DAS Trader Pro will work with TD Ameritrade (Aug 2020)?

[DP 3]

Ref to this webpage https://dastrader.com/subscribe/. Seems Das Trader Pro will soon work with TD Ameritrade.  It should be a good news for for those who have TD Ameritrade accounts. I heard that ThinkOrSwim / TD Ameritrade has issue of slow execution, especially during the first few minutes after market opens.

When we place order in Das Trader Pro, are the order executions exclusively managed by DAS Trader Pro, or dependent on the broker? If it’s managed by Das Trader Pro, I understand the order execution should be very fast because DAS Trader has direct access to the market. If it’s still dependent on the broker (e.g., TD Ameritrade), there will probably still issue of slow execution.

Edited August 5, 2020 by DP

[Trinity 14]

Hi DP, I was trying to find how to set up TD Ameritrade with DAS and saw this post. In the chat this morning it seems some people already started trying it out. I don't know the answers to your questions, but another member said there is a split-second delay compared to using Interactive Brokers. 

If it helps anyone, here is the link to DAS site about TDA. I am going to set it up for myself this week. 

https://dastrader.com/docs/td-ameritrade-advanced-features-status/

[Trinity 14]

An update...so I chatted with DAS support last week and they told me that this is for a beta test group right now, but we can request this starting October 15th.

The support person told me there will likely be an extra fee in case you want to keep both your current broker set up and the TD Ameritrade. He/she didn't know what the charge will be. 

Lastly, they if I want to use both IB and TDA at the same time in DAS, I would open to different versions of the platform. My current one and one created for TDA. 

This is what I found last week, but I guess anything can change when they actually launch this. 

[loluwilliams 0]

Hello Trinity,  thanks for your updates. Are you now using DAS-TDAmeritrade combo ? If yes ,what has your experience been like. I have a TD Ameritrade account which I'm yet to connect to my DAS. If there is no difference in execution speed at any time of the day, then it might be a good idea to swap from IB to TDAmeritrade  due to the zero-commission  in the latter. 

 

[Trinity 14]

Hi Loluwilliams, no I havent tried it yet. I am also waiting to see if anyone else has done it first.

I am hesitant because I heard there is a split second delay with TD vs IB. I tend to scalp for very quick trades so I figure the TD delay might cost me the same in worse order fills (vs IB commission). I don't know if that's true, but I am going to stick with IB for now. 

[amadei77 0]

Has anyone tried DAS with TD ameritrade now and can comment on quality of executions?

thank you

[Abiel 474]

1 hour ago, amadei77 said:

Has anyone tried DAS with TD ameritrade now and can comment on quality of executions?

thank you

Hi, watch this video by BBT member Jessie 

 

[loluwilliams 0]

On 11/16/2020 at 2:25 PM, Trinity said:

Hi Loluwilliams, no I havent tried it yet. I am also waiting to see if anyone else has done it first.

I am hesitant because I heard there is a split second delay with TD vs IB. I tend to scalp for very quick trades so I figure the TD delay might cost me the same in worse order fills (vs IB commission). I don't know if that's true, but I am going to stick with IB for now. 

Thanks for your feedback

[Marcus Leong 7]

Thanks for the video.
Question to Jessie, not so related to TD/IB. What triggers you to accumulate in premarket for the open? 

[Ishyster 2]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:16 PM, amadei77 said:

Has anyone tried DAS with TD ameritrade now and can comment on quality of executions?

thank you

That's who I'm currently using and I'm pretty impressed, but it has only been about a week so I'll have a better idea after a month.

[zulkafil 38]

Hey Ishyster, Any update on the comment about DAS with TDA. How the execution speed? I meant it's pretty long now.

[Ishyster 2]

1 minute ago, zulkafil said:

Hey Ishyster, Any update on the comment about DAS with TDA. How the execution speed? I meant it's pretty long now.

Honestly I have not had any issues at all, but what really sucks is TD's short list. As long as their shortlist doesn't bother you then I think you are golden. Now I will say this, I have not had a position more than 500 shares yet. According to TD they are saying 96.9% of orders get price improvement using 1-1,999 shares.

