Misuse of Funds

These people are unethical, in the least, and possibly even criminals.

moneyning.com/review/optionshouse-review/)

I trade stocks so I have no experience with their options tools, however, since I trade extended hours, futures information is extremely important AND they do not offer futures info.

When I opened the account, I got 100 free trades; with 42 free trades remaining, I withdrew my funds for reasons stated below. However, in April 2010, I decided to give them another shot. Since I hadnt used the account since Dec. 2009, I called to see if the account was still open and active and they said yes. On April 8, 2010, I utilized their online ACH transfer and initiated an ACH deposit; since we both utilize JP Morgan, OptionsHouse received the funds on April 9, 2010. Then, in an email that I received dated April 12, 2010, at 10:38 p.m. (presumable CDT since they are in Chicago), they tell me that the account will not be reopened AND that they will not return my funds until April 19, 2010.

Over the last 4 years I have used TD, Scottrade, Etrade, Schwab, Fidelity, OptionsXpress, and OptionsHouse; with the exceptions of Fidelity, Schwab and OptionsHouse, I found that each offered something that excelled above the others. HOWEVER, I have to say, that OptionsHouse is the most pathetic of them all. Although I experienced that every single one of them was deceptive in one way or another, OptionsHouse takes the cake. For me, it is simply not worth it to pay $2.95 a trade when you really cant get the trades you want because of poor execution, clunky platform sceens, mishandling of funds, extremely limited customer service, and only two hours extended hour trading.

FURTHERMORE, I found that OH practice conversion and unjust enrichment by withholding ACH deposits for 3-5 days after they have cleared or by holding your funds for 3-5 days after you request them (disregarding any settlement issues which would delay even further). As far as I am concerned, they are outright crooks.

Did I mention their stock trading tools are so elementary that they are virtually useless?

In a nutshell, they 1) had closed the acct. but said it was open, 2) allowed me to do an online ACH deposit, 3) received my funds on April 9, 2010, 4) now say the acct. was closed and wont be reopened, AND 5) wont return my funds until April 19, 2010. SO they use my money, for free, for 10 days! On top of that, I have been trading between 10k — 40k shares of C (usually several times a day), C has been on the move, and I don't have my trading money to trade.

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