was lucky twice to get ahold of someone who then transfer me to another line only to be on hold again. Don't bother to send an e-mail either, you will receive a computer generated response that someone will call you, still waiting, three days now. you call e-trade or Charles schwab and your taken care of right there on the spot, no waiting.

by Soms, 2/18/2018

Pros:

Cons: Account Access

Once you close your account with Tradestation - can not access your account for past statements and tax documents. With other brokers you can access them sometime (some cases upto 7 years).

by Soms, 2/18/2018

Pros: Good platform

Cons: Bad Customer Service

With them for 2 years before moving on.
Though a good platform lacks some serious features - such as an option to check margin requirement before placing a trade. When requesting such a feature - they did not care about addressing it.

by Brian, 2/15/2018

Pros: Charting

Cons: No European equities

90% of these reviews are just plain fake news. I'm a professional trader, who has multiple brokers and I think tradestation is the cream of the crop. I've never had a crash. I move funds weekly. I've never had a wire just vanish into thin air. I've had more problems with TD ameritrade and fidelity. But on the flip side if you need hand holding go to TD Ameritrade, they will talk you through the wire process haha

by steven Hall, 2/13/2018

Pros:

Cons: platform is terrible

do not waste your time or money on this platform, go somewhere else. I was trapped into using them due to the school I was in. This platform is so glitchy it is useless. It crashes constantly and they make no attempts to fix their problems.

by BEWARE SCAM!, 2/12/2018

Pros: None

Cons: Scam. They will steal your $$$

Send a wire for $500 never seen my money again. They won't answer phone and no way to contact the guy who enrolled me on this.

Taking them to court. Better stick to TDAmeritrade. Be careful out there guys.. these people are scammers

by Lauri, 2/7/2018

Pros:

Cons:

I have traded with TradeStation for approximately 5 years. I've never had a good customer service experience. Multiple times, they have told me that a change on account #1 will not affect my second account, but every time, it affects my second account. So, today, I cannot access my money in account #2 because of a change on account #1. After 30 minutes on hold to talk to a customer service rep and receiving another customer service rep that did not seem to know the issues, I finally called back to close both accounts. Frustrating!!!

by One Trader, 2/3/2018

Pros:

Cons: Terrible customer service

Waited for weeks to hear about my account application status. Every time I contacted them about the application, they said my documents were flawed but never gave a specific reason that could help me fix the issue.

I resubmitted my documents for multiple times. I sent multiple inquiries to Perry Pingatore (my assigned
TradeStation representative) multiple times but did not receive a response even once.

I am NOT complaining because they did not approve my application. But I am so disappointed that they have never even bothered to let me know the status of my application even now after months past my application. I believe they may have some under-the-table reason not to approve me (e.g. nationality) and they just wanted to keep me waiting until I go away.

I am glad I did not end up working with them of course. A broker that does not response in peace time, just imagine how responsive it will be in an emergency when some thing in the market goes wrong.

by steve, 2/2/2018

Pros:

Cons: garbage

Do not use this platform, it is garbage. it has constant glitches. Anytime there is any data spike it will freeze and crash. You will be trapped in trades and unable to do anything. The charting features are awful, not user friendly and glitchy

by Will, 1/22/2018

Pros:

Cons: always freezes and crashes

no one makes money with tradestation as an active trader, with the best recommended computer system ( I7 quad-core 16 gig ram) and hardwired bandwidth, the system while running only tradestation always locks up and freezes during high volume. terrible customer service. january 2018

by Mel, 8/2/2017

Pros:

Cons:

Don't open account with this broker. Poor service. Go to another broker.

by AD, 7/21/2017

Pros: TradeStation matrix trading is great

Cons: TradeStation crashes all the time,

TradeStation crashes way too much during trading. It's obvious that crashes can cost traders money. I switched computers and even internet services to find out that it is a TradeStation issue. They lied to me. They also take way too long to post your funds when you send your money to populate your account. Time is money and they DO NOT CARE. I am currently transitioning to another platform. TradeStation is awful.

by Randy, 7/18/2017

Pros: Decent platform, Easylanguage is simple to use and useful.

Cons: Horrible customer service, long delays for replies, website full of errors and dead links, difficult to get money out of account.

