TDA - I guess the criticism pertains just to restricted illiquid nanocaps and pinksheets ? I don't trade those very much and when I do it's just "fun money" anyway, so I've never had to call in about one. Sometimes my orders go "pending approval", but only in relatively illiquid stocks, which makes perfect sense, and their system always seems to allow the order after 30 seconds or so ..... also I have numerous other brokerage accounts, so I can always place a trade at another broker if need be. There's no way I'd want to have all my money with a single broker !
I have very small accounts with Schwab, Fidelity, ETrade, Merrill and Ally but found no reason to make the move from TDA. I keep the accounts open in case I want to access their research.
IB is easily best for their diversified offerings. I use them a lot to trade options on NG and CL futures. But they are pricey with special fees for leveraged futures positions, etc.
