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.
I can’t find the post from a day or two ago re: new restrictions on certain cusips within IBKR. I didn’t have any issues.. up until this morning.. so they must be applying (the restrictions) on a rolling basis. It’s not just reg S cusips..it’s other private company issues such as the south jersey.
The restriction message cites “not quote eligible… pursuant to rule 15c2-11.”
But I thought FI got the pass here: https://www.willkie.com/-/media/files/publications/2024/12/sec-extends-relief-from-rule-15c2-11-for-certain-fixed-income-securities.pdf
I have a ticket in to get an explanation..will post once I hear back.
REG S?
those are restricted to non-US investors…. I am more surprised that someone with a username of Maine could buy a REG S in the first place, instead of buying the 144A one instead.
It’s any issue from a private company AFAIK. For instance, South Jersey (link below) is currently restricted.
Regarding Reg S, I would bet $ you are more informed than me on this, or any other legal topic related to investing.. All I know is the IBKR has allowed Reg S issues to be purchased in the past for retail investors like me. Why would they allow this, if they are restricted?
Related, Losingtrader posted an article specifying why retail CAN purchase Reg S on the secondary market. I can’t find the link, maybe someone else can re-post it.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/91928/000114036121010240/nt10021708x8_fwp.htm
“why would they allow this?”
Because identification of REG S securities was hit and miss and most back-office systems historically never identified them correctly.
The SEC rule 15 change made everyone wake up and start upgrading their back office systems to flag these securities and finally restrict their sale only to the investors eligible to buy them.
I am certainly no expert, but I think that that the restrictions on U.S. buyers of securities offered under Regulation S drop off after a certain period, usually six months or one year (distribution compliance period), depending on the type of security and the issuer.
Very aggravating IBKR is doing this seemingly arbitrarily, as Maine points it, it should still be covered under the No Action Letter.
I cannot log into Fidelity this morning. Anyone else?
I logged in early this morning and still on.
FYI. I just spoke to Fidelity. They are experiencing a nationwide problem with clients logging in. “They’re working on it”.
No problem here. Was on earlier and just logged back in now.
I spoke too soon, I am still on but it is taking a long time to load when I change screens. Just got error message.
Can’t login with Windows but can login with iphone app…any updates?
I just succeeded in logging in with my Win11 laptop.
FYI. I just logged in. I seem to be navigating normally. I was NOT prompted for a security code to log in ….?
That happened to me several times. I called and found out by some mistake I had checked the box don’t ask at the very beginning when you log in.
You have to go into your personal setting and reset it to always ask verification. Then you have to log back out and back in to see if it took.
I am considering opening an account with MooMoo brokerage. Has anyone tried them? Thank you, as always.
I don’t know anything about them, but I see they are touting 8.1% on uninvested cash for up to $20k in new customer deposits. It is only for 3 months though so it works out to maybe a couple of hundred dollars over what you get elsewhere with current money market rates.
Is there a reason you are looking at them over the larger brokers?
I have used Schwab for years, but a second brokerage is a good option to have. Their promos and otc and option commissions are a small dividend.
ETrade – a cynic’s view – After today, I think it’s pretty obvious that ETrade purposely does not post dividends until after it’s too late to move the proceeds into an interest bearing MM. Why after today? Well, we all know how Schwab is notorious for utilizing this same trick, right? So when Schwab can post the dividend on WTFCP in the morning today and yet ETrade does not get the divvy posted until some time after 4, I have to believe it’s not incidental…. Yes, I realize they all have their own individual quirks……
You can move into SGOV even after the close.
Good point…… I do utilize SGOV at ETrade and do execute after market’s close frequently. I’ve gotten a bit lazy with doing so now because I’ve also negotiated a sweep deal with them which DOES allow me to have cash automatically swept into a MM fund the way Fido allows, so the pressure’s off. However, I don’t know if it should fascinate me or annoy me to discover the little tricks used by brokers to make money at the client’s expense in a non commission world. Maybe I should be thankful instead of annoyed.
