Steve:
I congratulate you on your firm's efficient order processing and customer service in these difficult times. I hate to bring up a competitor (if you could call them that) but I have had the exact opposite experience with Waterhouse. I started using them a few days ago and have had nothing but problems. Their online system has either been down or their order confirmations take forever. To make matters worse, it is impossible to get anyone on the phone. Here's my question, yesterday, before the market opened, I put a limit order in to buy stock at 13. Several hundred thousand shares traded at prices less than 13. I saw the stock going down and wanted to sell it but not before I knew whether or not I actually had purchased the stock. For 5 hours, I tried to confirm my purchase, but was unable to because the online system was down and every phone line was constantly busy. Finally at 2:30, I spoke to a broker who told me that he still could not confirm my purchase but that I should assume that I would get a fill even though he didn't know at what price. He also asked me if I still wanted the stock and I told him definitely no. The stock had been trading at around 12 ½ most of the day. At 5:30, I was able to confirm that I was given a fill (with a time of 5:27) at a price of 12 13/16. The next morning, I again spoke to the same broker and asked him why I was given the fill when I had told him I did not want the stock. He said that I should have assumed I would get the fill because my order was at a price higher than the stock price which was traded during the day. He said that the reason he had asked me if I wanted the stock was that if the market maker hadn't placed the order, he would not pressure him to make it now. However, since the market maker had made the fill, he would not cancel the trade. How can a broker fill a trade under these circumstances when they don't confirm the order all day and you can't get through to a broker to sell the stock or even find out if the order was filled? Is this illegal or just really, really horrible service from Waterhouse Securities? I hope your clients appreciate the service they are getting from your firm.
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