Seeking info about TradeStation account types & API

E

earth_imperator

The web site of TradeStation is unfortunately not very informative, IMO,
as it always just tries to force you to open an account.
Well, I first would like to inform myself about the details of the offered account types before starting the account opening process! Who would not do like this? :D
I want to inform myself about their Individual Cash Account details & requirements.
Does there exist a web link for this information?

And: somehow the country field on the account opening page does not work: one can neither select a country nor type-in the name of the country. A really idiotic page! Tried with 2 different web browsers (Opera and GoogleChrome).

As said, I'm looking for details of their Individual Cash Account (not Margin Account),
as well for info on the requirements for using their API.

What is the minimum funding requirement for such a new Cash Account?
Does using their API require a higher minimum funding?

So, either I'm dumb to find the said information on their web site, or it's the web site that indeed lacks the said information.
Can anybody help me to find my way, please! TIA! :cool:
 
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earth_imperator- email me if you can't get what you want from Tradestation. The Lightspeed Trader API is a C++ API and we offer CASH accounts with as little as $10,000. Market Data will not pass through this API so you will need market data for your server from a third party.
 
Background info:

I'm forced to find a new broker b/c my current broker (TD Ameritade) does not offer
Vertical Put Spread (ie. Bull (Credit) Put Spread) trading (and similar ones) in a Cash Acct.

An explanation of the problem incl. a link to a good demonstration example trade (by TD Ameritrade, but only for Margin Acct) was posted in this thread:
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...put-spread-vehicle-also-for-cashaccts.368732/

TradeStation does offer it also for Cash Acct, as can be seen here:

MarginReq_at_TS_hdr.png
MarginReq_at_TS__Bull_Put_Spread.png
 
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Robert Morse said:
earth_imperator- email me if you can't get what you want from Tradestation. The Lightspeed Trader API is a C++ API and we offer CASH accounts with as little as $10,000. Market Data will not pass through this API so you will need market data for your server from a third party.
More...

any chance you guys ever lower that down to 5k? i understand it's not for newbies but 5k is a legit amount to trade with.
 
I got info from TradeStation support regarding CashAcct details and API usage. Here is what they say:
"
1. There is no minimum deposit for a cash account or to get general TradeStation platform access.
2. $10,000 is the minimum amount of TradeStation assets needed to get an API key.
3. The API can be used with a cash account.
4. There are no monthly platform or real time data fees. There could be a $50 annual fee, but that is waived by just 5 trades over the course of the year or by maintaining an average monthly balance of at least $2,000 throughout the year.
"

Unfortunately I hadn't asked them, but only later discovered that they have a different commission structure for international users:
Pricings for US residents: https://www.tradestation.com/pricing/
Pricings for International residents: https://www.tradestation-international.com/pricing/
BEWARE: commission for international users is very high compared to the "no commission" for US residents! Cf. above.

That's unfortunately bad news for me :( Can't afford that high commissions, and also the $10K requirement for API usage is beyond my current small acct size... :-(
 
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