Speedtrader - Setup, Customer Service, Order Execution

[Carlos M. 230]

Hey guys,

 

As some of you know I switched from Interactive Brokers to Speedtrader and finally today (5/8) my account was up and running with Speedtrader. I opened a COR account instead of the ETC account because I wanted to be able to withdraw money using ACH transfers and not wire transfers. ETC does not provide ACH transfers only Wire.

 

Here is a summarized timeline of my setup experience:

 

Monday, April 16 - Filled out application online

Tuesday, April 17  - Received Introduction email from Speedtrader.

Wednesday, April 18 - Received Email from Speedtrader about additional information needed and confirm I have read all the Disclosures they emailed.

Friday, April 20- Received email from Speedtrader asking about my affiliation with Bear Bull Traders, Send copy of my government ID.

Friday, April 20 - Received email from Speedtrader confirming my account #.

Monday, April 23 - Email ACH MoneyLink Set Up form

Wednesday, April 25 - Received email from Speedtrader confirming my “Go Live date” (this just means the date your account will be set up for you to start the ACH transfer process.)

Wednesday, May 2 - Send ACH Form Income Request via email to Suretrader. (3 days hold for ACH transfers)

Tuesday, May 8 - Received Speedtrader Pro (Das Trader) credentials and instructions for setup. Account ready to trade.

 

 

 

It took 16 business days to set up the account, fund it and go live with Speedtrader!! (REALLY IN 2018?? but I guess something has to give to be able to give you really good commissions rates so I am ok with that.) The set up process is extremely manual. Once you filled out the application online there are more follow up emails requesting additional information that needs to be emailed.

 

My frustration came from the site not having a clear expectation of the time it takes to open the account and go live. I’m used to TD and Interactive Brokers were everything is done fast and much automated.  So I withdrew my money from Interactive Brokers when I started the application process thinking this would be quick. I was not able to trade for 16 days… that was brutal.

 

So my advice to you, if you are currently trading live, start the process and do not withdraw your money until you receive your “Go Live Date” which is when you can start the process of transferring money to them.

 

Customer Service

 

During the setup process Jay and Donald were very helpful and answered all the questions I had right away. They respond via email very quick. I did call yesterday to check on the status of my account set up and I was able to get Jay with no problem.

 

Order Execution & Fills

 

I was able to trade today and did not see a different in my order execution. I was able to get filled immediately with no issue. Now this is only one day, I will come back in a month at the end of May and post and update on how my order executions and fills are as well as share for Short availability.

 

Hope this was helpful, feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

 

Carlos.

 

UPDATE 5/11:

 

After one week of trading with SpeedTrader I'm am very pleased with with execution speed and fills on Short and Long positions I have not seen any issues. So far I believe only $ROKU SpeedTrader has not had shares to short which I am ok with. ROKU is a stock that I  prefer not to trade as it has burned me to many times, I rather focus on other stocks that are more solid and predictive at the open.

 

 

[Yardley 6]

Carlos,

 

Does their platform provide backtesting capability? Also, what was the minimum amount required to open the account?

 

 

 

kochu

 

 

[Carlos M. 230]

Does their platform provide backtesting capability? Also, what was the minimum amount required to open the account?

Hey Kochu,

 

It does not. SpeedTrader Pro is basically Das Trader Pro with SpeedTrader's Logo on it. The features and everything is the same as Das Trader if you are currently using that now.

 

Carlos.

[Robert H 453]

Also, what was the minimum amount required to open the account?

 

Account minimum is $30k. Please see this post for more details.

[Carlos M. 230]

I also did a commission compassion that if speedtrader has it for short, it would cost us 1 entry to get in, 3 times to scale out that’s  $2.95*4 about $12. no matter size

 

But if its on interactive broker, if per share is 0.0035 it would cost $7 to trade this way for 1000 shares. $14 for 2000 shares, and $21 for 3000 share.

 

So speedtrader make sense if we trade large size and low float stocks.

You hit the nail right on the head... This is the reason why I switched in the long run SpeedTrader will be less expensive and as a bonus you if you trade a lot like I do. You will most likely hit the $500 monthly commission and have more savings by avoiding the Das Platform fee.

