TradeStation Complaints and Reviews (2025)

Review:  This brokerage imposes a "mandatory corporate action fee" of $30 on traders. Essentially, you’re charged whenever a company you invest in undergoes any corporate action. For instance, if a company like Nvidia has a stock split, you’re hit with a $30 fee. Who knows what other corporate actions will rack up more fees? Will a CEO or CFO change incur a charge? What about stock buybacks or announcing dividends—does that mean another $30 fee? Avoid this brokerage!

Review:  I'm a current TradeStation user, and I can't recommend this platform for two main reasons: 1) hidden service and commission fees, and 2) poor customer service. Recently, I noticed charges of $0.76 per trade in service fees (unbelievable) and $0.02-$0.03 per trade in commission fees on some of my orders. This was because of "direct routing" instead of "intelligent routing," even though all my platform settings were set to intelligent routing. After an hour-long phone call and an online troubleshooting session with a very unhelpful and combative customer representative, her best solution was to manually confirm the routing on every order before sending them going forward. This is a problem for scalpers who need immediate order execution and an unacceptable fix for what is clearly a software/platform issue. How can you still market yourself as "commission free" with such a glaring problem in your platform? I recommend all current TradeStation users review their daily trade confirmation statements for these charges. Additionally, you'll need to identify on which days and trades these incorrect fees were applied yourself. This is simply unacceptable and a disservice to customers. When I asked for a callback to confirm these refunds, I was told the refund would take 7 to 10 business days and that a callback could take up to 48 hours (two days, really?). Other reasons I can't recommend TradeStation include 12% fees for short selling, a limited selection of hotkeys and chart indicators, stops set in dollars instead of percentages, font resizing issues for those using widescreen monitors, and the clunky software that misroutes orders resulting in service and commission fees. If you enjoy spending time on the phone with customer service, then by all means, open an account with TradeStation. As for me, I'm already looking for another broker. I guess the journey continues.

Review:  TradeStation provides robust tools, comprehensive charts, and advanced coding features. If you're looking to upgrade from TOS, its capabilities might be a good fit for you. Consider trying a trial to make sure it matches your preferences.

Review:  I use both Tradestation and TOS. Most of my trades are executed by my own custom algorithmic trading bots, which stream real-time data and utilize trade APIs from both TOS and TradeStation.

TOS operates natively on a Mac, while TradeStation is a Windows-only client. However, combining TradingView with TradeStation works pretty well.

I prefer TradeStation’s APIs over TOS’s, and most importantly, TradeStation doesn’t limit the number of trades per day like TOS does. Plus, TOS charges “regulatory fees,” whereas TradeStation does not.

Since I engage in high-volume trading, most of my trades are carried out on TradeStation.

Review:  I was a Tradestation affiliate. At some point, they cut affiliate commission from $50 to $5 WITHOUT saying a word to affiliates.

This is the integrity of Tradestation.

Review:  Piece of trash. App crash. Extremely stink and rude customer services. Delay. Tiny Margin. Margin liquidation fee. Convoluted policies and never an update. Account isnt in sync. Fidelity will never keep charging you $75 liquidation fee and it has more functionalities. No manager to speak to. "Senior officers" hand up 5 calls a day. These clowns don't care you tell SEC and FINRA. They keep stealing. Sit tight for complaints on your nasty theft service like on YouTube. Transfer to other brokerages.

Review:  Amazing how the developers absolutely trashed the user interface over the years, creating a dozen crappy "apps" or so within the software itself. TS 6 was a thing of beauty, so at least they didn't dare touch EasyLanguage as it's still backward-compatible. Moved to TradingView.

Review:  I have nothing but good things to say about TradeStation. Opening an account was straightforward and simple which only took a day or two for the deposit and begin trading. The integration with my charting platform has been really good (although opportunity for some improvements), and I use the integration to place almost all my trades through TS.

I've also had to open three support issues, two by chat and one over the phone, and I'll say great customer service with quick resolution.

I haven't had to withdrawal so we'll see how that experience goes, but overall, extremely impressed with TS as very active day trader primarily in Futures.

Review:  If you are serious about trading then TS is hard to beat. Don't expect much hand-holding since this is a broker for experienced traders. Their platform is second to none and you have to try it yourself to appreciate what it can do.

Review:  I've been with TS for a few years. There are definitely some corks but once you work through these it's a good environment to trade for a living.

