As someone previously mentioned.....what does your order log say? For example, at IB they keep a log of the entered limit price and the price of execution. Does your broker have this?
Sounds like you need to check your order logs.
As someone previously mentioned.....what does your order log say? For example, at IB they keep a log of the entered limit price and the price of execution. Does your broker have this?
There was a technical glitch and my 4300 shares were sold $10 below the closing price on ARCA on May, 3rd at 4:21 pm. A loss of $43,000. If you see many posts from me in the coming days, don't be surprised. I'm trying to find some answers to convince my broker that this order should be cancelled. I can't afford to lose that money. If you're the buyer, please have a heart, change your mind and accept to cancel that trade. If you feel that you can give me some clues on how I can state my case, feel free to do so. That would be very appreciated.
My thoughts:
- Sorry for your loss.
- After reading your story, here is what I am guessing happened (not that it helps):
- You cancelled your order.
- You then went to reactivate this order in afterhours trading.
- Because of the way your brokerage handles afterhours orders, it defaulted to pricing your new limit order at the best bid, which was $8.85 at the time. This bidder purposely placed his bid at $8.85 to trick you into seeing $18.85. Somehow your mind convinced you that you were seeing $18.85 and not $8.85.
- You placed the order and got filled at $8.85.
- There are rules that you need to follow in order to file a bust:
- There are price parameters that you must meet in order to file a bust. Your order was definitely clearly erroneous. For ARCA, it is something like:
- If price is < $100, then > $2 or 15% from the last official price
- If price is >= $100, then > $3 from the last official price
- You must file in a timely manner. For ARCA, I think you need to file within 30 minutes (maybe it is an hour).
- The fact that your brokerage waited until the next morning to file your bust request is unacceptable.
- There are extenuating circumstances where the exchange, subject to its judgement, can bust a trade past the time deadline. Example extenuating circumstances are:
- The price makes a 52-week high.
- The price makes a 52-week low.
- The 52-week low for BCOR (unfortunately for you) is $8.11.
- Here is what I would do:
- Argue that your trade qualifies for extenuating circumstances because it was close enough to a 52-week low as to be completely ridiculous:
- ARCA would have to agree to this.
- Probability that this happens: very low.
- Argue that your broker was negligent:
- Did your broker pop up a warning that said your order was 53.05% off the last official price?
- If no, why not?
- As an example of how another broker does it, Interactive Brokers would:
- Bring up a dialog box and tell me that this order was way off the last official price and make me confirm the order.
- Cap the price of the order to some percentage off the last official price.
- Did your broker pop up a warning box asking if you really, really, really wanted to do this trade?
- If no, why not?
- When you first called in about this trade, did your broker immediately recognize that it was a clearly erroneous print and then immediately call ARCA to bust?
- If no, why not?
- Why did your broker wait until the next day to request a bust (when it is too late)?
- To me, this is your best argument - your broker clearly does not understand the intricacies of the busting process and therefore let you hang out to dry. It is because of their ignorance of the process (plus your mistake) that you are out $40k+.
- Good luck!
Thank you very much for everything you mentioned.
I just want to correct you on this:'
When I try to modify an order the price stays the same. I even tried to reproduce the way I did it twice after the incident and the asking price was $18.85.
- Because of the way your brokerage handles afterhours orders, it defaulted to pricing your new limit order at the best bid, which was $8.85 at the time. This bidder purposely placed his bid at $8.85 to trick you into seeing $18.85. Somehow your mind convinced you that you were seeing $18.85 and not $8.85.'
Thank you very much for everything you mentioned.
I just want to correct you on this:'
When I try to modify an order the price stays the same. I even tried to reproduce the way I did it twice after the incident and the asking price was $18.85.
- Because of the way your brokerage handles afterhours orders, it defaulted to pricing your new limit order at the best bid, which was $8.85 at the time. This bidder purposely placed his bid at $8.85 to trick you into seeing $18.85. Somehow your mind convinced you that you were seeing $18.85 and not $8.85.'
I know for a fact that IB would have prevented this order from ever happening.