TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade was my first & still my main broker acct that I have opened up. I have a few others, but they are who I always fall back on. I’ve had nothing but a pleasant experience with them, from professional courtesy, responsive when I call, and I never hung up without the answer I was looking for. I think they are the easiest layout of all my other brokers acct. I give them 5 stars across the board except one thing. They do charge $6.95 for pink sheets and OTC stocks. I wish they would change that policy since Charles Schwab purchased them. That’s the only reason I’m not giving 5 stars.

Be careful using TD Ameritrade. I have reason to believe that they trade against their clients, take a corresponding short or opposite position, and they will pounce on you if your stocks are in a temporary downward trend and you're on margin. After charging me margin interest, TD Ameritrade suddenly changed its margin requirements for a stock I held and force liquidated a partial position of mine, causing an unnecessary loss on 9/7. The stock had been in the same range prior to the changed margin requirements. To no one's surprise, the stock jumped 7% today on 9/8.

I also have reason to believe that they are actively trading against their clients or at least assisting algo's, hedge funds, market makers, and more sophisticated (or deep-pocketed) traders and institutions to front-run a person's retail trades on TD Ameritrade. Whenever I sell an option, the price of the underlying moves against me. Almost instantaneously.

Don't use TD Ameritrade. Their margin rates are high, they can change the margin rules at any time, and they can decide to enforce/implement margin rules to cause you a loss (plus they will have charged you interest). Compared to Interactive Brokers, TD Ameritrade pays very little on instantly available cash. I'm filing a complaint with FINRA, the FTC, the CFPB, state securities authorities, and exploring legal action. I've been a customer with TD Ameritrade for 20 years and this was the last straw.

Td is the worst.

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