I am posting by request an e-mail which I received. I have not verified the facts here and have no personal knowledge of this situation. Please direct any questions to the e-mail address shown below.
Return-Path: englegroup@sprintmail.com
Date: Sun, 04 May 1997 21:47:33 -0700
From: Thomas Englebert <englegroup@sprintmail.com>
To: jtara@stockclub.com
Subject: Margin requirement and Datek
I will try to shed a little light on the posting by Datek of selling out an account, when it drops to 5% margin. On March 15, while demonstrating to my wife how to place an order through Datek, I intentionally made an order for 5000 shares of a stock trading at 29 3/4. I clearly, expected to receive a message that i was short enough cash to make the purchase. I had $400 cash available and a buying power of $800. Well the order went through at $148,750. I immediately notified Datek, they said the order should not have gone through and they would check "with operations" and call me back. Instead of calling me back they began dumping shares of the stock at 29 1/4 and 29 1/8. In speaking with Jon Normile he stated the order went through because we handled it as if you had made a telephone call, What? If this is the scenario, would I not get a T+3 call. The stock was up to 30 1/8 three days later. Datek sold the shares because they said my equity was less than 5%, Well then, why did they buy the shares at less than 5%? Jon Normile ( Registered Represenative ) said I would have to eat the loss $2,432. Michael Mccarty ( Branch Manager, thinks he's a tough guy ) likes to take the rude approach. His reponse " It's not a perfect world". Moische Zelcer (The compliance officer ) response has been call me at this time, call me at that time, he avoids dealing with the situation. For anybody considering further dealing with Datek, please get a NASD report, it is free. Also check the report on Aaron Elbojen ( President of Datek Securities )I think you'll be surprised. Please feel free to post this to the thread as I am not a member of SI. |
