TradeKing final review... for now

For background information on this review please visit the two links below.
This is the third and final part of my experiences with TradeKing... at least for now.....
http://therealisttruest.blogspot.com/2008/02/trade-king-review-part-deux.html
http://therealisttruest.blogspot.com/2008/01/so-how-good-is-trade-king.html

The issue I was having with TradeKing now appears to be resolved. My account was able to receive transfers via ACH as of Friday the 8th of February. This was indeed 5 business days as was stated from the original correct setup. The first two setups were incorrect. The first of those was all my fault, so 3 business days were lost because of my incorrect info. The second was mostly my fault as well, costing 5 more business days. I say mostly because the feedback on the site, when giving the correct info, with incorrect formatting was a bit vague. I tried to input a dash, which was incorrect, but it simply told me the number was wrong. Thinking I did something else, I took off 4 digits before the dash as well. So that number was four digits short. Oops, another five business days.

Finally, after talking with TradeKing tech support and getting frustrated with them, and getting in contact with my other institution to verify the correct information, I got the correct numbers with the correct format (yes including the four missing numbers, minus the freakin' dash). I wish someone had told me that in the first place. Oh wait, yes the younger lady on the internet chat explained that in a vague fashion. Anyways, this was Friday the 1st that everything was setup. Time to wait another 5 business days.... On Sunday the 3rd I received an email stating I had an incorrect ACH profile, a- freakin - gain. WTF?!

I had never received an email about the second profile, so I ignored it and held my breath. Checking my records I saw that the original screwup by me also prompted an email by TradeKing on a Sunday. So it looks like these emails are sent on Sundays. That's a bit odd, I would expect to see it sooner, but whatever. What alarmed me is that I got a message about the second profile while waiting for the third one to go through. A less patient person would have deleted the third one as well thinking it was incorrect also. This is not what I did though. As I said I waited.

On Friday the 8th it was live. I immediately transferred funds into TradeKing from the third ACH profile. Tick, tock, time to wait another five business days, even though the funds are no longer in the other institution and TradeKing is showing the funds in the account, but uncleared. That means I might be able to trade this Friday, the 11th. So in all it will have taken me 18 trading days. Only 8 of those were fully or partially by my own error or misunderstanding.

So now I wait......
One final word though, is that even through all of this I would not dissuade anyone from using TradeKing. Mainly I am documenting my experiences for you. I am a beginning trader, so I can't speak about the interface or the research or even timely trades. Well I could speak a bit about timely trades in a few days and perhaps in the future I will do a full fledged review with specifics on different options trading, interfaces, research, experiences, etc. For now this is what I have. This is my final TradeKing review for the moment. Good luck everyone!

Therealisttruest

Trade King review part deux

I called TradeKing again yesterday and couldn't get the help I wanted from them. Evidently my problem was 'investigated'. They showed my bank as having rejected outgoing transfers. I had verified with my bank the day before that this was not an issue, so TradeKing appears to be at least partially wrong for it. They did however give me some more background info on the issue, allowing me to pin down another error on my part. It seems I had the wrong account info or at least not all the info needed (I was short 4 numbers).

So I'm trying one last time to make this work. I'll know at the end of next week for sure, but if this doesn't work I'm closing my account with TradeKing. Even though they helped me some, they were not as helpful as they should have been. I think this shows some weakness in their support department. I'm a freakin' computer programmer, so I can handle tech support issues, and I do understand what people go through at a call center. I also know a disorganized group when I see one and that is a somewhat disorganized group. So I'm not going to say they are a worthless company. I don't think that at all. I just think they have a few kinks to work out. Had that been my bank on the other end, I would have had everything figured out from day one, not having talked to so many people and having to put the puzzle pieces together myself. So one more chance...... if they screw it up you all will know it.

EDIT --added links to other parts
part 1
part 3 final

So how good is Trade King?

Not so good thus far... I'm hoping for better but it's not looking so good. I just recently got started trading in the stock market and have for the last couple weeks been using a reputable online broker, but the commissions make it almost impossible to make a profit. One reason is that I started out with a lowly 50 bucks. I've recently added 30 bucks in cash to that fund so now it's basically 80 bucks minus commissions. So at 12.95 per transaction that puts me in a nearly impossible position. By the way, on my first trade, I've almost recovered the commission and pretty soon will make a profit, at least until I sell, then I'll take another huge hit and that's in an almost nightmarish market. 12.95 isn't bad if you're investing thousands of dollars, but hey I've only got 80.

I figured I would try another brokerage that was cheaper so that my profits would be easier to come by and it came down to Zecco.com and TradeKing. Zecco lost out because of the trade schedule, basically twice a day. I would like to get a chance to ride the waves of volatility, especially in this market, so twice a day won't work for my plan. So I chose TradeKing.

The first problem I have is that I only have about $30 in cash and the other 40 something is in the two shares I own. So I needed to get the cash to TK, but without expensive fees. I didn't want to wait forever, but wiring is too expensive, so I chose to go the slow electronic transfer route. There is a 5 business day waiting period, which sucks, but that's life. At first I created an ACH profile (electronic transfer with no fees), but had the wrong info.

So I cost myself 3 trading days. I was sent an email and promptly re-created this profile with correct info. The website nicely informed me that I would be able to trade on February 1st. Earlier today I took a look to see if trading time perhaps came early, but to my chagrin my profile was gone. It was just gone, no notice, no anything at all. So will I trade via TradeKing tomorrow or not?

At first I tried the online chat feature on TradeKing's site. The guy was nice enough, but basically told me that there was no way it could be deleted without a notice being sent to me, but also in the same breath told me that if my bank rejected it then it might disappear. This didn't make sense to me, but I played along. He was going to check a few things, but I didn't have all my bank info handy at the moment so I let him off the hook.

Finding the info he requested, I went for the online chat feature again, getting a different person of course. This young woman(I'm assuming on age by communication style) didn't know what was going on. She did not communicate clearly and basically wasted a bunch of my time. I was pretty irritated at this point.

I called my main brokerage and explained the situation and they verified that they do indeed accept transactions and withdrawals and even checked to see if TradeKing had attempted any communication with them. There had been none, but I was instructed how I might do things from their end which unfortunately involves me sending a form and documentation from TradeKing. But wait, I've had this account for almost two weeks and I don't have any documentation from them yet, so again I'm screwed.

As a last resort I call the TradeKing support number. The nice gentleman on the other end tells me my profile shouldn't have been deleted, but hold on and let me check. I explained the situation twice and he told me there was something in the system showing two profiles having been setup, the first being deleted, just as I had said, but the person who can help me had left for the day. He asked me if I could call back tomorrow, February 1st, the day I should have been able to transfer money in. So it's not looking good. Instead of deleting a part of my account, I almost wish my whole account had been deleted, then it would be perfectly clear I should just give up. Unfortunately, me being who I am, I will call in the morning, hoping they can redeem themselves. We'll see..... I'll let you all know.


EDIT --added further links to rest of story
part 2
final part