As someone previously mentioned.....what does your order log say? For example, at IB they keep a log of the entered limit price and the price of execution. Does your broker have this?
I'm pretty sure that they keep something like this but I think that the technical glitch happened in the transmission between my computer and their trading platform because they told me that the order was at $8.85 which is clearly not true. But of course I didn't see it myself.
My thoughts: Sorry for your loss. After reading your story, here is what I am guessing happened (not that it helps): You cancelled your order. You then went to reactivate this order in afterhours trading. Because of the way your brokerage handles afterhours orders, it defaulted to pricing your new limit order at the best bid, which was $8.85 at the time. This bidder purposely placed his bid at $8.85 to trick you into seeing $18.85. Somehow your mind convinced you that you were seeing $18.85 and not $8.85. You placed the order and got filled at $8.85. There are rules that you need to follow in order to file a bust: There are price parameters that you must meet in order to file a bust. Your order was definitely clearly erroneous. For ARCA, it is something like: If price is < $100, then > $2 or 15% from the last official price If price is >= $100, then > $3 from the last official price You must file in a timely manner. For ARCA, I think you need to file within 30 minutes (maybe it is an hour). The fact that your brokerage waited until the next morning to file your bust request is unacceptable. There are extenuating circumstances where the exchange, subject to its judgement, can bust a trade past the time deadline. Example extenuating circumstances are: The price makes a 52-week high. The price makes a 52-week low. The 52-week low for BCOR (unfortunately for you) is $8.11. Here is what I would do: Argue that your trade qualifies for extenuating circumstances because it was close enough to a 52-week low as to be completely ridiculous: ARCA would have to agree to this. Probability that this happens: very low. Argue that your broker was negligent: Did your broker pop up a warning that said your order was 53.05% off the last official price? If no, why not? As an example of how another broker does it, Interactive Brokers would: Bring up a dialog box and tell me that this order was way off the last official price and make me confirm the order. Cap the price of the order to some percentage off the last official price. Did your broker pop up a warning box asking if you really, really, really wanted to do this trade? If no, why not? When you first called in about this trade, did your broker immediately recognize that it was a clearly erroneous print and then immediately call ARCA to bust? If no, why not? Why did your broker wait until the next day to request a bust (when it is too late)? To me, this is your best argument - your broker clearly does not understand the intricacies of the busting process and therefore let you hang out to dry. It is because of their ignorance of the process (plus your mistake) that you are out $40k+. Good luck!
Thank you very much for everything you mentioned. I just want to correct you on this:' Because of the way your brokerage handles afterhours orders, it defaulted to pricing your new limit order at the best bid, which was $8.85 at the time. This bidder purposely placed his bid at $8.85 to trick you into seeing $18.85. Somehow your mind convinced you that you were seeing $18.85 and not $8.85.' When I try to modify an order the price stays the same. I even tried to reproduce the way I did it twice after the incident and the asking price was $18.85.
Another thing I might do is try to reproduce what happened (but without submitting an order). I.e., wait for afterhours trading. Find a stock that has a lowball bid. Start to set up an afterhours order. Does the afterhours order price default to the lowball bid? If so, why does your broker do it that way (it seems like an obviously bad practice and I can't imagine you are the first person to have this problem)?
It could be the transition between regular hours trading and after hours trading is where the problem occurs, not when you try to modify an order that is already an after hours order.
I'm just saying that every broker is different when it comes to setting up after hours orders. I've got accounts at Interactive Brokers, Schwab, and Merrill Edge and they all have their quirks. I know for a fact that IB would have prevented this order from ever happening. I'm not so sure about Schwab and Merrill Edge, but it is possible they have decent safeguards in place as well.
my recollection is that there is a 20% rule in after hours from the last price. the broker has to inform you if it is more than 20% away from the market. then you have to give positive assent to the order. who is the clearing firm for your broker?
Same experience here with IB, and without that pop up, I would have suffered a similar fate as OP, after misreading prices in AH, or at least not realising that they were 10 away from the closing price.