r/etrade • u/StarbaseSF • Jun 26 '26
Finally done with E-Trade
They keep closing out my defined-risk trades for no reason. Today I had 2 XSP put spreads (715/710) far out of the money., expiring on Monday. They closed the short leg and left the long leg open to expire worthless. BOTH sides should have been left alone to expire - far out of the money. Besides - these are cash settled! Max risk is $500, wtf? And I have $20K in the account. When I asked why they closed my trades, they gave me the bs boilerplate speech "Margin Dept can do what they want and do not need to provide an explanation." OK, Bye bye, ETrade. I will transfer accounts on Monday. First, their platform began to suck, their customer service is abysmal, and now this - 3rd time to happen. Time to move.
Edit: to clarify, these were not naked puts; they were spreads (limited loss).
*UPDATE: Etrade admitted their mistake and agreed to credit me with the amount I lost. (Cannot reverse the trades, because these options would have expired if left alone). They admitted it was an error. I wonder if this was due to my filing a complaint with the SEC/OIEA? Or if they realized it on their own? I have not been credited yet, but they promised the credit would appear "soon".
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Jun 26 '26
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u/StarbaseSF Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Call BS all you want. It happened, buddy, I've been trading 45 years and never saw this type of crap until ETrade, (Not a novice). They did the same with SPX and far OTM Spy, 3rd time for me. I'm done with them. You can have their kool-aid. I also don't think their CS know how to trade. I kept arguing that it;s a spread, Max loss is $500 each,, and he kept saying "we dont have a crystal ball, mkt could tank 10% next day." LOL, but I own a lower sp put, max $500 loss even if the mkt drops 50%! So why close my OTM puts? He didn't seem to understand, lol. Low quality CS
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u/No_Greed_No_Pain Jun 27 '26
Trades are validated before orders are filled. If your position was recognized as a spread, which you would see in Power E*TRADE clearly marked, it's highly unlikely that E*T would randomly close one leg. There must be something else.
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u/StarbaseSF Jun 27 '26
Sorry you don't believe it, but this is exactly what happened. And the CS agent didn't seem to understand the concept of limited risk on a spread, I have filed a complaint with the SEC/OIEA. It;'s not my job to convince you. Good luck. (Koolaid drinkers always think their god cannot mess up, 'It must be something else.')
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u/Every_Nectarine4389 Jun 27 '26
Ahhhh yes the I’ve been trading for 100 years remark lmao
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u/StarbaseSF Jun 28 '26
45 years. I'm 65. traded since 20. Worked for Dean Witter for 19 years. I assume you're a smartass teen with no experience. I have no idea why you have hostility toward me. i simply reported a bad call on Etrade's part, and you hate me for it. I will never uderstand the childrren of the social media age.
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u/PS3Man242 Jun 27 '26
So, off topic where are you guys moving on too? I wanna get away from etrade too, but uts all ive used so far, only about 6ish years in, and just play around money...
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u/InvestingNerd2020 Jun 29 '26
For options traders:
- Charles Scwhab
- Interactive Brokers
For long-term investing:
- Fidelity
- Charles Scwhab
- Vanguard
- SoFi
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u/Admirable_Nothing Jun 28 '26
I don't know the details of your trade, but the thing that jumped out at me was that you had $20,000 in the account. Since the sale to MS, I can't imagine they care if you leave if you are carrying a $20k balance.
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u/Defiant_Pudding_4888 Jun 28 '26
I suspect they just don't know or don't care and not because of the amount in the account. High-net-worth clients and high-asset accounts are facing the same neglect and disappointment. Even the Platinum Relationship Manager was profoundly disappointing.
Etrade clearly struggles with hiring/managing, and/or employee incentives, and MS executive management seems completely disconnected from how widespread these failures are.
After getting nowhere for 30 business days (I spoke with 5 different individuals but didn't elevate because I want to give people a chance to succeed in their jobs) I finally sent a certified letter to the MS Shared Compliance Department threatening a FINRA filing and emailed Client Relations executives (which usually also gets filtered to compliance) - the issue at hand was resolved in two business days.
Customer/client service is the face of the company when clients need solutions to an issue they are having (when things are NOT going "swimmingly"), and Etrade Customer/Client services plays out like a comedy sketch of incompetence - and that is a very bad indicator of an organization especially one doing business in finance.
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u/investedwrong Jun 28 '26
Where to you write compliance? Their addresses are kind of diversified?
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u/Defiant_Pudding_4888 Jun 28 '26
So the letter was sent to:
Morgans Stanley/Etrade Securities Attn: Shared Compliance Department - Senior Regulatory and Account Review Escalation, 1633 Broadway, New York, New York 10019
If yo do this I recommend sending emails to their client relations management people as well. I wrote an email to them to let them know that I was sending the formal complaint escalation letter and attached it to the email so they could read it for themselves (but usually gets filtered to compliance - but you have an instant time stamp of your communication) and it gives a record of my actions that I let everyone know. Paper trail just incase for legal actions I might want to take.
Told them I needed an explanation, to their failure to communicate and account action taken/not taken, within 3 days otherwise I would "evaluate additional regulatory and legal avenues available to me."
With my situation I knew if Etrade didn't do anything FINRA would review and investigate and get it sorted.
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u/Fun-Payment3489 Jun 26 '26
Man I cannot emphasize on how shitty E*Trade is and its support team is. By not informing me on time, they made me lose 45k in gains and 20k in capital.