Comments on: Online Brokerage Comparison: I Gave Up on Scottrade!

By: Joseph

Joseph — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:24:57 +0000

I had Etrade years ago, but they had a lot of fees. Sharebuilder is good, but the $4 only applies to auto investments. Otherwise, it’s $10. I tried TradeKing, but their interface was a bit of a nightmare.
I ended up with Ameritrade.

Also worth mentioning, as of recently, Ameritrade acquired some great companies/tools:

Think or Swim
Investools

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinkorswim

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:18:15 +0000

Leslie:

You are never permitted to sell a security you purchased using unsettled sales proceeds and then sell it before the sold security settles unless you had sufficient settled cash in the account.

By: » Scottrade Review

» Scottrade Review — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:01:42 +0000

[...] years, I’ve heard good things about Scottrade (mostly from people defending Scottrade in this guest post) but never tried them. I mostly use E*Trade because of their high yield savings account and [...]

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:59:12 +0000

Regarding Scottrade, I really don’t know what to do. I would like to open a dialogue with some of you that have complained. May 12, 2009 the major problems began. I couldn’t even get onto the site. It kept freezing up, in fact only half a page appeared..ironically the part that says, “Reliable, Stable and Trusted.” The streaming quotes were not streaming but acting crazy….the site was freezing up and extremely slow. In the streaming quotes, I kept getting “closed, connecting or establishing.” It was a disaster. I immediately called their office, (here in San Diego)..and complained to the manager..(no need to mention his name)…he even could not get the site up on his own computer… after waiting on the phone… he said he knew of no problems with their system and that I should check my cookies..and sent me on a wild goose chase into my Mozilla Firefox. The lady sitting right next to him was aware that they were having major problems with their site, but for some reason he did not know about it. By now, an hour had passed. I called the 800 number to ask them what was happening, and was on hold, for what seemed to me to be an eternity. When I finally got through, they said that they would “look” into the problem, but that was not helping me. During that period of time, I lost over $10,000..I had no idea what the stocks were doing. I am a day trader and get in and out of positions as the market trends. Sometimes after only several minutes. I could not do that. And Scottrade was VERY UNHELPFUL, almost as if, “Why are you bothering us???” When I finally got through to tech, “Jessica G”…..she assured me that the problem would me corrected, and if not, to call her immediately. That night I had purchased two very large positions and in the morning both positions had gone up. As I usually do, I immediately went to sell both positions, take a nice profit, but once again, I couldn’t get into the Scottrade site for the life of me. The site froze up. I frantically called the manager once again, and was on hold. As usual, people were taking their profits and the stocks were rapidly declining. I was watching the stocks free fall and my dollars disintegrate before my eyes……I lost another $12,000 in mere moments and finally…. the manager acknowledged their site was having problems, now for the second day in a row. Again I sensed that he was “put out” that I was calling him…and in any event there was nothing he could or would do. In those two days, I lost $22,000 and I sincerely believe that 99% maybe even 100%…was the fault of Scottrade. I went to call Jessica G, and she didn’t answer, and the number she gave me (to call her immediately) was a number into oblivion. I did finally get through to a “tech” he said he would “note” the problem. I sent them several e-mails and complained to everyone that I could, but to no avail. On May 18, 2009, I received a letter from Scottrade, with a cc: to Rodger Riney, where they apologized for the problems and said that they would credit my account for 5 free trades. Generally, over the last year, Scottrade has been pretty good, and I haven’t had too many problems with their site, but this situation has literally made me sick…..I feel so vulnerable to them. What am I suppose to do??? Hire some arrogant attorney who will take even more of my money….as I said, I would like to open a dialogue with some of you…a class action sounds nice if it’s feasible…. I have liked Scottrade for the most part…they have been reliable…..that’s why I was so shocked to have these problems. My e-mail is eddie8@cox.net

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:17:20 +0000

Ian I had the same problem with Sharebuilder and was told it was a SEC regulation. In actuality the SEC say trades have to be settled during the three trade days that follow the actual trade. Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and others allow you immediate access to the proceeds of a sale to buy and sell using the same funds over and over in a single day. I have had problems with Sharebuilder holding my money hostage and am now reviewing as many online brokers as possible looking for “the right one”, at the right price.

