We have lots (a really lot) of messaging that deals with various brokers and what is allowed/not allowed by them in terms of buying/selling new issues on the Over The Counter (OTC) markets and many other issues.
For instance some brokers allow pretty much any transaction. I personally like eTrade as I have never had a trade rejected by them–while I have an account with Fidelity it restricts my ability to buy Fixed-to-Floating rate issues.
This area is for an exchange of information on all the various brokers–good, bad and otherwise.
Like all the various discussion pages if folks could ‘stay to topic’ the page will be more valuable to all, but staying to point.
If you want to start a new thread go to the bottom of the page and do a comment–instead of a reply.
Christ, whats going on at Fidelity? You have me all scared, if my Schwab pisses me off to the point I have to leave, what will we all end up being? E-Traders?
Luckily, maybe counter to some people here, I’ve grown to like Schwab. Their irritations seem minor to the nonsense going on at Fidelity (for now!!!).
I keep getting a delay notice on a 1099 for a standard trading account with Fidelity.
They say they are waiting for information from EIC on EICC
It keeps getting extended. First it was supposed to be ready mid Feb. then they said Feb. 22nd and now March 7th.
I called Fidelity and the person didn’t have a clue so I e-mailed IR at Eagle Point.
The funny thing is my wife’s 1099-R has been available for a long time but then that account has a lot less shares.
Normally I don’t complain about things like a dividend being late or even having trouble placing orders, but I want to finish the taxes.
Received an e-mail back from Garrett at investor relations with Eagle point credit. He said unfortunately they don’t expect to be able to send the tax information until mid March. Just as bad waiting for tax information from a MLP
?
Both have published their information as of yesterday. (one was last week)
see tax characteristics or tax information on the left side of the page
https://www.eaglepointincome.com/our-fund
https://www.eaglepointcreditcompany.com/our-fund
Thanks Justin, Why Fidelity doesn’t have this so they can issue the 1099 I have no idea. I will print this out along with the preliminary 1099 and turn that in.
Thanks for being on here and posting.
What Do You Do? RE: Fido
I know you guys have had problems with Fido sending out notices of upcoming calls and saying the wrong principal amount to be paid, but what did you find out? Is it worth questioning or does it just work itself out? I got a notification of an “upcoming bond of CD” (it’s neither) on GDL-C from them today…. It says the principal amount is $10 when it’s $50. Is it worth questioning? I also wonder if I have to track whether or not they will pay interest or a dividend… It’s at least partially qualified dividend according to QOL and it is a Gabelli term preferred due 3/26/25.
I don’t recall which issue it was (maybe TRINL) but I do recall getting the same message on a $25 issue not super long ago. I called and asked. They said not to worry. When the redemption happened, it was the correct amount.
I can’t speak for future instances, but mine worked out OK.
At least they deposit the money in the morning, 🙂 and directly to your MM, so if they screw it up, you have the rest of the day to pester them about it. ;(
…….unlike that other brokerage, which shall not be named 🙂 for holding our redemptions till 4 mins after the bell. ARGH!
From Fidelity,
Additionally, we reviewed the notice you received on December 18, 2024, regarding the redemption price of your holding in Trinity Capital Inc. 7.00% Notes due January 16, 2025 (TRINL). The final call rate for TRINL was $25 per share. However, when the redemption information was initially provided to Fidelity through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a specific call rate was not provided, so a default rate of $10 per share was used in the initial alert.
This information was later updated on January 2, 2025, when the correct redemption price was provided to Fidelity.
I am waiting on my Ellington to redeem and their notice listed the redemption price as $10 instead of $25. I think that is just their default amount. You would think they would just not put a dollar amount and refer people to the prospectus to save themselves the phone calls.
I am not going to pester them over it and just watch for the proper amount to be paid. That one has been sitting at zero dollars value in the account statement since the buyout anyway and I always adjust when I calculate my net worth.
A miracle at Fidelity! I have been slowly exiting my Fidelity illiquids. On a whim, I tested a sale of a low vol BB at Fidelity. My position was very small but it was about 1/3 of the days volume. I sold a little bit before so I was expecting to play around, find a 10-25 share limit then go to lunch.
There was bid interest, so I put in a sell order at the bid price for my whole position. Bingo it went through immediately. I have found that on rare occasions, the Nanny algorithm falls asleep and an order goes through like in the good old days. JMO. DYODD.
