Greetings,
Pros:
- TradeStation is an amazing trading software. It is very functional, very strong, very beautiful. You can do many things easily. If not, you can code by their EasyLanguage. Especially their Matrix (known as DOM, Ladder Trader, Booktrader, Active Trader etc. on other platforms) is the best in the market. They reprogrammed it by Microsoft Grid and it is now more smooth and faster. You can scan the rapidly rising or falling stocks live. I used most of the rading softwares in the market and i really liked the TradeStation ...
- Their Webtrader, Mobile App, Ipad App etc. excellent. I really felt first time that i can trade on the Ipad... Their DOM shows unlimited rows in mobile app. IBKR Mobile was showing only 10 rows for example, which was restricted view...
- Execution speed seems to be really good. Scalpers are gonna be happy with that speed imo.
Cons:
- Horrible short locate service. HORRIBLE... First time i saw a broker, which has worst than IBKR in view of short locate service... Many easy to borrow stocks on the other brokers are hard to borrow here and actually 90% of the daily runners are HTB... See the daily runners here, HB means hard to borrow: https://i.imgur.com/kkUZ76N.png and many times you get 0 shares borrowed...
- Trading hours almost same like Robinhood. Very restricted. It starts 8.00 AM EST and you miss the first 4 hours action... If any action happens during 4.00 AM - 7.59 AM EST, you just cannot do anything even you lose money, you just need to look at the monitor desperately. They close at 8.00 PM EST, but in the after hours your short locate requests take 30 mins-1 hour completed and many times my requests got rejected. Intraday it takes 1-10 mins and it causes to lose good entry points.
- Customer service is the most unfriendly customer service probably i've ever experienced. Many of your questions won't be replied. For example: Short Locate App is not loading for me because Internet Explorer 11 is not able to open the web page shortlocate.tradestation.com. I am using windows 8.1 because many engineering softwares i use works with windows 8.1. Customer service means, TradeStation doesn't support the Windows 8.1 , even Microsoft doesn't support it and if i choose to use a "low level OS (word by word what they said)" i need to stand for such troubles. I sent them their webpage which shows that TradeStation supports Windows 8.1 and even Microsoft supports Windows 8.1 , customer services said "Do you have any other questions?".
- You cannot zoom in and out with mouse wheel. It is a request since 2010 in their official forum but the developers are resisting to add this future. No idea why. You need to zoom in and out by UP and Down Arrows on keyboard or click on the zoom in and out button on the chart.
- You need to call them to ask interest rates etc. But after 4.30 AM EST, you cannot know the interest rates because the team, calculates interest rates leaves the office right before the beginning of after hours. If you have a problem with a trading, you need to call them btw. They don't use E-Mail or chat. Most of the time you need to call them to solve your problems... It feels like trading in 90'... They don't use E-Mails or Chat. Chat is only for the sales and technical questions regarding the software (many of times they could not help for my questions anways).
- Almost forgot the add, this part is really important. I've located 10k shares today to short a stock and after 5 mins later i gave order but my order has been rejected. I called them and asked what's going on. They told me that another valuable customer got the almost all shortable stocks. They mean it is unusual and don't happens always but i've experienced that 2 times in my first trading day anways.
I hope my experiences help for someone else.
Pros:
- TradeStation is an amazing trading software. It is very functional, very strong, very beautiful. You can do many things easily. If not, you can code by their EasyLanguage. Especially their Matrix (known as DOM, Ladder Trader, Booktrader, Active Trader etc. on other platforms) is the best in the market. They reprogrammed it by Microsoft Grid and it is now more smooth and faster. You can scan the rapidly rising or falling stocks live. I used most of the rading softwares in the market and i really liked the TradeStation ...
- Their Webtrader, Mobile App, Ipad App etc. excellent. I really felt first time that i can trade on the Ipad... Their DOM shows unlimited rows in mobile app. IBKR Mobile was showing only 10 rows for example, which was restricted view...
- Execution speed seems to be really good. Scalpers are gonna be happy with that speed imo.
Cons:
- Horrible short locate service. HORRIBLE... First time i saw a broker, which has worst than IBKR in view of short locate service... Many easy to borrow stocks on the other brokers are hard to borrow here and actually 90% of the daily runners are HTB... See the daily runners here, HB means hard to borrow: https://i.imgur.com/kkUZ76N.png and many times you get 0 shares borrowed...
- Trading hours almost same like Robinhood. Very restricted. It starts 8.00 AM EST and you miss the first 4 hours action... If any action happens during 4.00 AM - 7.59 AM EST, you just cannot do anything even you lose money, you just need to look at the monitor desperately. They close at 8.00 PM EST, but in the after hours your short locate requests take 30 mins-1 hour completed and many times my requests got rejected. Intraday it takes 1-10 mins and it causes to lose good entry points.
- Customer service is the most unfriendly customer service probably i've ever experienced. Many of your questions won't be replied. For example: Short Locate App is not loading for me because Internet Explorer 11 is not able to open the web page shortlocate.tradestation.com. I am using windows 8.1 because many engineering softwares i use works with windows 8.1. Customer service means, TradeStation doesn't support the Windows 8.1 , even Microsoft doesn't support it and if i choose to use a "low level OS (word by word what they said)" i need to stand for such troubles. I sent them their webpage which shows that TradeStation supports Windows 8.1 and even Microsoft supports Windows 8.1 , customer services said "Do you have any other questions?".
- You cannot zoom in and out with mouse wheel. It is a request since 2010 in their official forum but the developers are resisting to add this future. No idea why. You need to zoom in and out by UP and Down Arrows on keyboard or click on the zoom in and out button on the chart.
- You need to call them to ask interest rates etc. But after 4.30 AM EST, you cannot know the interest rates because the team, calculates interest rates leaves the office right before the beginning of after hours. If you have a problem with a trading, you need to call them btw. They don't use E-Mail or chat. Most of the time you need to call them to solve your problems... It feels like trading in 90'... They don't use E-Mails or Chat. Chat is only for the sales and technical questions regarding the software (many of times they could not help for my questions anways).
- Almost forgot the add, this part is really important. I've located 10k shares today to short a stock and after 5 mins later i gave order but my order has been rejected. I called them and asked what's going on. They told me that another valuable customer got the almost all shortable stocks. They mean it is unusual and don't happens always but i've experienced that 2 times in my first trading day anways.
I hope my experiences help for someone else.
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