I still wish Schwab connected with DAS. Their short list is way better and they have HTB locates at reasonable rates.

[Trinity 14]

I just switched to DAS with TDA. I was with IB before. So far, I haven't noticed any major problems with fills. I have had a couple instances of bad slippage, but might have happened anyway regardless of the broker because I got stopped on a breakout. I am trading small size and doing lots of scalps, so the savings in commissions is definitely worth it. When I start increasing my trade size and profits, I will probably switch back to IB. 

In my first couple weeks, these are the differences I noticed:  

1. Need to change all my hotkeys to LIMIT and MARKET instead of SMRTL and SMRTM. No problem. Otherwise, it was really easy to switch from DAS IB to DAS TDA
2. It seems TDA will not allow me to close my position or close part of my position if I have a stop in place. I don't like this because I like to partial and then edit my stop after. Keeping the old stop keeps the little order marker on my the chart showing me visually where my stop was and I can click on my order and just replace my share quantity without redoing the stop. This is not a huge issue, but it is more work for me. I think TDA might be trying to protect people from accidentally forgetting they have a stop order and then get filled the opposite direction without knowing. Personally, I like that IB gives you the freedom to do anything you want even if it might not make sense for most people. 
3. When I click to buy/sell, there is a delay in DAS showing my order in the platform...less than one second, but for those milliseconds I wonder if I was filled and what price I was filled. I think it's just the delay in the data showing the platform and not the actual price filled. So for example, if I was going long, I hit buy...the price keeps moving up and after a slight delay I see the trade triangle where I was filled and it is usually better than where the price is currently trading. The delay is a little annoying since I like quick scalps, but it looks like I get filled where I expected.
4. TD free commissions does not apply to every ticker or instrument. Honestly, I haven't figured out which stocks have commission or not, maybe the OTC ones (?). I will research this later since I just got started here.
5. There were also some names I can trade on IB, but not on DAS TD, like JUVAF. Again, I am not sure why (not short locate problem because I was long). Perhaps it was foreign - I don't know. 

Hope this helps!

Edited April 5, 2021 by Trinity
correction

[zulkafil 38]

Thanks Trinity. That helps.

[Trinity 14]

5 hours ago, peterB said:

it is not a broker issue. it is the fact that your broker has less stocks shortable therefore you cannot put an order to sell for positions you have a stop loss order present as it would mean you submit a new order. the solution is to cancel previous order in the partialing hotkey - add CXL ALLSYMB; at the start of all your partial/exit scripts

Hi PeterB, thanks! are you using DAS with TD? Do you like it?

For the fact that I cannot put in another order when I have a stop in place, I think it is totally related to TD and not related to shortable stocks. I contacted DAS, they told me to contact TD. I contacted TD and the rep confirmed that TD will not allow me to place an order when I have a stoploss in place...no matter my position is long or short. I asked if there is anything I can do...they said no. So for example, I cannot even do it if my stop will BUY shares to close me. They asked me why I would want to do this, I gave them an example...like if I wanted to flip my position if I got stopped out. They said they only way I could do it is if I create an OCO order so that for sure one would cancel. Again I do not want that because it's still more work.  

I put the cancel script in my partialing hotkeys, but it just annoys me that I have to cancel my existing stop order instead of replace.. Now, when I am scalping for very quick moves, this has made me switch to mental stops when the price is moving quickly because I don't have time to set the stop after every partial (when I do not want a breakeven stop). I do not like mental stops. 

 

5 hours ago, peterB said:

some broker require specific contract to be signed for low float penny stocks. also IB has it. you need to have some net worth too for those.

I am pretty sure I signed up the TD forms to trade low float penny stocks because I had an issue with that a long time ago (I have had TD a while, just not for day trading). But agree, could be some more forms or account requirements I am missing.  I tried to buy 1 JUVAF this morning to see the error. DAS montage says it's rejected because "Can't trade foreign stock." So I will call TD this week and see what forms I need. I don't recall having to call IB to get access to trade these things.