Screwed for $12,000 by Scottrade
Posted 3/6/2010
WARNING: Scottrade likes to play games with transfer agents and companies it doesn't like, on a whim, without warning or reason, just because they want to. AND YOU WILL PAY FOR IT IN LOSSES OF EASY GAINS
After trading a pink sheet stock, CPRK, for a very long time with Scottrade, one day Scottrade for unknown reasons decided they wouldn't let me buy it anymore. NO WARNING just blocked all buy orders, period.
I watched CPRK for months, every day all day long waiting for the BIG reason to get back into it. In the previous week events began to unfold, financials promised within 24 hours, the mill restarting again after repairs and upgrades had the investor community buzzing. PERFECT for a quick trade...THE ONLY WAY I'LL PLAY CPRK(for now, it could be a long in the future but I doubt it IMO)
Thursday March 4, 2010 CPRK was .002 when I tried to place a buy order. I'd set aside $12,000+ for EXACTLY this event, buying into CPRK when events warranted me reloading shares for a quick trade. I only watch a handful of stocks and I watch them VERY closely for the exact parameters I want to see to BUY LOW. Selling takes care of itself, BUYING is where the real profit is made, PERIOD.
I called Scottrade 5 times that day while I watched the PPS creep up slowly; .0022....0024....0026...0032...and up it went....WITHOUT ME...I begged Scottrade workers to ask someone in charge why this block was on and how could I pursue this and find answers so I could buy the stock. I told Scottrade I couldn't establish another account elsewhere and fund it in time to buy CPRK at these prices.
I called the transfer agent for CPRK after Charles at Scottrade told me it was because the transfer agent was "slow" in providing/settling shares/trades. I called the transfer agent, she said she'd be glad to talk to anyone at Scottrade about this accusation. One guy at Scottrade even mocked me by laughing at me on the phone. It was clear they did nothing to help me and didn't even care to the point of being malicious and offensive.
So I watched CPRK rise all day without me having the 5 million shares I wanted(volume that day was over 60 million).
Knowing CPRK very well I'd have sold somewhere before .005, probably .0046-.0048 because I knew the selling pressure would be heavy near .005 and I expected the run to bounce off pre-.005 dropping again not too far but enough to sell and re-buy before the EOD Friday if the conditions were right, they weren't for me to re-invest. (I doubt I'd have re-bought. I like my profits to stay intact, re-buying risks that nice gain. A $12,000 profit would have been enough for me to stay out and see what happens Monday and the rest of next week. CPRK is diluting and I expect many more entry points in the future, for quick trades that is. Unless your experienced in pinkies stay away from them. I ONLY buy when the PPS is extremely low so CPRK isn't a good pick for my money after running up from .0014 in the last week or so.)
EOD the next day, Friday: CPRK .0052....it went to .0052 on the last trades in the last minutes of the day.
So in the end Scottrade cost me a double plus profit, I lost $12,000+ because I couldn't buy a stock I'd traded just a few months earlier.
I'm not sure where to file this loss of gains, I'm pretty upset I was treated this way after trading with Scottrade for over 4 years, I'll be warning people every chance I get about Scottrade. I'd like to remain a loyal customer but this was a major event for me and I can't get all the thousands of hours spent watching CPRK, reading the many message boards, reading PR's, watching chart events and staring at the list of trades every day, day in and day out, reviewing the list of trades;trade by trade, watching volume closely, looking for trends constantly, etc...
I'll post more on this later.
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This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials.com member and not of Investimonials LLC.
Comments on this Review
I'd like to hear about others with this problem or any other problems from Scottrade.
Scottrade does have a great tool in Scottrade Elite in my opinion. I've called the programmers and asked for some extra features. They added them and made the platform much better.
I'd like to hear what other brokers offer.
A List of daily trades; Price of trade, Number of shares traded, Time of trade, Type of trade and info on the Broker that placed the trade.
I need to be able to scroll back and see the entire days worth of trades one by one. This helps me spot trends and really lock in a stock's lifestyle(define retail action as opposed to Hedge Funds, etc.)
I'd like to see the Broker/MM involved in that trade and any other info I can get on individual trades.
Please reply with any info on better tools to watch trades very closely on a second by second basis. I'd like a save feature(Scottrade doesn't have this) so I can save all the days trades and info.
Seriously...PLEASE reply!
BTW, it seems my post got 2 negative votes to keep me at the bottom of this list of reviews.
I guess we know who did that.
I'd like to ask for positive votes to keep my post from never being seen. Please comment on my post.
I think Scottrade has something to fix and it won't help anyone to hide my remarks.
BTW, Scottrade knows who I am. So the negative marks look childish without any comments to back them up.
CPRK is about .005 today at EOD. How would you feel if you were me?
Yeah, Scottrade still has it's Elite platform.
So I'm getting past my $12k NOT Gain of last week and I'll now cut Scottrade a little slack.
But it really hurt to watch CPRK do a double and being told I can't BUY it with no recourse.
No warning, just shut down, WHY OH WHY!?!?!
Double Dammm.
