May 8, 2010
I had held around $10,000.00 (in April 2010 terms) in stocks for a few months, (Ford and Suntech, mostly Suntech).
The last week of April I sold my Ford stock and bought some more Suntech because of the oil spill. On monday the 3rd of May, I had about as much as I could stand and sold it all.
My online broker (E-Trade)said it hadn't "settled" yet and froze my account. They relented today, (since my long term position had been 90% of my account anyway.
My question is how can these high speed trades in the thousands per second settle immediately for reinvestment but my paltry trades and funds are held for a week without settlement after their web-site told me that the funds were available to purchase stock?
The only thing that I can think of is that the broker is gtting away with squatting on my money for their own profit and blaming S.E.C. rules as the excuse.
If it takes their computers a week to settle small investors trades while processing large firms trades instantaneously, this is just a scam.
Make them settle many times daily if not second by second.
They are pulling the same trick as the movie "The Sting"
The con-men use delayed information to cheat the bettor.
As is Wall Street the investor