CIT BANK – Platinum Savings Account
If anyone happens to have an existing Platinum Savings Account here, I just found out that if you try to transfer money OUT right now, they will increase and lock in a minimum rate of 4.50% APY for 12 months to induce you to leave it in…. As I read it, rates go down, your rate remains the same… Interest rates go up beyond 4.50% APY and they increase it. I canceled my transfer out to take advantage of the offer.
Also of minuscule interest, Synchrony Bank is still offering a 13 month N/C monthly pay CD @ 4.35% APY. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
RITM-A Have any brokers paid out the called portion of B yet that was called on 3/28? The reason I asked is I bot RITM-A on 2/26 at ETrade in anticipation of the call yet they never isolated a number of shares to be called and never notified me of the call, so I’m wondering if by buying after the announcement they considered me exempt….. I’m going to ask them as well, but really don’t trust desk jockey answers most of the time..
Sharing the response I received from ETrade, I am being told that because I purchased RITM-A AFTER the initial announcement of the partial call (2/26 with the actual call being 3/28), what I purchased was NOT SUBJECT TO THE PARTIAL CALL….. I just don’t think that’s correct. I benefit from NOT having any called, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an interpretation like that before… Anyone else seeing the same?
No experience with this one. Maybe your time is better served by contacting:
Equiniti Trust Company, LLC by calling 718-921-8317
https://ir.rithmcap.com/investors/news/news-details/2025/Rithm-Capital-Corp.-Announces-a-Redemption-of-50-million-of-7.50-Series-A-FixedtoFloating-Rate-Cumulative-Redeemable-Preferred-Stock/default.aspx
Good idea but turned out to be totally useless… They had no idea what I was asking about, wanted my social security number and ultimately said, if you have questions go back to the brokerage firm where you own them since I do not have an account with the firm associated with the phone number….
I’ll try RITM IR as well
Yes, they wanted my ss# over the phone, so I hung up.
2wr,
I held RITM-A at Fido.
RITM announced it on Feb 26, and I started buying two days later. I didn’t get any notice of the upcoming call and none of my shares were called. In fact, I sold all mine today (swapped to RITM-B).
Thanks, mbg….. Doesn’t this seem to you like an unusual way for this partial call to have been handled? Given Fido’s treating this the same way, I guess I should be content to have held on to my A shares while also buying some B’s as well…
Sure, 2wr.
This was the first time I bought something after a partial call announcement, and I had no idea if any of mine would get called. I was content letting some go at a puny YTC so I could get the nice yield on the remaining shares.
I was wondering if there was a “record date” that tells us who gets their shares partially called. I didn’t see one, though.
Maybe partial calls are handled differently than full calls, and RITMs handling of it is the norm. Just don’t know.
Hope you get some info from RITM. It helps to know how this is supposed to work.
I also had that with Ritm-a at vanguard, but I have also experienced that in the past and forgot, a partial didn’t affect what I bought the day of the announcement. Fine by me.
Pig.. I get super frustrated w brokers frequently, then eventually figure out a work around with another broker. It’s a big PITA, and I will eventually consolidate.. but playing the game for now. My biggest concern is something gets screwed up tax wise, oh well.
And things are about to get even more crazy w overnight trading becoming normalized.
Oh, and I’m still worried that some of my OTC pink illiquids will get booted to expert on July 1st. Would be great if Fido still allows trading, but no clue really.
Is there a concern that further illiquid will move to expert? Thanks
Is anyone a frequent user of the fidelity fixed team to buy bonds not in their inventory? I.e. you have to call their FI group, who then contacts their capital markets group, to find offers.. min 50k face
I ask because my experience has deteriorated over the last ~8 months.. most of my calls lately result in no offers found, and they come back immediately instead of sending out an offers wanted request. For instance, if there is not a displayed offer, the Schwab FI group will send out an offers wanted request, then call me back in an hour or so.
Granted, I trade in a lot of illiquids, but I see offers on other trading venues.
It’s been very frustrating. Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.