Schwab is a real pain in the arse. They don’t even know what a baby bond is. They have wrong description for those securities. They are preferreds for them! So they consider distributions as dividends not interest. As a foreign investor I have seen withholding taxes not due in my account. After months of mails and talks still unable to solve the issue. Back with the old optionsxpress it was so easy to correct this. Employees could be reached directly, now not anymore, no personal e-mail and so much time wasted to find someone able at least to understand the problem. Done with them. Hope Fidelity is better but not so confident after what I read here.
Before people on here jump from the frying pan into the fire and switch brokers I suggest you look for reviews on those companies.
Normally I research a product I am thinking about purchasing by reading reviews on Amazon, HD, Best Buy etc,
Same when I want to try out a new restaurant I look at the reviews on Yelp or Trip advisor. Same for services like computer repair.
I thought yesterday I would look to see if E-trade had any offices in Northern Calif like Fidelity and Schwab do.
Well they did at one time. Most are listed as closed now. When I move my money to a new bank I like to walk in and look them in the eye.
Anyone thinking of switching to E-Trade should look on line at reviews of E-Trade. Let’s just say I wasn’t impressed. Especially if you need to call in and the wait times mentioned.
On the line now with nanny Fidelity. I figure if I want to buy something safe I want to buy a illiquid. Actually I want to place a GTC limit order for 200 shares.
The rep is telling me the 20 day moving average is 31 shares. and I have a greater chance of it filling if I place limit orders under 31 shares. I’ve played that game before and placing 3 orders at 25 shares usually is the max.
I don’t play the horses, but if someone was going to the betting window and saying I want to place a $1,000 on a 20 to 1 bet on the horse old granny in the 5th race I think they would take my money.
Fido is hopeless. Here’s another fun example. I managed to get a GTC limit order placed to sell above the market for one of my preferreds, 500 shares! Yay! Decided I wanted to move the order a bit lower…..Sorry! Too many shares – you are rejected!
Yes, Fidelity is really creative in finding ways to frustrate and humiliate people who trade these issues. I have gone from loving them above all others to swearing a blood oath against them that I intend to pass down to future generations.
Today I put an order in for a thinly traded issue and did the dance where you guess how many shares Mommy will let you buy today. OK, so that went through and I wanted to increase what I was willing to pay later that day because sometimes I will creep up a bid like that to see what shakes out. Well Mommy did not like that at all! I could not replace the order because that would be too many shares! So I cancelled instead of replacing it thinking I would now free up those shares since I never actually traded them… but noooooo!!! The non-trade used up my allotment for the day!
There is something seriously wrong with the person who set that policy and I would like to know his name so we can shame him in public and see if we can get a Congressman to call him before a committee somewhere to explain himself.
I had a distant relative who worked for Fidelity and whenever the name was mentioned by anyone she would always say, “Oh God, what did we do to you this time?” I now know what she was talking about.
Yeah Scott, I forgot about that issue. Also the same problem if you try to move the bid down.
We haven’t heard from Tex in a long time I hope he is well. I would like to go over his list with E-trade to see how many of those are available to trade there and what if any fees or commissions there might be.
Several months ago I went through my lower yielding BB and preferred and put sell orders in to free up cash thinking I could buy back at lower prices. Now I am more concerned about being in something I don’t care about the yield but more about the safety.
Well, we will see. Just wish Fidelity wasn’t making it so difficult.
Now another hitch in my giddy up with Fido! Not sure if the youngsters remember trading in odd and even lots. You were charged more if you didn’t place an order for 100 shares. I just tried placing an order for 50 shares with a stock showing a 85 share average. I was rejected because it was a odd lot! Of course trying a 100 share lot was also rejected.
I am beginning to suspect Fidelity of two things. One they don’t want to come right out and say they don’t want to trade stocks that they feel should be on the expert market. I think some people have had heated discussions with them when it was pointed out a stock was still listed on the pink and not expert.
Second I think they might be wanting to get away from paying a market maker to handle the trades. Remember years ago this was how new players like Tasty Trade and Robinhood got in the business they discounted trades by giving a small percent to whoever was in the back room. The major brokers felt they had to follow. Just a guess
SGOV – Was just wondering what to expect: When does SGOV dividends normally post? I see where it’s payable today but not posted yet at ETrade…. For those who have been in SGOV awhile, when do you normally see it applied to your accounts at your broker?
