Tell us a little bit about yourself and or your trading experience

[LoriPrecisely]

I'm currently using 4 platforms and have tried several others throughout the years. If I had to choose one it would be Interactive Brokers. It's like a professional platform for retail traders/investors. I traded professionally for 14 years. IBKR is bar none above the rest. If your into bells, whistles and flashy software IBKR might not be for you.
The software settings can be a little quirky at first.

What other platforms do you use, and why so many?
Why do you like IBKR the most?

[LoriPrecisely]

They won't give me any information except that my account is locked because there is a red flag of some sort, and they have to investigate because of the Patriot Act.

As for your "red flag," did you enter a bunch of option orders that you then quickly cancelled, etc.? Apparently this may cause a "red flag".

As for the Patriot Act ... lmao. Tool for state surveillance and control.

But hey, now you've got some time to watch all those cool "Wheel" option videos, etc.

Only one option that is set to expire tomorrow, ASAN. I am beyond frustrated. What if I had 30 option positions open and I could not even be watching them, let alone adjusting them.
The worst part is I am getting no explanation as to what the flag is, or what is being done about it.
You are right about the customer service. I feel a major change in the big companies. They seem to be vehicles of government overreach now.
I chose to leave Merrill because of their involvement in the Jan. 6 cooperation with the FBI to reveal everyone who used a credit/debit card in D.C. on that day. There are still people in jail 2 years later!!! Such an injustice makes me very angry.
I want to live on a remote homestead off-grid right now.

[SOL]

Customer service from Major companies is either horrible or borders on incompetent. It's like they hire people who don't care or cannot think deeply because they lost half their marbles the day they were born.

It's time to get acquainted with George Orwell’s ‘1984’

“War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. is'nt this so true today. Everything is topsy turvy

“If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.”

“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.

[harryg]

I'm currently using 4 platforms and have tried several others throughout the years. If I had to choose one it would be Interactive Brokers. It's like a professional platform for retail traders/investors. I traded professionally for 14 years. IBKR is bar none above the rest. If your into bells, whistles and flashy software IBKR might not be for you.
The software settings can be a little quirky at first.

What other platforms do you use, and why so many?
Why do you like IBKR the most?

I agree with those who have said that the customer services of nearly all businesses nowadays is rubbish. You find this out in short order if you ever have an issue. AirBnB, Paypal, big banks, you name it.

IBKR is good for its reach to foreign markets, very low fx rates, and other stuff. However, their customer services is absolutely appalling. I can't imagine how they could make it worse, but I'm sure they're working on it.

I would never leave my funds all in one place for this reason alone.

Just had a run in with one of our minor brokers. After a lot of totally unecessary to & fro, the customer service rep said "Please do let me know if there is anything else I could do for you?"

In the words of BlackAdder: "Your immediate resignation and suicide springs to mind".

[LoriPrecisely]

Thank you for your input, Harry. I agree with you. I will keep my money in several different places now. Will have to figure out a way to be organized.

[SOL]

I'm currently using 4 platforms and have tried several others throughout the years. If I had to choose one it would be Interactive Brokers. It's like a professional platform for retail traders/investors. I traded professionally for 14 years. IBKR is bar none above the rest. If your into bells, whistles and flashy software IBKR might not be for you.
The software settings can be a little quirky at first.

What other platforms do you use, and why so many?
Why do you like IBKR the most?

I agree with those who have said that the customer services of nearly all businesses nowadays is rubbish. You find this out in short order if you ever have an issue. AirBnB, Paypal, big banks, you name it.

IBKR is good for its reach to foreign markets, very low fx rates, and other stuff. However, their customer services is absolutely appalling. I can't imagine how they could make it worse, but I'm sure they're working on it.

I would never leave my funds all in one place for this reason alone.

Just had a run in with one of our minor brokers. After a lot of totally unecessary to & fro, the customer service rep said "Please do let me know if there is anything else I could do for you?"

In the words of BlackAdder: "Your immediate resignation and suicide springs to mind".

