MBTrading way overcharging margin interest

K

kubilai

Awhile ago I start investigating how MBTrading calculates margin interest because the charges appear abnormally high. Starting from Jan 2005, my interest charges has been about 30-50 times more than what it should be based on my trading records. Interestingly in Dec 2004 the interest charge was about normal (when I started with them). My IB account which holds similar capital with similar trading activity gets charged 30-50 times less than my MBTrading account.

Initially I thought MBT calculates interest in a wierd way, so I asked MBT to check my charges for May. After a few days, I got refunded about 97% of the interest charge back. The explanation was there was some problems with the money market fund returning cash sweeps.

So I asked for a manual checkup of charges Jan to June too. It took a month to get a response after multiple email requests. This time they blamed it on my futures trading, and no adjustments are to be made. Now this is totally unacceptable because it doesn't make any sense. My futures trading at MBT since Jan 2005 consists of holding 1 NQ contract for 4 days in Jan, 1 YM intraday in April and 1 YM contract for 1 day in April. How does that explain $50-100 extra interest charge every month since then?

My current theory is that Penson has had a technical problem since Jan 2005 screwing up their interest calculations. MBTrading, because they can't fix it, can't afford to fix it or don't want to bother, just decided to not own up to the error.

Just thought I'd post this observation and wondering if anyone else has noticed abnormally high interest charges at MBT. Maybe if enough people notices the problem we can get a serious investigation started. As for me, the extra monthly charges has made several superior brokers more competitive. Time for me to research brokers again, just want to have one backup broker in addition to IB :)
 
kubilai,

I would be happy to check into this for you. I can assure you if there was an overcharge it was not done on purpose. MBT does not actually handle the debits and credits of the account. Penson does this as our clearing firm. I will always stand by the customer to make sure the right thing happens if there ever was an error or miscalculation but I wanted to clear up how the debits and credits are actually posted. Regarding your theory about MBT I must say it is just plain wrong. I am here to help and would be happy to help but please don't make silly accusations like that. Please msg me your name and I will look into this to see what happened.

Regards,

Steve
 
The issue has been resolved. Took a little convincing, but MBT did go after Penson and got my money back. It was an issue with Penson switching their money market fund (for cash position), and somehow the sweeps were not coordinated right when they had two funds hooked up. Hopefully this has been fixed for the future too.

Thanks Steve for listening, and several other people that worked on my complaint!
 
It's never a problem. We are always here for you. Please feel free to msg me if you ever need any assistance.

Regards,

Steve
 
steve you need to lower your commission on stock trades to a min of .006 to match cyber. .01 a share is sick in topdays market. if i provide liquidity your firm is making the rebate of .002 so its huge.
 
Quote from MBT-Steve:

It's never a problem. We are always here for you. Please feel free to msg me if you ever need any assistance.

Regards,

Steve
More...
Have you looked into other peoples accounts that may have also been wrongly overcharged margin? If so, have you given back the overcharges or only if the account holder brings it up.

Also, I have a margin account and was wondering where I could get my history of margin charges.

thanks in advance Steve. Also, let Ross know that I am very happy with the level II books. I can see all the players now:)
 
Quote from MBT-Steve:

It's never a problem. We are always here for you. Please feel free to msg me if you ever need any assistance.

Regards,

Steve
More...

Wow, a brokerage firm that actually pays attention to its prime customer base,

and responds to them,

what next,

discounted commissions?

wow!
 
Quote from joeyata1:

steve you need to lower your commission on stock trades to a min of .006 to match cyber. .01 a share is sick in topdays market. if i provide liquidity your firm is making the rebate of .002 so its huge.
More...

Rates are 0.005 after first 500 shares ... 0.01 on the first 500 isn't a big deal ... 8-10 years ago you'd pay a min of $25 for a trade of any size plus ECN fees tacked on.

http://www.mbtrading.com/ratesStocks.asp
 
Quote from tradingbug:

Have you looked into other peoples accounts that may have also been wrongly overcharged margin? If so, have you given back the overcharges or only if the account holder brings it up.

Also, I have a margin account and was wondering where I could get my history of margin charges.

thanks in advance Steve. Also, let Ross know that I am very happy with the level II books. I can see all the players now:)
More...

You can get all the detailed transactions from http://online.penson.com

This problem is easy to spot if you have some general idea of your margin usage, or if you have some basic tracking software such as MS Money or Quicken (can import directly from Penson). Can hardly expect MBTrading to do your homework hehe, they have thousands of customers.
 
tradingbug,

Penson is reviewing all the accounts from that particular day. Once they do MBT will cross reference those same accounts for accuracy to make sure no one else was overcharged margin interest.

Regards,

Steve
 
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