TD Ameritrade rushes to calm trading clients amid site outages
Charles Schwab executives had hinted at possible hiccups ahead of the massive account migration coming in September.
TD Ameritrade’s website and its Thinkorswim trading system were experiencing intermittent outages late Friday morning, company messages to numerous upset customers show.
As of early afternoon, Charles Schwab indicated that service had been restored but it did not comment on the cause of the outages.
“An earlier, intermittent platform issue has since been resolved,” a spokesperson said in an email. “Some clients may have been unable to access the web page, tdameritrade.com. Clients were able to access their accounts for all trading needs at invest.Ameritrade.com.”
TDA and Thinkorswim had earlier confirmed the outages in exchanges with clients on Twitter.
“Can’t trade on #Thinkorswim [at the moment]. Not sure what’s going on with platform. Not showing order execution or positions,” one user wrote.
Others were more open about their feelings.
“Pissed. @TDAmeritrade and @thinkorswim ate at my profit today because of failed/delayed executions and an absolute Active Trader nightmare. Unacceptable,” another user wrote.
The company directed users to its mobile app, customer service hotline and trading log-in page.
“We regret to hear of any inconvenience as we investigate intermittent issues with the website,” the company said on Twitter.
Customers could have their trades reviewed by calling the 800 number, it stated.
One client asked about voluntarily migrating an account to Charles Schwab’s system. On Sept. 5, Schwab is converting the TDA custody business to its own system, a move that will affect an estimated $1.3 trillion in assets across as many as 20 million accounts. That transfer will switch 7,500 financial advisors from TDA to Schwab’s system.
“You can move now, but you’ll lose the account history and documents, settings and bank instructions. We’ll move it all if you wait for your transition date,” TDA wrote in response to the question about migrating early.
It’s unclear how the companies will address customer trade issues that were caused by the outages today. In January, Schwab chief operating officer Joseph Martinetto, noted that ahead of the account migration, “Despite all of our best efforts, we know that there are going to be some glitches that are going to happen.”
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