Here is an ongoing issue. I signed for Nordlocker as their VPN service was quite good. It is supposed to automatically backup your files. However just to be safe I also signed up for norton 360 which comes up with 75gb of remote storage and you can also set it to automatically back up your files. Long story short, the hard drive just gave in, why is another story. So i logged into to Nordlocker from another computer expecting to easily download all my files when lo and behold there was not even one file in the locker. I emailed them informing that the data was urgently needed. to emphasise on a scale of 1 to 10 i said it would be 20. fast forward not 1 week, not 2 week, not even 4 weeks but 8 weeks later which is roughly 2 months they kept stating they are working on it. Now yesterday I sent them an email telling them they could all drop dead and the world would not miss them but before they did could they try to come up with an excuse that at least sounded plausible

Here is their response

Support (NordLocker)

May 18, 2022, 4:09 GMT+3

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

We are sorry for the caused frustrations with the NordLocker application.

Nevertheless, we have updated our developers, and they will be looking into your inquiry.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with an estimation of when we will the issue would be resolved.

Telling you that it will take 5 days and if in reality, it ends up taking 2 months - would be bad for both sides involved.

Furthermore, to further our investigation, could you please provide us with the updated application logs?

For a guide on how and where to find the application logs, you may refer to our website linked below:
https://support.nordlocker.com/hc/en-us ... ocate-them

We understand that waiting is rather frustrating, and we can only apologize in the name of the company.

Looking forward to your response.

Best Regards,
Amando Jerez
Customer Success Team
NordLocker.com

They have sent out variations of this crap for 8 plus weeks. So what Armando is saying is that it could take another 2 months which means 4 months would have elapsed and by that time the files would be worthless
Luckily, I also signed up for Norton 360, so all the files that Nord lost were safely stored on their cloud system. Nordlocker should be called Nordcrapper

[LoriPrecisely]

Wow, sorry you had to deal with that!!!
That was really smart of you to use a second program.

It seems everyone can conveniently hide behind an email. Faceless names have no accountability. The result of remote working is already showing its weaknesses.

[Budge]

What other platforms do you use, and why so many?
Why do you like IBKR the most?

I agree with those who have said that the customer services of nearly all businesses nowadays is rubbish. You find this out in short order if you ever have an issue. AirBnB, Paypal, big banks, you name it.

IBKR is good for its reach to foreign markets, very low fx rates, and other stuff. However, their customer services is absolutely appalling. I can't imagine how they could make it worse, but I'm sure they're working on it.

I would never leave my funds all in one place for this reason alone.

Just had a run in with one of our minor brokers. After a lot of totally unecessary to & fro, the customer service rep said "Please do let me know if there is anything else I could do for you?"

In the words of BlackAdder: "Your immediate resignation and suicide springs to mind".

Here is an ongoing issue. I signed for Nordlocker as their VPN service was quite good. It is supposed to automatically backup your files. However just to be safe I also signed up for norton 360 which comes up with 75gb of remote storage and you can also set it to automatically back up your files. Long story short, the hard drive just gave in, why is another story. So i logged into to Nordlocker from another computer expecting to easily download all my files when lo and behold there was not even one file in the locker. I emailed them informing that the data was urgently needed. to emphasise on a scale of 1 to 10 i said it would be 20. fast forward not 1 week, not 2 week, not even 4 weeks but 8 weeks later which is roughly 2 months they kept stating they are working on it. Now yesterday I sent them an email telling them they could all drop dead and the world would not miss them but before they did could they try to come up with an excuse that at least sounded plausible

Here is their response

Support (NordLocker)

May 18, 2022, 4:09 GMT+3

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

We are sorry for the caused frustrations with the NordLocker application.

Nevertheless, we have updated our developers, and they will be looking into your inquiry.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with an estimation of when we will the issue would be resolved.

Telling you that it will take 5 days and if in reality, it ends up taking 2 months - would be bad for both sides involved.

Furthermore, to further our investigation, could you please provide us with the updated application logs?