Biggest complaint is communication, and trying to get money out of the account. I set up ACH shortly after opening account in Nov. 2015, but when needing it on a recent Monday for withdrawal was told I wasn't approved even though I had confirmation from 2015 that everything was OK. Now I'm having trouble actually getting them to return funds and they seem to use every trick in the book to avoid returning customer money. I would highly NOT recommend this broker.

by Docpi, 6/30/2017

Pros: Good range of choices for charts. Wide selection of indicators. Good add on software.

Cons: Options platform weak, seems an afterthought and not even itegrated in main platform. Add ons usually additional cost. Difficult to navigate. Poor videos to learn platforms

Aside from the above, they terminated my account after more than a year and refused to give me a reason.

by John, 5/5/2017

Pros: Notnsure

Cons: Very complicated software, user UNFRIENDLY. hard to navigate

Same as above..going to close account go back to other broker.

by Ishaak Mallic, 3/20/2017

Pros:

Cons: Poor Customers Service, un-authorized deduction of fees from the trading accounts, no clear display of platform and other charges

Its clear Trade Station is loosing its luster. In the event of a dispute and disagreement, the Customer Service response is ambiguous and dodgy. They will never reply via email as not to implicate themselves.

by Lauri, 3/20/2017

Pros: Nice platform with good programming tools

Cons: Terrible Terrible Terrible Customer Service

Don't expect to get anything done quickly and certainly don't expect them to care. Even escalating to a manger does absolutely no good. Horrible!!!

by lylec305, 3/18/2017

Pros: one contract for $1 dollar

Cons: They don't accept recommendations to improve their platform. High margin rates. No DRIP, No auto transfer or widthdraws Hidden platform fees. The basic platform could cost beyond $150 per month.

I would not recommend tradestation.

by tom petit, 3/6/2017

Pros:

Cons:

This not to be used by ANYONE. They are rude,more than half cant speak english or know their job let alone advise you on their platform or rules..dont trade expiration friday with them,,they shut you winning trades off,don not call or advse you that they are , give multiple different excuses for doing so and in the end if you question them they close you down and will not tell you why...These people are the most unethical in trading,use anyone alse. Joe ferio is the worst(and they keep your money)if you want more reasons email me at ha81@aol.com DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL!!!!! They like dumd spanish speaking only clients!!!!!!!!
see more complaints below..stay away from them period the platform is not worth it

by Anonymous, 12/5/2016

Pros:

Cons:

They just terminated my account after several years of trading and they aren't giving any reason. You want to trust them with your money and trading data that they provide you?

by RoughlyRight, 8/24/2016

Pros: I don't know because I terminated my account right after funding!

Cons: Customer service is absolutely the worst. Unless you experience it, you simply won't believe it.

It took 12 days after I submitted my application for my account to be opened. It remains a mystery why opening an account takes such extraordinary effort, further resulting in extensive delay. Also a mystery is the delay in having funds credited to your account. When attempting to fund my account, my bank informed me that they completed the ACH request on the day my account was finally opened. However, it took TradeStation another 7 days to make my funds available. I have a TD Ameritrade account and funds move within 24 hours, which I know is the standard.

But aside from what I stated above, it's the thorough incompetence of customer service coupled with an "I don't know and I don't care" attitude that will keep you up at night. It's the, "that's not my department", "we didn't get your fax. You're going to have to resend it", and "the proper department didn't get your signature card", that will convince you to give it up and run at unparalleled "breakneck" speed to another discount broker. As for me, as soon as my funds cleared I entered an ACH withdrawal, which only took another 11 days to complete. Immediately after I completed an online application at TradeKing and finished in 20 minutes. The application was approved via email literally 1 minute later, and my ACH completed in 3 days.

