A New York Times article about the terrible problems at Schwab - oh my God, you couldn't trade for 15 minutes around 11 AM, and there were periods of slowness during the next hour. That's just terrrrrrible!!! And that already is the sixth time this has happened this year! How awful!!! Aren't we lucky to be Datek customers? LOL!
nytimes.com
"Customers of the Charles Schwab Corporation were unable to
place stock trades Wednesday morning through the Internet
broker's Web site. It was the sixth time that has happened this year.
Schwab's Web site, which processed a record
160,000 trades a day in the first quarter, failed
for 15 minutes starting around 11 A.M., a
spokeswoman, Tracey Gordon, said.
Customers may have experienced "periods of
slowness" for an hour thereafter, she added.
A recent string of short service interruptions was
caused by Schwab's attempts to increase its
Web site's capacity by adding another
mainframe computer. Schwab recently said that
it would spend heavily this year on its Web side
and other technology.
Schwab's competitors have also suffered shutdowns and glitches, notably
the No. 3 Internet brokerage firm E*Trade Group Inc. The problems
have frustrated online investors, spurred lawsuits and caused state
regulators to begin an inquiry into the online brokerage industry.
Schwab, which has 2.5 million online accounts, last week reported a
record $142.9 million profit in the first quarter, more than double the $68
million profit in the quarter a year ago.
The failure did not hurt Schwab's stock, which gained $8.25 yesterday,
closing at $115. " |
