Ameritrade - Downhill?

M

mrpace

I swing trade through Datek, but was officially moved over to Ameritrade a week or two ago because of the merger.

I now find that my orders are taking longer to fill, and I have a lot of problems cancelling orders on listed stocks. The "Submitted For Cancel" will appear for hours, and I don't know if the damn order is cancelled or not (I've been assuming it has been cancelled...dangerous, I know!)

Are there any other Ameritrade users out there who are as unsatisfied as I am after the switch over from Datek? Datek was heads and tales above this in terms of order processing....

I think it might be time to find another broker....

Are there any disadvantages to trading stocks and futures in the same account at IB? I also have an IB account, but I have never traded anything but futures from that account.

I thought I read on this board once that there is some technical or tax issue related to trading stocks and futures from the same account....
 
Mr. Space,

IB vs. Ameritrade.....no contest. Move your money over to IB. I started with Datek, and then endured the pain when Ameritrade took over. Things I hated about Ameritrade:

- Very poor fills.

- For NYSE stocks, could only get on the NYSE book for limit
orders, if I was best bid/offer. Otherwise, I sat on Island.
For illiquid stocks, this was a disaster.

- No pro-rated commissions on partial fills.

- SEC fees on sells needed to be calculated.

- Horendous support - no one knew anything.

- No API. Their tools were always OK though.

IB is in a much better league.
 
This is interesting to know that your account was changed from Datek only weeks ago. Maybe you're talking about change of the account number but that was just a formality... In reality Datek gone a long time ago.

As far as I remember we were moved to Ameritrade 12-14 months ago.


Xoom people look nice but connection is not very stable ( at least in my case: XP and DSL)...
 
Not true. A couple weeks ago, I was switched to the Ameritrade login site. Up until that point, I was logging into the Datek part of Ameritrade.

In addition, I had to switch over my QuoteTracker trading window to a new Ameritrade/Datek format when before it was just Datek.

I used to just BUY and SELL, but starting about 2 weeks ago, I now have to BUY, COVER, SELL SHORT, and SELL.

A lot has changed....more than just my account number.

Fills and my overall trading experience has suffered greatly since this turnover to the new format. If this doesn't clear up in a few more weeks, I'm out of there....
 
I made it a point to place orders right at the open today using Ameritrade (DATEK converted account). No problems at all.
 
Quote from mrpace:

The "Submitted For Cancel" will appear for hours, and I don't know if the damn order is cancelled or not (I've been assuming it has been cancelled...dangerous, I know!)
More...

Do you mean hours literally, or just a long time. I trade through Freetrade (Ameritrade on the cheap), and listed orders have usually taken longer to cancel than OTC, which cancel almost instantly, but the lag is more like 15-30 seconds which I always figured was just the specialist having his way with it.
 
Today: market order was filled in 1-2 seconds;

Cancellations: it took no more than 1-3 minutes.

"Hours" sounds really strange. Even for very "busy" stocks.

It could be something else, e.g. a few times people complained on forums that AmT quote was lost, but I did not have any problem... Maybe it is internet connection.

Actually the main problem with AmT for me is that they reply usually not earlier than in 2 days.

Looks like that after the merge they are too big to handle the situation properly IMO.

Anyway for a discount broker they are reasonable.
 
In the past few days, I've had 2-3 orders stick on "Submitted for Cancel" until the NEXT TRADING MORNING.

1 of these orders was listed and at least one other was Nasdaq...

All of these orders were submitted with about 1-2 minutes left in the trading day (3:57-3:59pm eastern)

Perhaps the late hour of the cancellation is what is causing the problem?

In any event, I have yet to be burned simply ignoring the "Submitted for cancel" message and assuming that it is cancelled.

I have a cable modem connection that is rock steady, and can't recall one serious trading-related complaint that I ever had when I was with Datek over the years.

here's another question...does Ameritrade sell its order-flow?? Why did I recently see an order of mine being handled by Schwab on Level II?
 
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