Reasons I'm Quitting Trade Station After Only 3 Weeks

Quote from mazotrade:

1. Today, I activated an automated strategy order to sell short 1000 ATI at market open. When my short-stop trigger price was reached shortly after the bell, TS was unable to fill the order for 3 minutes and displayed a message to that effect. Meanwhile, the price had slipped 0.34 off my trigger price, so I cancelled the order due to excessive slippage. But wait. 30 seconds after I CANCELLED the order, TS informed me that the order was filled. WTF? Apparently, TS doesn't have the clout on the floor to short 1000 ATI in good volume (no uptick issues here, either), but then, miraculously, once I cancel my order, they amazingly manage to fill it AFTER I've cancelled. Nice timing. The only party who made any money on that trade was TS, in commissions.

2. Yesterday, my scan identified 6 shorting opportunities. Of these, 5 were flagged by TS as "Hard-to-Buy", or "HB" meaning, I was not allowed to short 5 of my 6 picks. These stocks were:

NANX
NGEN
NVTL
VAPH
ATI
ELN

I find it hard to believe these stocks are so difficult to short. The fact is, an inordinately large % of stocks are unavailable for shorting with TS. TS will tell you that you need merely call the desk to inquire about the availability of "HB" stocks, but that's not very practical when you want to automate your order (one of TS's so-called selling points -- hey, they convinced me [for awhile]) to optimize for price-volume movement.

3. TS terrible execution times, and outright theft, make day trading impossible.

4. Does not permit automated stop-limit orders. You heard right. You wanna place a manual stop-limit, no prob. But TS does not want you to automate this simple, standard order. Why? Could it have something to do with TS trying to ream its clients by forcing them into trades they wouldn't otherwise make due to excessive slippage? Are they getting kickbacks from market makers and specialists? I hear TS is becoming its own clearing house soon.

I'm going with IB, Xoom, or MB. Unless anyone has any better suggestions.
More...

How long have you been trading? What other direct access brokers can you compare with TS?

As for the short list, if they post an availability list, I'd go ahead and check it with other brokers, such as IB, who posts theirs on the website and updates it at least daily.

I've never used TS brokerage or any of their products, but it seems like I never hear good things about them.
 
Points taken. TS doesn't allow automated stop limits, which is why I manually stepped in and cancelled the order when slippage became too large, only to be filled anyway.

I hear you about the NYSE and their specialists. To be honest, I think my real problem here was that, on that day, TS only offered 1 of my 6 picks for shorting, and it turned out to be a dreaded NYSE stock, with obvious pitfalls. Eager to trade, and frustrated by TS's crappy inventory of shorts, I ignored common sense and violated one of the cardinal rules of trading: Don't trade if you don't have a good trade. I mean, ATI was one of my picks, for good or bad reasons, so I wasn't going in blind. I took my chances and I failed.

Now that I've calmed down, I'll retract my emotional claim that TS cheated me by filling the order after I cancelled. It was probably just unlucky timing, nothing more.

Nonetheless, no auto stop-limit orders and a poor inventory of shortable stocks makes TS unnecessarily restrictive in my opinion. I think potential clients should be aware of these limitations with TS.
 
I love TradeStation. But there are a few bugs in everything.
I have an automatic program that I trade, but I do it manually. I just can't bring myself to trust it just yet. Anyway, by doing it myself, I get lots better fills as the market breathes.
Look into the add on software for TS in TradeStation World....... You might find just what you need to correct the problem. I had to do some Easy Language tweaking to get mine just right.:D
 
Quote from maxpi:

He posted the same rant on Tradestation's forums. Probably a competitor or some kind of pissed off person in general.
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What's wrong with posting a legit gripe in the two most prominent forums? Doubles my chances of getting constructive feedback, as well as amusing conspiracy theories.
 
You still dont get who has the list of shortable stocks.

IT'S NOT TS!

The clearing agent has this problem.
BSC!

UGH.
Will he ever get this?

mktsurf
 
I get it. Same difference.

Quote from mktman:

You still dont get who has the list of shortable stocks.

IT'S NOT TS!

The clearing agent has this problem.
BSC!

UGH.
Will he ever get this?

mktsurf
More...
 
What lesson can be learned?

Letting emotions guide your overall trading decisions and analysis can be very destructive.

mktsurf
 
>You still dont get who has the list of
>shortable stocks.

>IT'S NOT TS!

And apparently you don't get that WHO it is doesn't matter. That chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

JB
 
Oh Turok so sorry got you going.

LOL

I know.
Maybe he should have investigated who has the shortable list and what stocks are in that list before going with TS?
Huh?

Do your homework.

mktsurf
 
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