By: Mike Tataovich

Mike Tataovich — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:00:28 +0000

I had a like yours that ended us causing a $31,000.00 loss. I then printed out my trade executions and found over 27 trades were nothing like the orders placed. I contacted Scottrade local office and talked for two day back and forth with not results or explanation. due to the large nature of my problem I am taking it to the SEC for a formal review if any one would like to support this effort please let me know

By: A3GR

A3GR — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:17:42 +0000

FINRA was of no help for me. A class action lawsuit needs to be initiated against Scottrade for the issue of not being able to cancel a trade. This is clearly a fault in their system and costing their customers a lot of money.

By: Scottrade Failed Me

Scottrade Failed Me — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:08:34 +0000

I echo Upset Trader’s comments.

I was unable to cancel an order before market open today, again due to an unresponsive server and the trade was executed. What really gets me is that, after not being able to cancel, I tried to modified the trade to a limit order. This was confirmed, but the trade was executed as originally placed, without the modification.

I have found Scottrade’s local branch manager, regional branch manager, and two compliance officers to be completely unhelpful in attempting to resolve this issue. On top of not providing a resolution, they simply did not return phone calls as promised. It has been a poor customer service experience.

This one time has made me realize the value in realiability that other posters have referred to. Never again will I allow this to happen, no more Scottrade.

Buyer beware!

I will be following up with a complaint to FINRA.

By: MC

MC — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:36:43 +0000

GLWQ3768
This code works on Scottrade, I just tried it. Get 3 free trades. Beware of those claiming that you get 7 free trades. My friend recently tried those and it does not work – called Scottrade and they said the best deal is 3 free trades!

By: jc

jc — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:23:15 +0000

As i see it, if you have enough funds you can do this. It is only the exact fund proceeds that get held up . A cushion of other funds allows you to keep buying and selling.

By: MC

MC — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:22:48 +0000

Here’s an up to date, active referral code for 3 free trades. The offers for 7 free trades is over. 3 for free is the best current offer. Use code: GLWQ3768 when opening an account to receive your free trades! When asked how you heard about Scottrade, click referred by a friend and enter this code! Beware of inactive codes on the net, many do not work. Rest assured this one is active!

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:08:17 +0000

Russell,

I spoke with the ScottradeELITE team and they would like to learn more about your situation. Please send me an e-mail at mediarelations (at) scottrade (dot) com. Once I receive your e-mail, a member of the ScottradeELITE team will be in touch.

Best,

Amber
Online PR Specialist, Scottrade

By: Russell Smith

Russell Smith — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:49:59 +0000

Scottrade elite quotes are not commpatible with 64 bit computers.I talked to the tech deprtment oct 08,they said they were trying to get a fix.I called again today feb 2,09…no fix yet..any thoughts on this

By: Amber

Amber — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:33:42 +0000

Hi Ian – I am with Scottrade’s Public Relations team and saw your comment.

It takes three days after the day the trade is placed to fully process your transaction. This is called the settlement period (the trade day plus three business days). This is an industry standard, not Scottrade specific.

Option transactions have a one business day settlement period and mutual fund transactions have settlement periods that are determined by the individual fund companies and can range from trade date plus one to five business days.

For additional questions feel free to contact the e-mail address or phone number Kevin provided in his comment above.

Best,

Amber
Online PR Specialist, Scottrade

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:58:38 +0000

Hi Kevin,

I have a question regarding settlement of funds. Why does it take three days for funds to settle after buying or selling a stock? I would like the ability to buy a stock, sell it and buy something else and then have the ability to sell it again that same day.

Thanks

Ian