2WR, Avid SGOV’er here. On Schwab SGOV divs posted the morning of the payday.
Thanks. pp. So that means that it’s already posted if you own it at Schwab???? They’re always the last on posting imho…. We may have a new winner with Etrade……
Yes it posts first thing in the morning, a rare thing for Schwab.
Ally has not paid me yet for SGOV. Looks like I will get it after market close.
Someone had posted about shares being lent out by Fidelity and was curious if that person figured out how the split worked and any other details of the program?
YieldHunter,
I posted some info yessterday…. here it is:
YieldHunter,
You got me thinking. FWIW, I checked the Fidelity documents and they say they take about 40% and the customer gets about 60% on loaned stock. I called them to ask what the actual numbers were on that stock, but they said “That information is not available to us”….
Here is the page to with some information to get you started…. Perhaps somebody else has more details.
https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/landing-zones/Fully-Paid-Lending-Program-Investor.pdf
I signed up for the the borrow program at Schwab SLFP and then hunted down hard to borrow stocks that were expensive to borrow and was long different tickers with protective puts just to test it all out. They supposedly share 50% of what they charge in borrow rate and pay monthly but they have only taken 200 shares of 1 ticker and there isn’t action on the rest. Not 100% sure.
IBKR has one too.
UMBFP is trading on Fidelity.
BMTX – I owned this at both Schwab and Fidelity and its acquisition for cash payment of $5 closed on 1/31. I now know with certainty that this pattern is NOT A COINCIDENCE because I followed this closely today for comparative purposes just to see when the funds were to be applied at both Fido applied them to my account at approx 3PM… OTOH, SCHWAB, surprise surprise, applied them at 4:15PM just late enough for SCHWAB to get use of my funds for another day at next to nothing cost since it was just past the deadline for clients to move the funds into mm funds such as SWVXX… it happens all too frequently always in the same direction. I know, penny anti stuff but annoying none the less.
Schwab is infuriating. I keep a small portion of my funds there but it’s getting smaller over time.
HTLFP/UMBFP Any brokers recognize the changeover to UMBFP yet? I own HTLFP at ETrade and all they’ve done so far is zero out the value of my position in HTLFP and assign it to the old CUSIP# of 42234Q201. I don’t think UMBFP is tradeable yet at ETrade, Fido or Schwab…. Anyone know differently? Ooops I take that back.. I can enter a buy on UMBFP at TOS and at ETrade [now rejected at ETrade]…
2WR Fidelity lost my HTLFP its not even showing up and they didn’t replace it with the UMBFP Fidelity is still not accepting trades
Merrill Edge took my order for UMBFP. But nothing is showing as trading yet.
This is why I have so many different brokers.
Hi,
I’ve completed a site audit for innovativeincomeinvestor.com and have identified some key issues. If you’re interested in receiving the report, reply with ‘Yes”.
Regards,
Wendy
Today Fidelity flagged me that a couple hundred of my shares of HTLFP had been loaned out and the interest rate being charged surprised me: 76.85%!
Of course, it may be only for a day or two….time will tell.
Are they splitting that with you? Great rate…
YieldHunter,
I think I get it all. I have been checking it daily, just for entertainment purposes. 200 shares=$10+/day.
of course, HTLFP disappeared from my Fidelity account today and has not reappeared as UMBFP… they told me to be patient and wait for tomorrow to see it…
That’s awesome. The borrow rate to short on Schwab is 123% annualized so it may be going up. I suppose you didn’t even opt-in for that?
YieldHunter,
I opted in to the Fidelity loan program. the loan is still there, but now under “UMBFP”. The rate is 77+% annualized today.
YieldHunter,
You got me thinking. FWIW, I checked the Fidelity documents and they say they take about 40% and the customer gets about 60% on loaned stock. I called them to ask what the actual numbers were on that stock, but they said “That information is not available to us”….
More questions on ETrade bond platform –
Although ETrade allows you to enter bids on bonds, it seems in real life the only type of bid they allow you to enter is Fill Or Kill. Those with ETrade experience, is that true? If that’s the case, then in practical terms they don’t let you bid on a bond at all…. For example, as an experiment I entered a bid on CUSIP 466313AJ2. At the time, based on info I could see from Fido, my bid would have been the best bid in the market. The bid was accepted as an order at ETrade and then less than 3 minutes later, it was rejected because the dealer, apparently the one with the best offer (very nearby price), turned down the bid. IMHO, that means the ability to bid on bonds at ETrade is a worthless feature…. very disappointing………….ETrade will be my source for buying/selling the preferreds and BBs that Fido has nanny’d essentially out of their platform in a practical sense but I guess they’ll remain my best alternative for 1k par bond buying or selling
What money Market Funds do you use in ETrade? I am just now funding a new account there and am being told that cash is handled the same way at ETrade as it is at Schwab, where cash is automatically placed only in an sweep that earns essentially nothing…. What have you found to be the best MM funds to use there?
