I daytrade in and out of the same stocks many times a day. Would it be worth it for me to join a class action that I received in the mail with a law group if I have 100s of transactions during the settlement period? I lost around 5k so not sure if it is worth my time for this one. Are lawsuits for investors or traders too? Others I've lost 60k, even for those, will I receive anything due to the amount of transactions I've made?
In general, opting into a class-action lawsuit does two things for you... 1.) It allows you to receive a piece of the settlement if there is a monetary reward to the class. The amount of money you lost is irrelevant. You will only receive what is awarded to the class, divided by the number of people in the class. 2.) It prevents you from suing them in the future on your own for the same claim. You absolve them of any future claims you may have against them based on that class-action. Opting-out simply allows you to sue them on your own, at your own expense, for any damages you feel you have incurred. If you lost 5 grand? Um, better off just being in on it and take the pennies, because it would prolly cost you a lot more than 5K to sue them on your own and expect more than that.
As a former plaintiff in a class action on a fraud case against the CEO of a Nasdaq stock, I lost about $6,000 due to the fraud when the share price went down like a rock. CEO withheld material information about the stocks financial statements. So, without admitting guilt, the CEO settled the case for $10,000,000 after about 10 months and the lawyers kept most of the monies. The lawyer was giving me the grand sum of $150 and I had to fill up very detailed questionaires detailing everything practically. I told them to shove it! Was not risking being a victim of identity theft for the sum of $150. That is just dumb! Thanks for nothing!
Yeah I never filed one before but since I daytrade a lot of stocks, I get these notices constantly. I never bothered to sue on my own but I'm just wondering whether the payout is worth anything
How much should I back expect from a 5k loss? And will they accept my claim if they contacted me via mail even though I made hundreds of transactions and daytraded the ticker instead of investing in it?
Your notice is probably one that says you don't have to take any action to be in it, as you are already named a party to it. Read through the notice, it will give you the skinny.
Says I still need to fill out a claim form. Not sure if I have to write out every transaction or could I just send in a copy of my brokerage statement for the ticker
Do they give you room to write out every transaction on the form? Just read through the notice. Read everything.
And therein is the rub... if it is easy for you to produce the records, and I am referring to easy as in a minimum amount of time to access, then that's fine. OTOH, if the suit is based on trades 9 years ago, you don't have copies of statements, the firm has merged with dewey, cheatum, and howe brokerage, theres a $50/hr, minimum 1/hr paperwork research fee, etc etc etc, then forget it! I received recently was for transactions between 2011-2013. I profited overall per my excel records, but I also have losing trades. They wanted statements (official monthly and/or eoy, handmade documentation, excel in this case, not acceptable) showing positions or transactions.... 8 years ago? 24 month time frame? Overall I made a profit? The filing deadline was Feb 9. No response was my response. Im good.