Hi,

Preamble ——- I have had PM as a goal for a few years now. Should have reached it about four months ago, but my account got blown up, and now my SMA balance is being withheld from me in my current trading account that is nearly all cash.

Broker claims that SMA is outdated and nott real money- and yet my SMA balance jumped (but my maintenance excess buying power etc did not) after an options trade. Which of course is non marginalable.. so once the trade closed, settled, my broker has been using the “line of credit” analogy. Dismissing me, and not allowing me to access my SMA funds, which could have only come from a closing $spy swing trade.

That’s an ongoing thing that I won’t go further into, besides saying that their standpoint was “it’s your responsibility to know the law”. So I’ve spent hours upon hours studying FINNRA law, and in the process am halfway prepared for four different exams (SRE, Series 7, 24, and 66- which I intend on getting at this point).

The issues have been dismissed by the broker and have to do with how they handle parent sub accounts, as well as a general gross misunderstanding- preventing escalation, of the SMA role in a margin account. ——-

Question: Currently My funds are locked up with that broker, who I need to move away from no matter what. I am really good with small account challenges, (turning $3k into $240k on a $spy swing for example).

I expect my main funds to locked away for several month’s.

I’ll be opening an account with pdt restrictions, likely only using $500 and $spy to begin with- feel out the broker and their platform.

Eventually once my funds are available I’ll move everything over, at minimum $250k.

I primarily am intending to use this, at the beginning for $spx trading. (My core is fundamental buy and hold stocks, which is how I have historically used options, and plan on spreading on risk to build my portfolio positions)

I have had difficulty with my current broker’s platform, in following their display of p/l for a day trade. Any day trade- as I typically work with indexes, and set up multiple positions to offset each other

I have run into the following issues I want to avoid with a broker going forward.

Risk management and clear position/strategy/offsets of buying power.

The biggest two by far are

Ignoring the locate rule exception for position management. - which has really messed me up when trying to anything an uneven position management change- that take a negative contract count on a particular strike into a positive contract count in a single (or vice versa- essentially a ratio spread) in a single trade.

Clearly and quickly seeing what my locked in profits/losses are, (as any repositioning creates a new trade, and options 101- “pay for the option” and “get paid for the obligation” (example a trade from Monday showed I locked in $13K, and then the trade somehow settled negative,,even with premium.. or a swing eom trade last Friday, bought back my shorts now near worthless, closed my longs.. and again negative final settlement).. note these issues only started 6 months ago, I’ve been investing for over 20 years, been using options for over 7 of those years). Th $spy trade I mentioned in my preamble was in a secondary cash only trading account- first trade. (Sub account to the parent account), closed out the trade- SMA balance upon closing preview said it would increase. Somehow the SMA balance got applied to the parent account (and the broker doesn’t use the parent account as the main account for tracking purposes.

Different views showing different p/ls. - platform dev issues (strong fintech devops background here)

Inability to manage/separate trades manually if they have overlapping strikes.

Terrible customer support, from both technical, trade desk, account management/questions and so on.

— I need to avoid those issues.

I have low vision, so more often than not work off an iOS/android app. This means a really good app for options.

I need quick setups on options, risk management with multiple strikes/positions.

Quick at the market execution on multi leg positions.

The locate rule exception honored with $spx options.

Accurate and quick visibility into total cost/lability, locked in profits. Rather than an inconsistent “order chain” that doesn’t accurately depict the realized profit and losses.

If a parent/sub account structure is the default, that they handle it well.

Clear visibility on account value and p/l for any trade, and *the ability to see in real time, including after expiration accurate p/l for any open and closed positions- locked in gains/losses. (Very important for intraday spx trading that fits my style). I also want to know even before the trade has settled the p/l of the trade.

I’d rather not have the order chains be in play and each reposition be treated as a new position.

accessibility - ability to customize the one interface and have 1:1 matches in real time from an app to a web platform to a screen.

ability to copy/duplicate trades across multiple accounts. So if I want to have the same trade executed across several accounts, that are my own. Some that are in an llc, a partnership, a trust, or am managing ing for friends/family.

Ability to see and all these accounts (that are at min open with them) on one login.

Ability to use auto trade software- further down the line if I end up managing accounts with multiple brokers.

Helpful and open to customer input, as well as questions. (No matter the outcome with my current broker I am moving because it’s too difficult to do business with them and they have given me, in writing false and misleading information- ignored emails, request for help in understanding my account, and have delays of sometimes over a week for any response.)

• I may very well end up losing my funds for a longer period of time, which is why in part I’m going the cert route- trying to falsify my hypothesis, credentials will help.

Ultimately at this point I need to move to a different broker as there is zero trust, and it’s messing with my mindset and confidence.

This is very much an outlier scenario, and while I know I won’t have pm qualified from the start. I am thinking long term.

Thanks!