
Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY1:19 p.m. EDT August 24, 2015
The brokerage is directing online account holders to a toll-free phone number to complete trades.
Investors encountered problems accessing their online stock accounts and completing trades through brokerage TD Ameritrade on Monday morning amid a feverish sell off in the broader markets.
TD Ameritrade first confirmed the issue in response to traders on Twitter who complained about the problems. The firm directed traders to a toll-free phone number and a special website address to complete trades.
Scotttrade also experienced issues as investors flocked to execute trades.
Collectively, the issues exposed creaking digital infrastructure not capable of handling a massive surge in trading on a day with heavy interest in the equity markets.
TD Ameritrade spokeswoman Kim Hillyer told USA TODAY in an email that the firm’s site experienced “industry-wide latency issues” during the morning rush.
“The sell-off is causing wide-spread issues in multiple areas of the market. We saw a significant increase in trading volumes at the open, and volumes remain above average,” she said. “Client trades were and continue to be executed, although there has been some slowness in some cases, related to these industry-wide issues and the historic nature of the day.”
The company wasn’t the only online brokerage to experience troubles during the selloff.
Separately, brokerage Scottrade also experienced problems with its site. The firmacknowledged the problems on Twitter and said it had restored its access after a brief outage