At this point, I am resigned to open an IRA account at IBKR, transfer in cash from my existing Fidelity IRA, buy bonds, then transfer them back.
Maine, Just a simple casual observation. It’s bizarre to me that all these brokerages don’t basically operate the same way. Meaningless story; many years ago, I took some money over to a Merrill Lynch branch to start my investment life. I had a 401k at work but this was some cash I had received from grandfather pig pile when he passed away. Two thousand dollars. Not much I know, even then, not much. Merrill told me was a waste of time to deal with me. Ok, well, 30 yrs later that $2000 is now a substantial amount with the ongoing vow from its owner to never do business with Merrill again. I don’t understand minimums, especially in the investment world.
To be honest, I’ve not been very active recently in seeking out 1k bonds at Fidelity, but for years, I’ve been a cheerleader for their fixed income department. That being said, recently I had the same experience you did… I don’t remember what issue I was pursuing but I asked them to look into it, got the 50k minimum speech which I had not heard before, and then had the same put me on hold momentarily only to be told nothing was available experience, with no further effort put into it response you had…. I could just tell they didn’t really do any searching, just put me on hold for an obligatory amount of time to seem as though they had, then said no offers were available… So I agree, their fixed income efforts have dwindled and with it happening at the same time their lo volume nannyism has risen, this is one cheerleader who now sits in the bleachers as far as Fido fixed income is concerned.
Good to know it’s not just me.
This has probably happened 20 times to me the last few months. I was even able to get a “manager” on the line who reached out to their capital markets group. They claim they have made no changes to their process, but I find that hard to believe.
Their capital markets group is probably a separate revenue unit, so they have no incentive to spend time on us retail, although $50 for a few minutes isn’t exactly horrible.
I know the fidelity institutional fixed income team (in Merrimack NH) from a prior life, and they are a great outfit.. but I assume the retail orders are routed to their cap markets group in Boston, which doesn’t deal w FI as often. I have no idea, it’s frustrating.. I mean, if they no longer want to put our “request for offers” then just say that! Just asking for honesty.
And this marketing is BS..
Why don’t they compare to Schwab or IBKR? They conveniently compare themselves to Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill.. yet they use the other retail brokers for comps for other investment types.
And plus, they say they get the same execution…I highly doubt that. Going to Wells Fargo maybe have higher commissions, but they wouldn’t simply hit the ask.
Crock of sh#t..
https://www.fidelity.com/fixed-income-bonds/bond-pricing
I think I remember the issue I asked about was an outstanding FHLB 5.84% issue, either CUSIP 3133ERL9 or 3133ERQG9… Maybe out of curiosity I’ll ask at ETrade or Schwab and see what they come up with… Granted it’s a new day so it won’t be exactly comparable if they come up with an offering, but I will find out how much effort they put into trying to dig up an offering….
Maine,
Have you considered a DVP account?
I have never heard of it, but just googled it.
I have time on my hands.. so I’m open to anything..
Can you give me the dumbed down explanation?
changing out of Schwab; due to forced conversion to T or S from Edge
where should have open these new accounts ; from what I read in this room;
answer seems to be Fidelity ; any advise welcomed
Ted as far as transferring, I liked reading about 2WR’s journey to E-Trade. First off if you are near a Fidelity office make an appointment. If not, make an on line appointment and send a list of your holdings to confirm they will all transfer. Get it in writing. Second, see if they have a place you can try the trading platform to see if you like it. I know Internet Brokers website would let me set up a virtual account to play with.
that is great advice; thank you Charles
Boy Schwab likes to float your money. Not more than 5 minutes ago I received notice of a partial trade that happened on Friday.
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. ;(
for holding our redemptions till 4 mins after the bell. ARGH!
…….unlike that other brokerage, which shall not be named
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.
is it true ; Fidelity has automatic sweep from free cash to their MMF
that’s a big Plus over Schwab (if so) ;Schwab makes the customer buy into and sell the MMF;
True Ted, they also post interest and dividends quicker than Schwab.
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.