tastytrade has no ETA on a resolving an issue that has customers trading blindly again

tastytrade is experiencing an issue that has effectively left customers trading blindly, unable to see all of their orders or positions.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because tastytrade customers experienced the same issue less than two months ago. If you’re thinking, “Hey, wait. It wasn’t that long ago,” that was actually a different type of outage that happened about two weeks ago.

For this round of issues at tastytrade, upon placing an order, the typical confirmation message isn’t displayed on the customer’s screen, and no email confirmation is received. The different Activity pages (Orders and Transactions) also display conflicting information regarding the order that was just placed, leaving customers confused about the true status of their trades and account.

Some users have reported failed attempts to reach out to tastytrade via chat, email, or phone, with one user stating that they were hung up on multiple times.

The lack of customer support by tastytrade has left users with no recourse but to frantically seek assistance from fellow traders online. Questions range from confirmation that they’re not the only one impacted, to frustrated traders asking for recommendations for other brokers.

What to do during tastytrade outages

Step 1: Attempt to contact tastytrade for assistance and to document their response time

You’ll want proof that you attempted to reach out to them. Try reaching them via chat as soon as you notice the issue. If they’re unavailable, leave the window open and take a screenshot to document when you first tried reaching them. You’ll want to leave the chat window open as further proof of the response time, which can be hours from past experience.

While you’re waiting for tastytrade to respond, send an email to tech@tastytrade.com and be sure to include your name, account number, and explain the urgency.

Step 2: Mitigate your damages

Aside from attempting to contact tastytrade to get technical assistance with the issue, the best solution is to attempt to mitigate your damages by closing your positions if possible. This, of course, requires you to see the status of your orders. You’ll want to find the answer by looking in all of the below places before you attempt to place another order. These recommendations are listed in order (no pun intended), with the first being the most practical place to look.

• Activity/Orders (https://my.tastytrade.com/app.html#/trading/activity/orders)
• Activity/Transactions (https://my.tastytrade.com/app.html#/trading/activity/transactions)
• Your email
• Positions (https://my.tastytrade.com/app.html#/trading/positions)
• Activity/Year-to-Date (https://my.tastytrade.com/app.html#/trading/activity/year-to-date)

After you’ve determined the true status of your orders, proceed with caution with placing orders while the system is experiencing glitches. You should attempt to limit orders during this time. As stated above, your goal should be to mitigate your damages by closing positions if needed. This will be important if you experience a loss due to tastytrade’s technical issues and request to be compensated.

Step 3: Request compensation for your damages

When this last occurred, at least one online user reported that tastytrade referred them to a clause in tastytrade’s terms of service that indicates that the brokerage isn’t responsible for glitches that occur on their site. FINRA would disagree, as they require brokers to maintain reliable systems, provide alternative access during disruptions, and protect customers from harm caused by platform failures. This means that they would need to compensate customers. You can file a complaint with FINRA regarding tastytrade’s habitual site and app glitches: https://www.finra.org/investors/need-help/file-a-complaint

Step 4: Find another broker.

If you’re stuck with tastytrade because of a promotional offer that you were enticed with, your options might be limited. You can still minimize your chances of being impacted by yet another tastytrade glitch, which, if you haven’t realized, occur daily. It’s best to use them as infrequently as possible. One workaround if you’re in a promotional offer is to only maintain positions that don’t require a lot of nurturing, like a LEAP. In the meantime, use another broker for your core trading.