Review:  If you want a serious trading platform then this is a place to be. But don't expect much handholding

Review:  tradestation is trash, couldnt design a platform if lives depend on it, constantly crashes for no reason, erases all your work, slow and glitchy, zero support, never fixes anything, do not use, interface is awful, complete garbage.

Review:  There's no words for the service that they provide. Been on Chat for over 1 hour. The person is continually saying please "Wait I'll be right back". What are we playing here, some game? Who are these people? They are completely incompetent

Review:  I'm here debating moving my Fidelity IRA account to TS. I have an account I day trade from with TS already. I love the ability to build my own indicators to do about whatever I want. For example one of my indicators I've built places a line on a chart at the high of the last 2 hrs. of the previous day. I then have a scanner that runs and filters for stocks that have gapped above that line on open or passes above that later during the day and it tells me which it did. I've also built one that determines the total cost of a trade with whatever risk amount I enter then filters out anything that will cost more than the maximum amount I've entered as an input. I've combined these 2 indicators along with about 10 others, like Market Cap, Volume, max and min share cost, moving average directions and crosses, etc., into one indicator that runs constantly and gives me an audible alert as stocks are found. I cannot do any of this with Fidelity. I want to ability to do this in my IRA account but modify it to run on a daily timeframe. I think it will be easier and faster to do it all from one platform and will be less places to make a mistake entering orders. I also like the chart trading feature with TS over Fidelities'. I recommend TS to anyone who wants to take the time to learn to use it. The only pro with Fidelity I see is there is a local office I can go to if I need to. I haven't had to deal with CS with TS. I usually go to their forums for answers to anything I come across and always get the help I need by reading the answers others received on the same issues or just post my own questions.

Review:  Customer service is bad, if you can reach anybody they are arrogant. But it is consistent over the last 4 years so it has to be from top management down.

Review:  .60 per option contract plus $5 per trade. Plus .03 to
09 fees. If assigned or called add another $14.99 in fees for each. $35 to transfer money out. $125 to transfer, each position out. Buy or sell stocks minimum fees $14.95. Incredibly unreachable customer service. When they reply in email it is inaccurate. Data is costly as well. Go think or swim. They have stellar customer service and extremely low or no fees.

Review:  Tradestation is best for people who need ultra-fast and ultra-reliable order execution. It's great for swing trading or day trading, but where it excels is really short term scalps (like with morning gap-and-go breakouts) with extremely fast fills at insane prices, all with no commission. I've used ThinkorSwim by TD Ameritrade and it simply fails to compare in terms of speed and reliability.

Review:  One of the best apps for trading. Arguably the best! Intuitive to use, fast to load and display quote data, and well organized. I've upgraded it to five stars since it now supports the full options chains.

Review:  I see most of the reviews here are re: the Customer Service. I understand.
You are no longer able to reach an advisor by phone (and hang on the line)
On the few occasions I needed help, my email was answered promptly.
Instant Gratification is for little kids when Mommy isn't there.

The Platform (I use 10.0) is excellent. It took a while to figure things out and I am still learning the nuances - On My Own!
You (the client) sets TS up and arranges the Workspaces. The software is intuitively obviious. It's easy to use; as is the mobile app.

Bottom Line
It does take a certain level of intelligence to operate the TS platform. If you can't figure it out, then spend $$ for a Manager, who wlll do for you everything your mother did as a toddler - But at a Price.

Review:  Great for monitoring the market and positions. Good for exiting trades. I prefer the desk top for entering trades.

Review:  How can you put a product in the market and not support it? Tradestation does. We are traders. We need answers. The software tries to be all things to all people. So many ways to complicate things, and they will go wrong. Can't endorse them. Really surprised that Larry Williams supports them. I know that he has programmers and doesn't need to deal with the super complicated software. I wish he would listen to his customers. Tradestation is absolutely the worst.

Review:  Horrible. Many human errors but no response
This is a horrible broker. Make many things wrong and no response. I don't know why the staff keeps making data input mistakes but nobody checks it and response to you.

Make my address update wrong.
Make my w8ben form wrong in country code.
Error in dividend withholding tax due to wrong country.
Make my 1042 form wrong in country codes.
Online access to w8 ben form always fails due to system problems.

But no response after sending email. Clearly the staff including customer support or back office staffs are not under proper scrutiny.

