Alan,
Be very careful about following wily's advice about filing a complaint with the NASD. That should ONLY be done if you lost a ton of money, and you KNOW you are right.
1) Most rules are made to the benefit of the industry, and having been hosed several times, they will break out the rule book over the phone and tell you why you are wrong. I once bought a listed stock and they halted trading 2 min after and two points higher than where I had a CONFIRMED execution. The NYSE went back and cancelled my trade and about 2 dozen others and my broker read me the rule about "erroneous reports". Subsequently reopened 2 more pts. higher without me. I talked to a VP at the brokerage, and once again NYSE rules gave my "erroneous" trade back to the specialist to bank the profit(my interpratation!). So much for a $4 grand trade, and with no recourse available, I was lucky to get 5 free trades out of them!
2) More importantly, if you file a complaint with the NASD, SEC etc., you will never be able to open another trading account elsewhere. Most brokerages will politely refuse your trading biz because they don't want someone who causes them that kind of grief. The complaint records are public, and they check them. I learned that from a friend who works for a LARGE discount broker in Boston!
Good Luck
John
P.S. Incidentally, for all the popular media bashing of NAZ ripoffs, I find the NYSE listed stocks to be the real cheats. Much harder to trade and much more likely to hose traders. When was the last time you saw a NAZ stock halted midday? They open them promptly, and make a market for them all day. NYSE opens stocks routinely late, halting during the day for imbalances, news pending etc. At least NAZ MM's keep them open and don't pull the kind of stunt that I spoke about. |
