Comments on: AMTD : Great stock at a reasonable price

By: Molly Maher

Molly Maher — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:14:47 +0000

I say never do business with any of these firms that sold auction rate securites. These firms have burned, ruined and shattered peoples lives beyond repair.

You kow who you are, you are nothing better than a murderer and someday your dishonestly and disloyalty to mankind is going to bite you in the rear. You will eventually pay for your evil ways and the man up above will see to it.

By: David Finderson

David Finderson — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:21:02 +0000

Your recommendation of TDA is a joke. They directly pushed ARS on clients. At least TDA is in settlement talks. Oppenheimer, which actively pushed auction rates on their clients and lied repeatedly about the investment and even disguised the fact that auctions were involved, is in no such settlement talks.

Oppenheimer appears to be in real trouble from a capital standpoint. I’d avoid all the mid tiers, starting with Oppenheimer. If an investment goes south, regulators have little interest in helping mid tier clients. Stick with the big firms. If anything goes wrong, the big firms have the capital to make it right. Oppenheimer, tDA, E trade, to invest with these firms is a form of gambling.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:57:23 +0000

I used to have a large account with TD Ameritrade. All I have with them now is an auction rate security which was sold to be under false pretenses. It is stated above,
“Ameritrade did not actively push the sales of the auction rate securities, mainly referring clients to prospectuses when asked to.” This is a lie. Think about the illogic of that statement. How many people even knew about auction rate securities and would inquire about them? Do you? A TD Ameritrade broker called me and actively solicited me to buy this and misrepresented it as akin to a money market fund. I was never given a prospectus. In fact when I found I could not sell what was supposed to be a liquid investment, I asked TD Ameritrade for a prospectus and was told there wasn’t a prospectus and to contact Nuveen. I finally got the 182 page prospectus from a securities lawyer. One of their brokers also pitched the Reserve Fund to me. This is the one which “broke the buck” and became illiquid. Thankfully I passed on that. TD Ameritrade misrepresents their commissions, claiming you only pay $9.99 per trade. See what happens when you write a covered call, and your stock is called. Assuming I get my money back from their auction rate securities scam, I will never do business with them again! They are dishonest and dishonorable people.

By: Arstuck

Arstuck — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Not only did TDA actively push auction rate securities, their primary money fund also froze up. This is the type of junk TDA peddles. Their clients cannot even depend on the money fund. I am not sure what finally happened to the hapless money fund investors, but the ARS money is still stuck.

Screwing customers is a bad business practice, and – short term random price fluctuations aside – bad companies make bad investments.

About their cash position: In a recent (2/6/9) article AMTD chairman mentioned that one of the potential uses of the cash is to pay for ARS settlements. The chairman also mentions that he thinks that they are close to the settlement. So, there goes the cash – already set aside for a purpose.

Another time bomb is that a lot of (wealthier) TDA clients are waiting for their ARS redemptions before they flee TDA. A sign of desperation on TDA part is that they are begging for money by giving away iPods and GPS navigators for new deposits. The questions, of course are, why do they need to beg, how long will this money stay, and will the money generate enough income to offset the cost of acquiring it.

Finally, look at their trainings. TDA trainings are targeting investors who have a day trader like mentality. This is in Ameritrade’s genes as this is a company that grew up with the day traders during the tech bubble. The new bust will likely do the opposite of what the boom did – that is, they will shrink the number of day traders. That will shrink the niche AMTD is targeting.

By: ScrewedbyTD

ScrewedbyTD — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:35:50 +0000

TD Ameritrade is a great company provided your interests are in-line with theirs. If not, I promise you, you will be screwed!

My interests fell out of line with their interests when they decided to cash in on lucrative commissions related to dumping auction rate securities onto its clients holding cash reserves. They said they were same as cash and they were a highly liquid, safe, money market alternative. Shortly after allowing them to purchase auction rate securites with my cash reserves, the market imploded and I’ve been unable to access my money for one year now.

TD Ameritrade completely turned their backs on their customers and have been absolutely horrible. I will NEVER do business with TD Ameritrade or any comany affiliated with them. DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I wouldn’t touch their stock with a ten foot pole.

By: Don'tBeFooled

Don'tBeFooled — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:03:19 +0000

It has been a full year since TDA clients lost access to their ARS money.

You give your money to a broker.
You expect it back.
TDA’s clients don’t have their money back.

So why would you do business with TDA?

By: Steve Lutz

Steve Lutz — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:19:04 +0000

It’s interesting that you say TDAmeritrade didn’t push these Auction Rate Securities. How come they “cold-called” me pushing Nuveen Closed End Funds…which I’m still stuck with a year later?

When they called me about my $100K plus money market fund with “ideas” to improve my yield I said I wanted two things: Safety and Liquidity. I got neither. I would have never moved my money had TDAmeritrade not called me to solicit this move.

I trusted TDAmeritrade once…never again.

Hey Everyone: Learn from my mistake.

By: nomoneynoducks

nomoneynoducks — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:37:43 +0000

I wouldn’t trust TDA further then I could throw them. As highlighted above they targeted their clients to see garbage like auction rates and have resisted making it right with the clients. If they treat clients like this how much concern do you think they will have for investors?

By: TD Ameritrapped

TD Ameritrapped — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:46:15 +0000

You say the TDA did not “actively push Auction Rate Securities” in your article above. Just to clarify, TDA DID actively sell ARS to their clients. They screened which clients had cash on hand, called those clients and very actively solicited the sales of auction rate securities in order to earn TDA revenue from Nuveen Investments. TDA has denied any wrongdoing, but they either intentionally or unintentionally misrepresented ARS as highly liquid and safe…essentially as a money market fund. TDA has done nothing to help those clients they bilked and defrauded.

If TDA is so innocent in the ARS, why are they in settlement talks with the SEC???? I would take my business elsewhere.

DISCLAIMER: I AM A CLIENT OF TDA…BUT NEVER AGAIN!