Sushi dreams
Who doesn’t want freebies? I know many of us, like to get freebies. One day I got a call from management of my broker, very earnestly offering me free brokerage fees for 2 transactions and “their sincerest APOLOGIES”. Given the choice, I didn’t want the freebie. I just want my opportunity. But anyway, this is how you get freebies from your broker : Tell them they are wrong. Challenge them. Especially when there are steps to be followed and because of manual back-office procedures, they missed the step/s. Find fault (yeah, women’s “analytical skills” put to good use hehehe).
My recent experience : I wanted to do a new transaction to sell Covered Call option. My last transaction on this particular account was done months ago, when the Covered Call option was bought back (to close the transaction), the Release should have been done right after the close. My broker “forgot” to Release, which stopped me from doing my new transaction. These steps are done by the broker in its back office processing.
It happened to me already once before. I know, I remember, I am a business analyst in my past life, I am aware about “procedural flaws” but — I just let things slide. You don’t have to be a business analyst, but as traders and investors, you should be fully aware of what you are doing, what are the steps and rules. So to you my friends, don’t make the same mistake. If I had rang them up and told them what “did not happen” then I wouldn’t have to miss that opportunity — could have made big fat profits in a snap. STO had gone from 13.60 to 14.55 (5 March to 15 March in the chart below). As I was planning to buy 1200 shares, that’s some $1000 profit I’ve missed. I could have been enjoying sushi. 🙂