The point is this; even if the platform is great, what's the sense if there's no confidence in support and whatever support you do get leaves you feeling concerned? What's the sense if customer service has no care that you have no confidence? Finally, I think this statement by a TS rep says it much better than I am able: "Okay, so you know we suck (meaning customer service) but the good news is that once you open your account you'll probably never have to deal with us again." This is only my second ever review I have written, so that should say something. Go to IB or TradeKing and save yourself from what will unquestionably be an upsetting situation.

by Tim, 6/21/2016

Pros:

Cons:

If you intend to use the Trade Station (ST) trading thru the web platform I suggest you look elsewhere. I make most of my trades from work so I have to rely on the web platform to do my trading. TS's web platform is severely lacking. I tried to do a Double diagonal SPX spread trade and was unable to. It was also not allowed on the main platform. The web platform also does not allow you to do a close a spread order. You will have to do each side of the trade separately. Since I was unable to do close a spread order I called the Trading Desk and they confirmed it is not allowed. The indicators on the charting screen take up as much space as the chart. Therefore if you have 2 indicators on the screen they take up more than half of the charting screen. You cannot change the font size or colors on the chart screen. In this day and age I expect more from an online trading platform.

by Stan, 6/7/2016

Pros: Friendliest telephone response ever, seems to have lot of features

Cons: Extremely difficult to setup Platform

I just signed up with 2 accounts. I submitted the application on May 20 and the transfer of my accounts finished June 4th, 16 days to complete. I had open positions and was unable to trades them during that time. So if you do a transfer make sure all of your transaction are taken care of or you could face possible losses or gains. You will spend a lot of hours setting up the different modules as you initially get blank screens. Some of the documentation for the module/screen setups are not up to date, so it may be confusing. Depending on your problem you may have to select from several phone numbers to get a resolution. I have to rely on the web platform, as I am at work during trading hours, and it is very basic. When I add indicators to the chart screen, 2 indicators take up half the screen and you cannot adjust them. Today June 7th, I tried to do a calendar spread trade and I was unable to figure out how to do it with the web platform. During work I can only email them but I was unable to email the department I needed to contact because you can only contact that department them by phone. I tried to contact them by emailing Client Services to assist, but they only emailed me back to call the department, catch 22 situation. I am completely frustrated with their account setup and if I knew I would encounter the problems I have had I would not transfer my accounts. I have spent over 6 hours setting up the platform and I am still confused and will have to spend additional hours to get familiar with the platform and doing trades.

by Chicago Tex, 4/26/2016

Pros: Platform works great, decent fills and commissions

Cons: Transferring funds slow as molasses

It seems most of the negatives about TS are due to the customer support. I never use customer support so I have no complaints in that department. The software works great, is rarely down and the fills have been fine. I day trade the E-Mini every day and am very happy with the brokerage and the platform. It is a bit of a mystery why it takes so long to get funds in and out of the account, but they get it done eventually. Expect over a week to get an account funded or more funded.

by omegaelec, 9/29/2015

Pros:

Cons: Poor customer service, high monthly fees, problems with fund transfers.

I have never used the platform because of technical issues, that did not stop them from charging me $99.00 per month for it. You can put this on hold if you are not trading but it is a hassle to call in and set that up and then call back to start it up again. I was dissatisfied for several reasons so I requested a funds transfer to another brokerage, it was a bad experience, it took me over two weeks and several phone calls to get the funds transferred, various problems including confusion with the account number.

by OptionsTrader1, 4/3/2015

Pros:

Cons:

If you trade options, I would not recommend Tradestation. They close out trades as early as 3:00pm on expiration Friday (usually your potential winning trades first). Also, there customer service is horrible.

The platform is pretty good once you learn how to use it, but if you take longer than their trial offer of discounted or free trading, they will not extend the offer. Also, if you do not use the platform they will still charge you the fees even though you just needed more time to learn how to trade within their environment. The experience is not what I expected based on my research, I will stick with other platforms like TradeKing & TD Ameritrade for now.

by jman56, 2/13/2015

Pros:

Cons:

