Error at Brokerage

[krazeenyc]

I'm wondering if anyone here has ever had an error at their brokerage. I just had my first -- after 20 years.  I know for sure it's their error. TDAmeritrade removed a 5 figure sum of money apparently due to  SHLDV (SHLD stub from LE spinoff) having a 12/31/2014 record date. 

 

For those who have had an issue like this was it easy to have fixed?

[compoundinglife]

I'm wondering if anyone here has ever had an error at their brokerage. I just had my first -- after 20 years.  I know for sure it's their error. TDAmeritrade removed a 5 figure sum of money apparently due to  SHLDV (SHLD stub from LE spinoff) having a 12/31/2014 record date. 

 

For those who have had an issue like this was it easy to have fixed?

 

I had an issue where I sold puts on a stock which then had a massive reverse split and they just multiplied the the new post reverse split price * 100 per each put I wrote not factoring the reverse split. Proceeded to margin call me, got it straightened out on the phone after talking to a couple of people but I was fairly freaked out. I imagine once they figure out what happened it will be easy for them to fix it. Also had a cash call on a non margin account once that was not warranted, can't remember why exactly. They started a liquidation of some positions, I called the broker they sorted out their mistake and the restored the positions they had started to liquidate.

 

I am guessing you won't have any problems getting it resolved once you find someone who knows what happened. 

[krazeenyc]

Yeah I hope so. Annoying that the team that made the move didn't look more carefully -- annoying that both that team as well as the more senior guys in corporate action were all out of the office when I called because it took so long for them to figure out what had happened. I hope it's easily fixed on monday.

[oddballstocks]

I've had a few:

 

1) One day woke up to fine I had $13m in my account.  They had marked a stock's value to $9,999 a share, I owned thousands, normal price in the $3s.  I called and asked if I could somehow borrow or withdrawal the amount before the market opened.  They wouldn't let me, the market opened and my $13m vanished.

2) Had a position replaced overnight for me.  The shares I held were about $80 a share, replaced with some Australian gold miner for a few pennies a share.  Called Fidelity, first few reps had no clue, acted like this was something I had requested, even though it wasn't on file.  Eventually got to an IT support person, looked for about 20s and said "yup, CUSIP changed, we failed to update our system", they corrected it.

3) Have had various foreign held positions 'converted' into terribly illiquid USD positions by some computerized sweep system.  Had to call about that, they eventually turned it off for my account.

[krazeenyc]

LOL. the money magically returned. I plan to still find out what happened.

[Hielko]

LOL. the money magically returned. I plan to still find out what happened.

I guess you will be able to see some kind of correction transaction in your account statement. I see it relative often at IB for corporate actions, although it is usually for very small amounts (stuff like a $0.01/share difference in withholding tax)

[krazeenyc]

LOL. the money magically returned. I plan to still find out what happened.

I guess you will be able to see some kind of correction transaction in your account statement. I see it relative often at IB for corporate actions, although it is usually for very small amounts (stuff like a $0.01/share difference in withholding tax)

 

Well that was the thing. What spooked me is that there was no line item explaining it. The account was just missing MONEY. The rep really had no clue -- I'll get to the bottom of it by Monday I'm sure -- but it sure freaks me out that your account balance can just change with no explanation.  I downloaded all my statements to my computer as well as trade confirmations -- out of an abundance of caution. 

[Grenville]

LOL. the money magically returned. I plan to still find out what happened.

 

I definitely agree that you should get to the bottom of what happened. I'm a bit paranoid with all this stuff and with computerized trading, a small error can cause a whole firm to go under. Hopefully that will never be the case, but better to be cautious.