Review:  It's trash. They try to act like a real bank, but they don't practice rules of a real bank. The FTC should look at this.

Review:  This so called "business" has all the hallmarks of a CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE, starting with the "run-around"; "pass-the-buck"; hanging up on the client; changing the rules to get your money; and everybody has a different EXCUSE for every problem -- and there's no end to YOUR "problems".

I thought I could trust the "Trade Magazines" which gave sparkling Reviews, so I'm suffering for believing THEIR LIES.

If anyone is thinking of going to this "business", they can save themselves A LOT OF GRIEF if they simply flush their cash down the commode, because the end result will be the same, and you won't have the associated headache.

Go to E-TRADE for a simple and staight-forward Platform with intuitive and simple trading, and Excellent Customer Service, -- and no I'm not with E-Trade, I'm simply a satisfied customer.

Review:  Forget the reviews trying to defend Tradestation - *those* are the fake reviews. I've spent weeks trying to get my money out of my account. I'm convinced that at least their crypto platform is a scam. At first they said I must call to "verify my request". After an hour on hold, the CSR takes my information and says it'll take 3 business days for the transfer to work. I can see the transaction in my online account as "pending". Meanwhile, the funds are locked up while the transfer does its thing. 3 days later, the transfer transaction disappears and I'm back to square one. I call again. Same thing. Over and over. I'm about to contact the FTC.

Review:  i knew something was wrong, so i looked up customer complaints, boy, am i glad i visited this site! I am a new potential customer and have been trying for over a week to talk to a live person at the company so i could feel comfortable funding the acct! lol!! tradestation is a joke and so is td ameritrade, neither company has any customer service, worst ever: and they expect people to deposit $ with them!

Review:  As of March of 2020, customer service stopped taking phone calls. Live chat requires one to wait at least an hour. Getting anything done by live chat agent is not common. They want you to e-mail. Email takes 15 days to respond to, this is not a joke. More often than not, agent who sent e-mail will not be of help, they tell you to contact chat. They will send customer back and forth between chat and email without getting anything done. Forget selling covered calls or cash covered puts. You get charged $14.95 every time you get assigned stocks.
Then, rainbow of accounts... You want equities, that's one account with a minimum balance required. You want futures? Another account. You want options on futures? Another account yet. Each account has minimum balance and each account has minimum trades... Folks, this is all fine, for 1985. Last I checked, this is 2021. Let's get up to date.

Review:  TradeStation is still taking $10 a round turn from me. Today I got the worst fill I've ever had. They got me in at my price alright. The problem: a one share fill on a five hundred share order. Wow they made their money. My other broker charges me around $2 a round turn. I like my chart set up so I've stayed but if fills like this continue to happen I'll be long gone.

Review:  Tradestation's customer service is absolute garbage. They have been going downward consistently over the last year. The chat option regularly starts you in a queue of a minimum of 60 other customers and after you finally get a representative, they quickly and without your knowledge or OK transfer you to another department/representative where you guessed it; you go back in queue for another 60 customers.

If your thinking about using Tradestation, DONT.

Tradestation's horrible customer service negates anything positive that they have. I have decided to leave Tradestation after many years for a platform that gives a damn about their customers. I strongly recommend you look elsewhere as well.

Review:  1. they locked my account without any notice.
2. Unable to contact the customer service for days. I emailed, called, and contacted the online chat twice. The online agent told me that she cannot do anything for me. Online chat takes many hours of waiting.
3. My account is still locked and no response from the customer service.
4. call back is offline all the time.
5. Tradestation asked me to send them a copy of my social security card and my driver license via unsecured email. This is a sure way to get your identity stolen.
6. Tradestion made an error in transferring funds. As a result, my bank fined me $30. I am unable to contact anybody at Tradestation to resolve this issue.
7. Non-stop informercial emails.

Review:  The platforms ok, nothing special. But the customer services is very bad. As long as you don't need customer support you will be ok with TradeStation

Review:  Your equity will be sold on its own without you knowing and without you initiating sell.
No customer service, no query resolution at first and once you open account you will only loose your money if you are not an expert.