I just opened my account with TS a week ago, so far it is a great trading platform, but their support is really bad. I don't agree you need to be an experienced trader to use this platform, it's a software interface and while it is complex and has a ton of features, the order bar is sufficient and simple enough that anyone can use it, if you want to use a lot of the features beyond buy and sell, you will have to learn your way around the software no matter how much trading experience you have. Point being, that being an experienced trader and knowing your way around this software, are 2 separate things. The fees may be high for some, but for others that place sizable trades, the fees may be insignificant. I have seen no video help anywhere in this platform, maybe I just have not found it yet... but that's not much help if you cant find it. I had Ameritrade before this and found the TOS platform was just not that user friendly, the functionality just never fit into my way of thinking, I found it far more complicated than tradestation, it's very proprietary and still lives in the mindset of the developer who wrote it. The TDA web interface is separate from TOS, it is real easy but I had to switch screens a lot to switch between accounts and the thing was always slow and locking up, there were times I spent 10 minutes selling positions or could not get quotes or just lost the quote screen. What I realize looking at all these broker reviews, is that they are always based on what the reviewer wants or needs and never matched my criteria. The "Cons" in this review are mostly about fees (which I really don't care about). The steep learning curve I also disagree, anyone that could stand to sit thru their boring videos could use this thing and anyone that feels a need to use any more advanced features is probably a more advanced trader anyway or they probably are not going to even look for these features, nobody is going to use everything in this software. I found the platform is laid out in a very logical way, everything is where I would logically expect it, TOS was not. I have so far, found their support to be so bad, they might as well not offer any support at all which would save people the 20 minute hold on the phone and at least people would know upfront the support is worthless. I have contacted them a couple times and my impression was they just had an attitude, seemed that the objective was to get rid of me. I wanted to get a walk thru of the platform when it first funded (The account rep. had said that I would get a walk thru and could be trading next day) but the help desk guy said all he could do was refer me to their setup guy and schedule an appointment, but the first available appointment was 4 weeks out. then I contacted them about which program folders to back up so I would not lose my configurations and he could not (Or would not) tell me. Later I found there is a backup utility built in, why didn't the help desk guy bother to mention it? I contacted their support group by email and 2 days later got a response that I need to call... I probably wont need much support but if you do then... IDK. But I do love the platform!

by J David Benson, 1/23/2015

Pros:

Cons:

I've been trying to get up and running on the Tradestation Platform, moved funds to their account in December requested a session with someone to help set up the software but did not get that until 5 January. Requested a customizing session but did not get that session with a representative until the 16th of January. I've also called for support twice each time I spent in excess of 30 minutes on hold, they do not have sufficient staff to handle the calls. And both times when I was finally connected they told me that my system was not set up like theirs so they couldn't help me. One fourth of the questions I had during the customizing session were unanswered as there was not enough time and they can only spend one hour for any client!

by MM, 2/22/2014

Pros: Low commissions, a robust platform, the ability to create custom indicators and strategies, and automated trading strategies ...

Cons: Slow fills, devious tech support

I have been a TradeStation client for some years and for the most part I would normally have had great things to say about the TS platform, brokerage, and tech support, however, I have come to believe that TS tech support has intentionally corrupted the stability of two different computers of which I have traded on over the past 6/7 years that I have been a TS client.

Most recently, about three weeks ago, while installing an update WITH a tech support specialist on the phone the so called tech professional STRONGLY URGED AND ADVISED that I should delete a file within my system which he INSISTED that wasn't needed to run TS or any other function within my computer.

This, mind you, is a custom built, high end workstation, not even one years old that was working flawlessly for almost a year until that file was deleted upon the repeated INSISTENCE of the TS tech support personnel. As soon as the file was deleted both myself and the tech expert heard a devastating alarm fire off and my platform and computer was immediately destabilized. When asked what was that file? the tech support individual stated "I DON'T KNOW" ... If he didn't know what the file is/was then why would he insist that it be deleted or that it wasn't needed or that it wasn't needed for TS?

This similar tactic was done about three years ago with a completely different computer that was running efficiently until the TS tech "expert" was physically in my computer making changes and deleting files so rapidly that I couldn't keep up with him; after which, that particular computer also became unstable and the platform no longer loaded charts correctly.

This TACTIC of destabilizing client computers is both frustrating to the end user and a conflict of interest in that TS "claims" to SELL high end workstations. To this end the builder of MY workstation reviewed the TS website and informed me that the so-called highest end workstation sold by TS was far inferior to the system that Tech support recently destabilized by almost 50%. To prove that my system is superior I had my system bench marked against the system types offered by TS and my system beat them hands down.

I'll use TS to trade and I'll use TS because you can't find a cheaper round trip broker, BUT I WILL NEVER TRUST TS TECH SUPPORT AGAIN!!!! Nor will I EVER, EVER believe that they did not intentionally screw up TWO different computers for the sole purpose of selling one of their high priced, inferior systems.

To this point, I was informed by different TS tech support "expert" that I did not have a trading workstation and that in order to run TS that I would need to keep a constant Memory usage of under 2.5GB to 2.75GB and only run tradeStation.

