E*Trade (EGRP) Suggestions (NOT FOR FLAMES!!) Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : E*Trade (EGRP) Suggestions (NOT FOR FLAMES!!)

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: Gerry Clough who wrote (110)	1/5/1999 3:19:00 AM
From: Lee Martin	Read Replies (2) of 118

Help!! Etrade raped me! I've been a loyal Etrade customer since shortly after they started. I'm not a trader so I didn't mind all that much when I would always get market buy orders filled at 1/4 pt or so higher than what the real time ask quote was and similar 1/4 pt lower than real time bid when selling. I just figured everybody got fleeced when placing market orders until I started reading some of the comparisons on trade executions with the other brokers and found out I was wrong, other people weren't getting fleeced the way I was at ETRADE. So did I switch to another broker? No silly me, I stayed loyal and figured they would get their execution problems straightened out if I just waited. Well guess what happened to me last Wed AM. I had bought 9000 shares of AOL at 75 and wanted to protect my gains should AOL or the market tank, so I put a stop order in for 4000 shares at 141 and 5000 at 140. Well last Wed they got hit and where did they get filled at you may wonder. Not 141 or 140 or 139 but 138 for both orders!!! I called customer service and waited on hold for 45 min or so and asked the rep what the @#$% happened to my order? She said well there were fast market conditions and reminded me that the stop order becomes a market order when activated. I said I was aware of that, and asked how many trades went off at 141. She said she had at least 11 pages of trades ocurring at 141 and there were probably many hundreds or thousands of trades executed at around 141. So I asked why wasn't mine executed at 141 or at least somewhere close. I told her I'm used to getting fleeced for 1/4 pt. and that 3 pts. was ridiculous especially when it traded around 141 for at least a couple of minutes. She said well all of our orders get sent out to third party houses that actually do the trade and you just have to wait in line until they can get around to executing your trade. I said what would have happened if I had placed a limit stop at 141. She said it probably NOT have been executed since the price was well under 141 by the time they were able to execute the trade. By this time I was very angry and disillusioned with Etrade and asked her why Etrade tries to sell itself as the broker of choice for active traders when a market order placed on the most actively traded stock on the NYSE (which I assume is what most of the active traders are trading) gets so poorly executed. How could a day trader make any $$ trying to trade with Etrade? I then asked if I had placed the same stop order with Schwab or Merrill could I expect to have it filled 3 pts. lower and I reminded her that AOL is not some thinly traded easily manipulated stock but has a huge float/volume which should lead to lower spreads. She said that Schwab and Merrill etc. execute most orders in house rather than through a third party and this of course usually leads to better execution. It finally made sense to me! Boy what a dumb @#$% I was. I never realized there was a difference, I just thought Etrade was slow and they would improve. Now I understand it's not even up to Etrade but to whatever third party broker executes the trade! I guess it's the cheapest one they can find and "I got what I paid for". Those two trades cost me each a $20 commission which is great but the spread due to poor execution cost me $22k. I requested that the trades be reviewed by management and someone is supposed to call me within 48 hrs. to explain to me why somebody's poor order execution cost me $22k. Does anybody have any ideas as to what I should do or say to get some of this $$ back? Or should I just write it off as another of life's little lessons, quit wasting my time arguing about it, and just go find another broker? Thanks in advance for any help/advice. Regards,Lee PS-This post is not intended to "flame" Etrade but merely to point out how trades are executed there (call and ask them yourself if you can stay on hold long enough to talk to someone) and seek out advice on how I might make this unfortunate situation a little better for myself or at least the next poor dumb @#$% like me.

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next