Just How Extensive Was TD Ameritrade's Outage?; AMTD, SCHW, ETFC

| 21 May 2010

Reports of their death were greatly exaggerated, but reports of their online outage were perhaps not. We first heard news of a possible site problem at TD Ameritrade (AMTD) yesterday around 11:20a ET. Corroborating reports began to pop up on tweets and sites like Zero Hedge. There, readers commented on the outage which, by all accounts at that point, lasted about an hour and clogged up the phones as well.

CBS News reported that TD Ameritrade posted the following message to its site during the outage: "We are having technical difficulties that may result in limited access to your account. We are working to correct this problem as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience." They also interviewed one individual who claimed to have lost $2,000 while waiting for phone agents to answer his call.

The outage was then confirmed by TD Ameritrade around 12:45p ET. If the timing estimates we have are right, this means the trading site was down during a period in which the S&P 500 lost about 130 or 140 basis points. The markets were in an upheaval, having opened 2.5% lower than the previous day's close. The Dow was down about 264 points at this point in the day, versus Thursday's close.

TD Ameritrade, along with Charles Schwab (SCHW) and E*TRADE (ETFC), reported slowness during the "flash crash" on May 6th, but none of them lost service completely.

MarketWatch later reported more details on the outage, suggesting that it did indeed last until 1pm ET.

We find it slightly odd that TD hasn't, as far as we know, issued a calming statement to clients. We understand that they may not yet know what caused the outage. But even a nice little, "Sorry folks, looking into it," would help.

The outage apparently did not affect thinkorswim clients, nor did it affect mobile clients or anyone who was already logged into the site. (Hello? Web Auth issue perhaps?)

Kim Hillyer, a spokesperson for the company, told Reuters that they were "working with clients impacted by the issue individually to make sure that they are treated appropriately." But we humbly suggest that even if you weren't directly affected, the news of the outage alone is enough to stir your confidence.

There are no pubic estimates yet as to how many clients were affected or what impact that may have on the firm.

We'd love to hear from anyone who experienced the outage and what they'd like to hear from TD Ameritrade before the weekend kicks off.

Tags: Service TD Ameritrade

Comments

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Not very apologetic

NathanielA 2010-05-22 20:29:02

I tried, numerous times, to phone during the outage. All I got on my computer screen was something like, "unable to verify" instead of "gee, we're screwed up and trying to fix ourselves." I'm not sure, but I think the phone problem was caused by the phone company not being able to handle thousands of shocked users. When I finally got through to a live person all he could say was, "Our computers are having trouble accessing the web... our tech people are working on it... and we have no "ETA" when it will be fixed." Not very reassuring and I'm still waiting to see a nice apology e-mail from them.

That's my $.02

still waiting

Dan Olson 2010-05-22 21:07:28

Thanks for the comment, Nathaniel. These things happen, to be sure. What's important is how firms handle the follow-up and put their clients at ease. We've been told that TD Ameritrade is following up with all affected clients individually. But given your response it seems they're either way behind in those efforts or just not very effective finding all the affected clients. Either scenario is troubling.

Adding insult to injury

Keenan 2010-05-23 19:29:54

The outage is one thing, but what infuriated me is that I had to wait on hold for 45 minutes before reaching a human being. Shouldn't a major brokerage of this size have a contingency plan in place for this type of event? Like - if the website ever goes down, allow customers to make trades via a broker for the same price they would have paid online? I'm disappointed and have already started the process of moving to another firm.

TD site down again this AM

Cannot disclose 2010-06-07 15:36:18

that is a real email address btw.

I had a short conversation with a TD Customer Service rep this AM regarding my inability to log in today 6/7/2010 630 to 834 AM PST. I cannot get the TD website at all, using both IE and Firefox.

He told me the problem has to do with certain Internet providers. I assume TD made some changes to their system over the weekend. For some reason, certain Internet providers cannot log in. The rep named Roadrunner, Comcast, and Cox.

I had to remind him this has happened in the past; I do not have it documented but this is a groundhog day. And they should have known it would happen again.

There is nothing a CS rep can do. The problem needs to be addressed by upper management, and I have seen no response.

It is unbelievable the financial press has not picked up on this. While one should never accuse them of pandering to their advertisers, it makes me wonder.

While I hope this fixed soon, I want CNBC, Bloomberg, etc to put some pressure on. What ret...

the rest of your comment

Dan Olson 2010-06-07 16:22:17

Sorry your comment was cut off by our system. Here was the last of your comment for everyone to see:

"What retail investors do, besides threaten, to move their accounts does not seem to make to TD. I will write a similar letter to TD when the site is open. They have to log this into their system for review. I suggest everyone else do the same."

Let us know what happens!

important

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