Prior to tech support screwing up another computer system I was able to run 175 processes (yep 175, you read that right) and never use more than 6-7GB of memory. After tech support's "expertise" I was barely able to run 70 processes from the start up and my memory usage would creep up to max out my ram and destabilize the platform and the computer ...

I've sense restored my computer AFTER WIPING MY HARD DRIVE and re-installing EVERYTHING from scratch as well as re-installing TS and starting from the beginning to re-create ALL of my charts and necessary "MY WORK" files ...

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT allow TS tech support INSIST, URGE, or ENCOURAGE you to delete ANYTHING from your system that has nothing to do with TS!!!!! If your told YOU DON'T NEED A FILE that's already running on your system to run TS or to run your system DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!! Any file, any program, or any other thing that is running on your system NEEDS TO BE THERE!!!! Don't fall for this TS SCAM of destabilizing your computer ...

Any organization that has something to sell you and that claims to support your needs at the same time is in direct conflict with your needs and their bottom line revenue and P/E.

by rick, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: the worst customer service, incompetant workers, constant online issues

know the feeling. opened and closed my account in a week but they are still jerking me around. Their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. Minimum of 10 minute wait for a customer service rep. My account rep Kelly Lane once she got my account, never returned another call. major difficulty just getting my user name and password to work properly with no on line help.

by Mark, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: Terrible margins and terrible customer service, always delays

Terrible margins and terrible customer service. Trying to close my account and they are making me jump through hoops. Process is going to 4 days for them to process my wire request. They are making me send the same withdraw request with the exact information because it has a negative euro balance but overall positive balance with all the currencies. So they said they have to convert the negative Euro balance to U.S. first and then I have to send another request for them to wire my money out. The conversion can take up to 3 days. I'm really frustrated with them right now. Never again!! And I'm not a complainer.

by Frank, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: awful customer service,they do whatever they want when they have your money

I couldn’t imagine a worse experience with Customer Service. Tradestation over charged me and then refused to reverse the charges. Further, they refused to send me receipts when requested or confirmation emails. So, they can pretty much do whatever they want once they have your money
.
They treat this place like a Casino.

Please first try any other Broker.

by Jeff, 11/29/2013

Pros: useful platform, easy to navigate

Cons:

Been using Tradestation platform running on VMWare Fusion on a MacBook Pro for years. Works flawlessly.
Your investment of $49 to purchase VMWare Fusion and $90 for Windows 7 (Amazon.com) is a lot less expensive than buying a new PC, and it works just as well. Better actually than buying a new PC.

I can drag and drop files across my Mac to the virtual PC desktop and vice versa. Print and email from either platform, etc.

by JBM, 11/29/2013

Pros: trading platform elegant in design and execution, excellent customer service for trading and executions, reasonable fees

Cons: need to wait on the phone,

Been a Tradestation customer for over three years. Have several accounts with both the retail side and the institutional/advisor side of the business. Generally would give them good marks although the retail side is actually superior to the institutional side of the house.
On the retail side they handle all trade data internally whereas on the institutional side they use their platform (or several others) as a front end to JPMorgan Clearing. Their Tradestation trading platform is elegant in design and execution and works well with both retail and institutional accounts, however their record keeping and trade data are well integrated into their website and platforms for the retail investor but generally suck for the institutional/advisor accounts. Amazingly, many of the website, reporting and data aggregation features available for the retail customer are not available for the institutional/advisory customer.

I have found customer service to be a mixed bag. Customer service for trading and executions have been excellent once I got them on the phone, but sometimes involve a wait of up to 10 minutes. Customer service for platform and technology issues have also been helpful, responsive and generally excellent to deal with. But customer service for back office, accounts, paperwork, etc are sometimes diffident and not always helpful.

