Hey Guys, I have an IRA with Interactive Brokers - rolled it over from a 401k - I took a pretty big risk with this money and put the majority of it into a penny stock (about 7k), although I wont mention the symbol. Subsequently to the investment the stock started decreasing and eventually went down to around a penny a share leaving me down approximately 80%. At this point I really didn't want to even look at the account. In my mind when I invested here I knew it was a big risk like it would hit or I would lose it all. Long story short - about a year and a half later there started to be some chatter on this stock, news etc and its back up closer to where I bought in, but IB sold out 20,000 shares of my stock to cover IRA fees for accounts below 2k (when I started the account it was over 7k). Because the stock tanked obviously they sold me out near or close to the low. I admit that I did receive liquidation emails from them but I wasn't regularly staying on top of this account because it was an IRA and I was really a little sick over the loss (which I know it is my responsibility to watch my own account). I called in when the stock started going up and I still had 30k shares left from my original 50k which they did not liquidate for fees. When I realized what happened I immediately wired in funds to cover any future fees for the account staying below 2k. I told them that I was unaware of these fees and that I would have appreciated a phone call as this is an IRA account, but they basically told me too bad. Now the stock is increasing pretty substantially and my loss from their sale to cover the IRA fee is above 2k or more. (when i originally called them it was a few hundred). On the second call to them she said the fees are "all over the website." I asked specifically where the were and she started scrambling to show me multiple links to click where they are listed under some "other" link. I am wondering if I have any recourse whatsoever to recover my shares. I know I can just write it off as a loss, but to me i think it isn't right to sell stock in someones IRA account to cover fees - I could see if it was margin, but IRA maintenance fees doesn't seem right. P.S. I did purchase more of the stock in another account. Thanks for any insight.
YOu are a fool in several ways. First you speculate your investment on a penny stock, which are well known for fraud and manipulation. And where the only winners are the boiler room operators pushing the stock. Second you failed to read all the fee disclosures that are posted right on the ib website. So you failed to do some basic reading before opening the account. Third you failed to maintain and manage your account. How is this anyone but your fault. You failed in multiple ways and now you expect to be bailed out? This is what is wrong with this country, people are unwilling to behave like adults and still expect someone to wipe thier ass into adulthood.
Understood - not looking for a bailout - like I said I bought back the shares I lost and more in another account. I was saying that I would have appreciated a phone call.
You will never get them. And ib is more for active traders if you were rolling over an Ira you would have been better off with td ameritrade. Never expect phone calls and always read all the fees and fine print before choosing a broker.
IB was definitely not the right choice - I originally had different plans for the funds where IB would have made sense. I was implying that before liquidation of retirement investments for fees, you would think there would be more of a concentrated effort to contact investors.
Definitely not from IB and they make this pretty clear when you open an account with them. To give you an example, I once had a pretty big short position in a semi-liquid stock and they got recalled, so I had to close the position by day end.. but even in such a situation they didn't call me only got an e-mail around midday, that i need to liquidate by day end. (in another instance i actually got a call but that was like 2 hours before close)
Sorry you caused yourself to take a hit but you caused it ... plain and simple. WHEN YOU SNOOZE ... YOU LOSE. You didn't just snooze you beat yourself senseless with a brick. When running away from the shit pile you created you abdicate all right to blame anyone for creating the pile. Frankly, I do not see what IB did that was wrong. The sent you written notices. C'mon ... you expect more than that. They ain't running remedial classes for the slow. It is a business transaction. Take you capital seriously!!!
Yep I agree with you in a sense - It actually worked out because I was so pissed that I bought more of the shit pile at another broker for a much lower price and so far it's less of pile.