2WR My platinum guy at ET put my sweep into a Morgan Stanly fund that is competitive with the Vanguard sweep option. Not sure of the symbol. It is not automatic though, you need to ask for it.
Could that be either MGPXX or DWGXX? I’m seeing those at https://us.etrade.com/l/options-uninvested-cash/sweep-rates but I’m trying to get a better explanation of how they work or what the requirements are to use them from my newly assigned buy at Etrade…. I’ll post if I get a response
I just bought some PCOXX. Hope it’s okay, Federated seems to have good funds, at least on the bond/credit side of things.
NEWTZ – If anyone’s ever been involved with Kinder Morgan, you know what it means to get “kindered.” Well today I got Fidelity’d. An end of the year oddity showed up at the end of the day on NEWTZ and I got to sell 600 NEWTZ near the close at 25.25 at Schwab from a long outstanding “stink” offering…. Knowing I had more (aka most of my position) at Fido, I quickly tried to set up another sale for 600 with them. No can do…… too many shares for me to be allowed to sell based on their Nannyism parameters… By the time I successfully guessed the amount they would allow for sale, the window had closed…. Thanks, Fido….. another nail in their coffin, even though I still prefer Fido these days over Schwab…
2 WR I know the feeling. But it was before market open about 5:30 I tried to close a position in REGCO after 250 then 100, then 50 I gave up. I couldn’t get enough sell bids open.
2WR and Charles,
Love it: “I got Fidelity’d”.
And once I figure out the allowable quantity for the first sell and I get that order executed, of course I have more to sell, but for each subsequent order, the allowable # of shares keeps getting smaller.
I can call Fido to get an “open window” to sell my entire position, but that takes a while to
1. explain the issue to the first customer rep, then
2. get transferred to the Active Trader Team (?), and then
3. have them create the “window”.
I’ve heard that once I do get an order placed for the quantity I want, if later on I want to amend the order (e.g., price), I may have to call to get a new “window” open. Can’t just amend it myself.
I’ve transferred 1/2 of my account from Fido to Etrade. There are things I like about Fido, but treating us like little children is beyond ridiculous.
I’ve still got the proceeds from my house sale to put somewhere…. Both Schwab and Fido have proven unworthy, so ETrade’s going to get the lion’s share. I’ll find out for myself if they’re any better… I’m also going to allow Morgan Stanley to manage some for me just to see what it’s like again to give up control… Never liked to in the past, but maybe it’s getting to be that time for me.
I am getting tired of trading with both hands tied behind my back, so I am seriously thinking of leaving Fidelity, which is unfortunate since Fidelity has been so good over the decades. It seems the consensus is to use Etrade. Has anyone been using IB for illiquids?
IB allows access to many illiquids, but strangely limits some such as PPWLO or NMPWP. They also charge for OTC trades. And their execution is mediocre, even if you switch to their fully paid platform.
IBKR shines in terms of access to fixed income, internally issues, and low margin rates.
My understanding is that E*Trade does not have a cash sweep, like Schwab, so you have to manually move cash to make sure you are getting a market rate.
Yes mbg, That’s another thing I don’t like. You can’t execute a change order on an already open order, you have to cancel and call them to open another window. I commented once before that it makes me wonder if the order is really active and they put it out to the open market or are they doing like real estate brokers and keeping the listing in house.
2wr You know I used to trade NEWT & NEWTZ when they were a BDC but never had much faith in holding long term. NEWTZ is probably good to maturity but I just never liked how they operated.
Newtek Bank, N.A. Reaches Over $1.0 Billion in Deposits…
https://seekingalpha.com/pr/19959957-newtek-bank-n-reaches-over-1_0-billion-in-deposits
Just a note:
SEC has not responded to my inquiry, so I’ll send certified mail.
For those at Etrade, what money market fund can you buy there? They don’t seem to publicize this info.