For a guide on how and where to find the application logs, you may refer to our website linked below:
https://support.nordlocker.com/hc/en-us ... ocate-them

We understand that waiting is rather frustrating, and we can only apologize in the name of the company.

Looking forward to your response.

Best Regards,
Amando Jerez
Customer Success Team
NordLocker.com

They have sent out variations of this crap for 8 plus weeks. So what Armando is saying is that it could take another 2 months which means 4 months would have elapsed and by that time the files would be worthless
Luckily, I also signed up for Norton 360, so all the files that Nord lost were safely stored on their cloud system. Nordlocker should be called Nordcrapper

Glad your back-up, back-up plan worked but, I have it on good authority, when Nordcrap put their business plan together, the engineers were of one mind:

And the Assumptions were without form.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers
And they spoke among themselves, saying, "It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh."

[SOL]

Glad your back-up, back-up plan worked but, I have it on good authority, when Nordcrap put their business plan together, the engineers were of one mind:

And the Assumptions were without form.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers
And they spoke among themselves, saying, "It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh."

Would be extremely hard to argue with that passage. I am of the mind to quit their VPN service but at least in that area, they appear to know what they are doing. However, I have been told there are better players. After doing DD (due diligence) and if this proves to be the case i am out and I know at least another 9 people that will bail on them if i leave.

[Budge]

Glad your back-up, back-up plan worked but, I have it on good authority, when Nordcrap put their business plan together, the engineers were of one mind:

And the Assumptions were without form.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers
And they spoke among themselves, saying, "It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh."

Would be extremely hard to argue with that passage. I am of the mind to quit their VPN service but at least in that area, they appear to know what they are doing. However, I have been told there are better players. After doing DD (due diligence) and if this proves to be the case i am out and I know at least another 9 people that will bail on them if i leave.

It's a shame I'm out of munitions at the mo. I sent them to Ukraine and am waiting to be restocked with the latest whizz bangs by NATOstan. But I know a guy, who knows a guy.. nudge, nudge, wink, wink,...if you get my drift?

[bpcw]

I was going to switch broadband supplier and decided to cancel as they started to get things wrong as I feared they might. Still was getting text messages that they were sending an engineer. Then I got emails asking me to return the router I didn't receive and the address was a non reply one so had no way to inform them without calling and I suspect spending ages on the phone to which they would probably ignore it all anyway. When I cancelled it took several attempts and finally got through to someone experienced, she told me they were recruiting and were trying to train staff up better, yeah right. A week ago I got a pre-paid envelope to put the router in and send back so I used it to put a note telling them I cancelled and to stop hassling me. I won't hold my breath, they will probably ignore the letter as it's too much of a bother for them to talk to another department, think most workers in these positions just don't give a s..t!

[Eric]

“War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”

Damn dude! My cynical-pessimism meter was already pegged this week. I almost walked out of my job less than 10 minutes after showing up this morning (I ducking hate this place now), and then you drop this little nugget that I wholly agree with but haven't read since high school. Actually it feels a little like my cynical-pessimism meter just shattered and relieved a little pressure.
*Ducking autocorrect... I do 98% of my TI forum reading and posting from my phone.

[Eric]

I am of the mind to quit their VPN service but at least in that area, they appear to know what they are doing.

May I recommend Backblaze for backup and ProtonVPN.

[SOL]

“War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking into the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”

Damn dude! My cynical-pessimism meter was already pegged this week. I almost walked out of my job less than 10 minutes after showing up this morning (I ducking hate this place now), and then you drop this little nugget that I wholly agree with but haven't read since high school. Actually it feels a little like my cynical-pessimism meter just shattered and relieved a little pressure.
*Ducking autocorrect... I do 98% of my TI forum reading and posting from my phone.

Have you tried looking for something where your talents would be better appreciated? I think even if the commute was longer, it would be worth if you were not always rattled and being forced to decide which of your guns might suddenly start deviate form the norm and decide to take matters in its hands

[LoriPrecisely]

I was thinking along the same lines. Why not trade options for a living?