 

I will sure keep add to the post and keep you updated. I did not have shares to short on ROKU but that's ok that stock I hate to trade has burn me to many times before lol. Let's hope they are not many that SpeedTrader does not have short availability for. Feel free to check with me in through the morning on that chatroom.

 

Carlos

 

 

[Carlos M. 230]

Marek

Participant

I began the application process with Speedtrader April 5. It’s been very slow to say the least so a bit frustrating. I finally got someone today who helped work thru the issue so I am still hopeful it will still work out. Since I am still planning to trade in SIM for a while, it’s no biggie but if you are thinking about ST you might want  to factor in some extra time.

Yes, the set up is extremely painful. Start the process and expect it to take 3 weeks at least. Hope it works out.

 

Carlos.

[Jason W 17]

Update:

 

May 10

 

Speedtrader doesn't have ROKU shares for short, but IB does.

 

May 14

 

Speedtrader doesn't have ACIA shares for short, but IB does.

 

May 15

 

Speedtrader doesn't have VIPS shares for short, but IB does.

 

May 17

 

IB doesn't have JNCE shares for short, but Speedtrader does.

 

May 18

 

Speedtrader doesn't have MU, AZN shares for short, but IB does.

 

May 21

 

Speedtrader doesn't have SNAP shares for short, but IB does. However, Speedtrader does have MU for short today.

 

May 25

 

Speedtrader doesn't have ZOES shares for short, but IB does.

 

May 25

 

Speedtrader doesn't have STM shares for short, but IB does.

[True 17]

Great info.  Thanks for this.  Also I'm very interested in the comparison of the shares for short between ST and IB.  I appreciate the work you guys are doing.  Thanks.  Officially subscribed to this thread haha

[Oba 0]

Just thought to mention, I am pretty sure that ST has a minimum $2 per trade, when choosing the fee per trade option, where IB only has a $1.  This difference may be come into play when trading max 1000 shares and scaling out.  I also chose to wire the money to ST instead of ACH.  It only cost $10 and the money was in the acct the next day.  After signing up, it took about 5 business days and I am active now.  Still don't know if IB would be better but the free Platform and $500 promotion was too good to pass up!

[Andrew Aziz 97]

Thanks Oba. I am in discussion with them to see if we can get $1 min from them.

[Oba 0]

Speedtrader does not have MU shares for short!

 

 

[Carlos M. 230]

  It only cost $10 and the money was in the acct the next day.  After signing up, it took about 5 business days and I am active now.

That's great! If I would have known I would have done that. ACH took forever I was out of trading for too long. My suggestion is to still start the ACH set up process now so they can have it ready when you start withdrawing money from your account. That was my thinking, it was more about having the ACH set up upfront to make it easy once we start withdrawing the gains, based on your money management. $10 could be 3 trades commission lol.

[Oba 0]

Yes Carlos, I am still setting up the ACH for those purposes.  They even suggested the same thing when I called ST, but wiring is an option for initial funding that happens immediately.  Be sure to follow the wire instructions provided on ST website.

[Carlos M. 230]

Carlos: Is Speedtrader Pro (DAS Trader) a different s/w package than the one I downloaded directly from DAS Trader for SIM trading? Will I need to setup everything from scratch, e.g. layout, hotkeys, chart defaults etc?

Hey Marek, missed your question with all the post not this topic. It is the same setup. You can copy the files you have on your current Das Trader fold to the SpeedTrader folder. I copied the following files.

 

Default.cst - I this is the chart settings

 

Default.dsk - This is the main desktop file layout.

 

Hotkey.htk - Hotkeys

 

There were only some slight changes in the color of the backgrounds I had to adjust on the watchlist windows. Other than that everything else worked great. Even the hotkeys I just copied it over.

 

Make sure to test everything and that all the montages you have are linked correctly to your chart.

 

Carlos.

[Carlos M. 230]

Quick update…my account took about 5 weeks to open with Speedtrader, so is now ready for funding. It appears setting up ACH transfers initially takes about 7-8 business days. To be safe I plan to allow about 2 weeks for ACH paperwork to be processed. Customer service at ST was very helpful getting me all the information the today.

I still don't get why it takes them so long lol but is worth the wait. So far I have nothing but a positive experience with them and they have great customer service. Besides the few stocks that we find each morning that are not available to short on SpeedTrader but available on Interactive Brokers, there is really nothing else I have come across that has been negative.