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Kickstart70 (84.65)

Always check your online broker for accuracy

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March 04, 2009 – Comments (10) | RELATED TICKERS: SNT

Today I bought 1000 of SNT at $0.38. It made a great 8.11% gain in short order.

My broker (qtrade.ca) current claims there was a 42.9%, $0.22, drop in value! Of course, they are smoking some serious crack.

I've emailed them. I seriously hope they don't give me any crap about fixing this. It's not like I'm a huge investor or anything, but this is the kind of thing that will make me switch brokers.

10 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On March 04, 2009 at 8:05 PM, rvanzo (94.45) wrote:

what broker do you use?

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#2) On March 04, 2009 at 8:06 PM, rvanzo (94.45) wrote:

nevermind. Never heard of them but you should try another more known broker yet still cheap.

 

thinkorswim.com has a great canadian website

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#3) On March 04, 2009 at 8:41 PM, Kickstart70 (84.65) wrote:

Thanks, thinkorswim.ca looks very interesting. I really wish I understood the difference in price between these organizations. It's not like qtrade offers me anything special.

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#4) On March 04, 2009 at 9:05 PM, EggplantWizard (99.84) wrote:

Scottrade has some of the best customer service I've seen. I use scottrade and IB, personally. (IB's customer service is terrible, but the interface is great).

The most common error I've seen from a broker is either not crediting a dividend to my account, or withholding the wrong amount of foreign tax on a foreign holding. Every broker I've been with has done one of these things at one time or other (granted, I have a lot of dividend paying foreign stocks, typically). Rarely, the error is in my favor. With scottrade, it's a simple fix... With IB, just hope that you don't ever have to contact their customer support (but their error rate is a lot lower)

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#5) On March 04, 2009 at 9:09 PM, EverydayInvestor (100.00) wrote:

Why worry? It is probably just a late print or erroneous data. Once it trades tomorrow it will be corrected.

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#6) On March 04, 2009 at 9:12 PM, paducah5102 (96.42) wrote:

Does it bother you that Scottrade does not actually execute a buy until about 3 days after you order it?  There is no excuse tor this!

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#7) On March 04, 2009 at 9:15 PM, russiangambit (99.13) wrote:

Could it possibly be a wash sale? When sell something at loss and then buy it back within 30 days. They attach the loss to the second trade and so even though you made money on the second one, it looks like you lost some. It made to prevent people from booking losses  for tax purposes and then immidiately buying the stock back.

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#8) On March 04, 2009 at 9:59 PM, EggplantWizard (99.84) wrote:

paducah5102 (97.89):

Scottrade's execution is very slow -- I use them for relatively liquid things in large lots, where the flat $7 makes sense and the longer than normal execution isn't so problematic. I do encounter a fair number of errors on their site, and wouldn't recommend them for any form of daytrading, but it's fine for swing trading or buy and hold.

 Most brokers have advantages and disadvantages -- it's good to discuss them. I don't have any strong preferences, really, but I think scottrade is the leader for customer service, IB for platform, other brokers offer other advantages and disadvantages -- I've heard great things about thinkorswim, though I don't have an account there -- sharebuilder is great for people who want to reinvest dividends inexpensively, but almost never buy or sell, etc.

I think it makes sense to choose a broker that's appropriate to your style and goals for the account, understanding the benefits and drawbacks of each.

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#9) On March 05, 2009 at 8:51 AM, Gemini846 (90.93) wrote:

I went to one of the SWIM investor free conferences (sales seminars) and they wen't through a software demo then gave us tips on writing covered calls. At the time I wasn't in a position to take 2 weeks for one of thier investor conferences, but at $1200 or w/e it cost for the info I understand its actually a good buy from people who have taken it.

I had no idea scottrade was slow. 3 days seems criminal. How would they get away with that?

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#10) On March 05, 2009 at 9:07 AM, EverydayInvestor (100.00) wrote:

"Does it bother you that Scottrade does not actually execute a buy until about 3 days after you order it?  There is no excuse tor this!"

This is obviously exaggeration. Scottrade is no worse than other discount brokers. Not nearly as good as IB or GSEC or any direct access broker for quick executions, but no discount broker is.

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