August 27, 2021
1. Do you have one or more online trading or investment accounts?
Yes, I have one or more accounts that I access online, either using a computer or a mobile app but I also access the account(s) in other ways (e.g., by calling or visiting in person).
2. If your response to Question 1 is Yes, do you think you would trade or invest if you could not do so online using a computer or using a mobile app?
Yes
3. On average, how often do you access your online account?
Daily/more than once a day
4. On average, how often are trades made in your online account, whether by you or someone else?
Once to a few times a week.
5. If you access your account online, did you have the account first, and only began to access it electronically later? Or did you open the account with the idea that you would access it electronically immediately?
I had a pre-existing account and downloaded an app or visited a website to access my account
6. My goals for trading or investing in my online account are (check all that apply):
Save and grow my money for short-term goals (in the next year or two)
Save and grow my money for medium- to long-term goals
7. What would you like us to know about your experience with the features of your online trading or investment platform? (Examples of features are: social networking tools games, streaks, or contests with prizes points, badges, and leaderboards notifications celebrations for trading visual cues, like changing colors ideas presented at order placement or other curated lists or features subscription and membership tiers or chatbots.)
My primary brokerage account was one of the few that did not remove the \"buy\" button for certain Securities on their platform in January of 2021. My secondary brokerage account did not have this feature. I enjoyed this feature of my primary brokeage very much, and I can only imagine the frustration customers of other brokerages may have felt if that feature weren't guaranteed to them at all times. I know I was rather confused and frustrated when I discovered my secondary brokerage did not have the same feature as my primary. Also, the head of my primary brokerage didn't perjure himself claiming that a regulatory body forced him to remove said buy button, when the regulatory body in question clarified that they made no such order. I wish I could say the same about the head of my secondary brokerage.
8. If you were trading or investing prior to using an online account, how have your investing and trading behaviors changed since you started using your online account? (For example, the amount of money you have invested, your interest in learning about investing and saving for retirement, the amount of time you have spent trading, your knowledge of financial products, the number of trades you have made, the amount of money you have made in trading, your knowledge of the markets, the number of different types of financial products you have traded, or your use of margin.)
Increased access to daily trades, easier deposits, accessibility overall increased. This includes news and other information.
9. How much experience do you have trading or investing in the following products (None, 12 months, 1-2 years, 2-5 years, 5+ years):
Stocks : 5+ Years
Bonds : 2-5 Years
Options : 1-2 Years
Mutual Funds : 2-5 Years
ETFs : 2-5 Years
Futures : None
Cryptocurrencies : 1-2 Years
Commodities : None
ClosedEnd Funds : None
Money Market Funds : 5+ Years
Variable Insurance Products : None
Business Development Companies : None
Unit Investment Trusts : 5+ Years
10. What is your understanding, if any, of the circumstances under which trading or investing in your account can be suspended or restricted?
Intermediate, such as free ride and good faith violations, insider trading, strategic fails-to-deliver of shorted securities, the usage of naked derivatives writing to spoof short interest calculations.
11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing?
Watching the effects of other brokerages turning off the ability for their customers to purchase certain securities - which caused a massive basis point drop in that same security in my own holdings- hurt my faith in the United States capital markets. So while my brokerage did not contribute to the problem, I still felt the effects of the other \"bad actors\" as did the rest of the investors in that security. This is a massive breach of fiduciary capacity for those customers, and an unpleasant negative fallout for everyone else unfortunate enough to be involved with the situation. Also the head of the NYSE said price discovery wasn't happening the way it should (which is the markets' whole point) and I believe criticism should be directed at the dark pools subverting publicly visible price discovery.