September 25, 2021
1. Do you have one or more online trading or investment accounts?
Yes, I have one or more accounts that I access both online using a computer and using a mobile app.
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?
No
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 per month.
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 downloaded an app or visited a website first, and then opened up an account with the company
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)
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 broker rewards referrals by offering free stocks for each referral. I think this pulls new investors into trading, which makes a lot of money for the broker, as newer investors are more likely to trade too frequently or make mistakes.
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.)
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 : Less Than 12 Months
Bonds : None
Options : None
Mutual Funds : None
ETFs : None
Futures : None
Cryptocurrencies : None
Commodities : None
ClosedEnd Funds : None
Money Market Funds : None
Variable Insurance Products : None
Business Development Companies : None
Unit Investment Trusts : None
10. What is your understanding, if any, of the circumstances under which trading or investing in your account can be suspended or restricted?
I understand that trading can be restricted in my account if I violate good faith rules, or fail to provide adequate collateral for margin.
11. What else would you like us to know positive or negative - about your experience with online trading and investing?
Online trading is a huge and inevitable leap in market structure. It has brought trading and investment back to the everyday person. Unfortunately, it has become clear that market concentration has turned a new generation of investors into products instead of customers. Rather than competing against each other to provide investors with best execution, market entities compete against each other to extract money from their clients via things like internalization, PFOF, and control of media publishers. In addition, entities caught in criminal predatory acts against their clients pay pennies on the dollar, a mere operating cost. It costs me more money in income tax to work than it does for market entities to be caught and charged with financial crime. The end conclusion is that retail investors are the livestock of a predatory market to be milked. It drives home a sinking feeling that there is little left of the skeleton of the United States that is fairness and the law- that the bones are rotted and hollow, eaten away by the cancerous corporate elite. Until the punishment for financial crime is equally weighted dollar for dollar, and until market entities compete to serve best execution, the cancer will continue, until at last our bones crumble to dust.