Review:  Worst customer service ever! The woman I spoke to yesterday was unwilling to listen to me. She kept talking over me and would not let me tell her what my concern is. Her only goal in the interaction was to be right.... When I said this to her she informed me the call was being recorded... Well GOOD! I am now waiting for a manager to call me back to resolve my issue however it takes 40-48 business hours for that call (a full week). In the mean time I cannot even trade with the funds in my account. If i had to choose between using this company and waling 700 miles to wall street for each of my trades i would choose the walk! it is that BAD!!! I believe this is a scam and should probably be investigated formally so I requested a formal investigation :)

Review:  Keep in mind the start of this is your tradestation customer rating. That would be a review by actual experience. My experience over 6 months has been bad communications, poor communication, attitude of disrespect. So novice stay away. And for experienced never need a person to talk to for questions. I am not spam I am real , my experience has been real over the last 6 months. I am now done and have moved to another company. Tradestation took the fun out of trading. If this sounds good to you, then go for it!

Review:  Customer service is as bad as any I've seen in this industry. I tried to open TradeStation and it got a message I need to sign an agreement before I could proceed but had questions as to why I needed to sign it and if there were any service costs associated with me signing it. Tried to reach out to support, they are not taking any calls for support, I need to either send them an email or request a call-back. I requested a call-back a couple of weeks ago because of a margin call notification I was getting and it took them 4 days before they called me back. I've tried the online chat support and they only deal with sales.

Review:  good broker great software. Customer service very slow to get back to you tho.

To European Customer---you are obviously very uninformed how to execute covered puts. You write a covered put you will have to use margin to cover the possibility of having the underlying stock put to you--get yourself educated fella! TS doing NOTHING wrong in that scenerio. Seems most posting here are rookies , novice traders etc. Ive beem w/TS for years and mostly have few issues.

TS is a retail broker--if you are a true daytrader trading stocks rapidly that have momo then you need a direct access brokerage that is dedicated to scalp type daytrading--you will pay commissions but its worth it if that is your style--for all other types of trading TS is very adaquate. Ive been online trading for over 20 years and am a pro trader trading for a living and I use a direct access broker to do my true 1000 5000 10000 share rapid fire trading the momo stock of the minute. TS meets all my other trade needs quite well and the software is very powerful and the 0 commish saves me 1000s.

Most issues I run into with TS and can eventually figure out on my own--I too get frustrated sometimes when the software runs a little slow on open or high volume--doesnt happen all the times but some. Thats why I have a 2nd broker--the direct access broker to handle that situation.
When I do have to use CS -it does take too long usually to get someone to talk to--which is my 1 main gripe with TS--but 99% of the time when I do get a tech they are able to get me squared away--but I know how to ask intelligent questions and understand what they are telling me because I understand all aspects of trading--BECAUSE ITS MY PROFESSION AND MY RESPONSIBILITY TO LEARN AND DO SO!!! And its everyone else`s to do the same. trading is a tuff biz and no one is going to hold your hand--you need to read and educate yourself otherwise find another profession because you WILL eventually donate your account to another trader like me who knows the business..

Most of these negative posts are either spam, idiots who are just slamming TS w/o knowing what they are talking about--or just plain stupid traders who probably have no business trading and lose money trading and need someone other than themselves to blame. Many multi million dollar traders use TS successfully--I know a couple and I can assure you they could trade anywhere they want and pay any price they want to trade--even the Bloomberg Terminal--and they choose tradestation for a reason--it works. So you folks coming in here reading these endless negative reviews need to consider that. Sure TS isnt perfect--no broker is. All brokers will experience some issues from time to time--its a fact of trading. Accept that or find another profession. But TS is as good or better than most--and if you have specific trade needs that TS cant meet--then get a 2nd broker as i have that can meet those situations..simple solutions folks.

Happy Trading

Review:  I recently have tried to cancel my account and transfer my positions. This has been going on for3 weeks and has not been completed yet. I have kept all notes what has been needed by them and how. Tradestation’s call backs are horrible and when they do there is bad communication in the business and rudeness. Good luck w them U will need it

Review:  I guess happy customers do not write reviews. I'll be an exception. This is the best platform on the market along with TOS. Forget about a few bad reviews - these guys have well over a million customers at least so of course there will be some unhappy clients. Check out reviews for other brokers - it's the same picture. And give them a shot - it costs nothing.

Review:  This platform is OK..BUT... this is 32 bit software folks..NOT 64 bit. Both TS 9.5 and TS 10 run on a 32 bit format!!!! Thats why is doesn`t run efficiently on a 64 bit system! Customer service is BY FAR the slowest in the industry--I can get an IRS agent on the phone quicker during tax season.

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