Commissions of $0.01 per share and $1.00 per option contract are not the lowest (nor the highest) in the industry but are reasonable when you factor in the free use of the TS platform (if you trade enough to avoid the monthly charge).

by TexDak, 11/29/2013

Pros: good trading platform, good charting, good system

Cons: sub-par customer service,

Tradestation customer service is very sub-par. They are condescending, rude and It seems when you call we are bothering them. Now for the platform, it is good. Good charting, love the Matrix ordering, goofy on the data delay sometimes, but overall the system is good..not great...not wonderful...not awesome, but just good.

by RPR, 11/29/2013

Pros: suitable for day traders

Cons: not for investors

TS's smug videos turn me off. Plus, their platforms are more suited to options and day traders. I'm an investor.

by frank doolin, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons:

Thank u all. I was going to open an account after getting an email from them with their low commissions. I wll look elsewhere. Need alternative to IB

by Stan, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons:

I can tell you for a FACT ToS charts are not on point! I have an acct with TDameritrade now and have been TRYing to use their platform but the tos chart price and the ladder price is not even close to synced! The ladder is 2-10 seconds BEHIND the tos chart price! That's huge when your trading futures!!! I'v been through ALL the suggestions given by their tech team....(even turning over control of my computer to fix the problem) but it hasn't done any good whatsoever. The last I heard, they are looking into it, which to me means nothing!!!!
If you're a daytrader, stay away from TDameritrade and their coveted Think or Swim platform! You're garanteed to be forced into placing market orders (if you want to get in on a move) and you'll pay a premium EVERYTIME!

by Mike, 11/29/2013

Pros: good charting

Cons:

So I am thinking about opening a TS account. I like Tradestation's charting and I want to get live feeds like Q's and ES.
I'm told Tradestation has better fills than ToS. Can anyone confirm?
Also I heard ToS's feeds are not on point.

by Diane23, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons:

A couple of years ago I rolled over my 401k into an IRA and opened an account with Think or Swim. I only swing trade equities and follow an options newsletter but I can't say enough about the great customer service at ToS. To say I'm a bumbler with options is putting it mildly (although I am getting better) -- theToS is always there, they answer the phones, and help place the trade if necessary. I took a trading course from a group that refers their student to TradeStation with a special "deal," but after reading this I'm not sure it's worth making the switch. I usually call for assistance about once every week fo two and Think or Swim representatives are always polite and helpful. I appreciate all the comments here.

by David Jones, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons:

All the complaints above, can anyone recommend a broker they actually like?

by Emmanuel, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: poor and incompetent customer service,

I concur with those users of Tradestation who are not happy with TS customer service. Their year end reporting is one of the worst in the industry. Their 1099 report requires many hours of work sorting out transactions that were carried from a previous year.
For example: In 2012 I had 50 shares of AMZN that I carried from 2011, and an aditional 150 shares that I bought 2012. I sold all 200 shares of AMZN in 2012.
The 1099 shows that I sold only the 150 shares that I bought in 2012, and ignored alltogether the 50 shares that I carried from 2011.
Now imagine yourself sifting through hundreds of transactions to ascertain that all sales were accounted for, including the positions that you carried from previous years.
I also found discrepencies between their reporting on the "Trade Manager" screen, and my end of month paper reports.
In another instance they reported a disallowed wash sale loss that was a mistake.
Calls I have placed three days ago to their tech support have not been answered to this day.
Beware!!! There is more to a brokerage company that a glitzy platform!

by Bill, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: no platform fees

TradeStation offered an account without platform fees, which are $99.95 per month. After 3 months of not being charged, my account was charged the platform fees, since January 2012. I have been unable to get TradeStation to respond to my e-mails or phone calls.

by Gary, 11/29/2013

Pros:

Cons: problems with logging in, absolutely worthless customer service and system.

Huge mistake opening an account at TRADE STATION. Wrote check to open on February 17; cleared BofA 2/21; TRADE STATION Account showed cleared funds 2/28...
Log in would not work, took 2 days to get that corrected. Then, live data would not work...
Demanded refund and close account 3/1/2012 - Client "services" stated could not send out refund for 10 days from the "cleared" date.
In other words: BofA say check cleared 2/21 and TRADE STATION stating funds cleared 2/28 are meaningless terms!
Customer service and system is absolutely worthless.

by John, 11/29/2013

Pros: the most powerful trading platform, low commissions, fast execution, cheap forex

Cons:

I've used Tradestation for 4 years, after using Etrade and Interactive Brokers.

They are by far the most powerful trading platform out there as most of their awards demonstrate, 1 cent per share commissions, Fast execution, cheap forex and futures trades.
I trade over 5000 shares per month so the platform is free.

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