I have a position in IWAV and today the symbol changed to IWAVE. In a chat with customer service I was told I would have to wait 24 hours for their programmers to change the symbol in TWS. Is there anyone here who has had experience with this sort of thing and is there a way around this, as I would like to buy more shares today but can not through TWS?
IB doesn't have the capability to make new symbols or symbol changes (like IWAVE) available to its traders right away. Customer service told me I have to wait 24 hours (for a system reboot) before I can buy more shares (or sell the shares I already own). I called them on the phone and tried to place an order directly, but he wasn't able to place buy OR sell orders in IWAVE until a system-reset. Unbelievable.........
That is unbelievable. If it's true, I wonder if the Timber Hill guys who make markets are stuck with all their shares today too?
Is it legal for a registered broker/dealer to NOT be capable of buying/selling in its markets? I wasn't sure whether IB actually WOULD place an order (buy/sell) for me over the phone, but I was surprised to find out they COULDN'T do it even if it was allowed. Apparently everyone there has to wait for the system reset as well.
IWAVE is available for trading at every other broker on Wall Street except IB. When I spoke with IB customer service I told him that I had been waiting for a week to buy shares in IWAVE (when the symbol changed) and he told me,"Well, then you should've called us and alerted us to the symbol change." So, IB traders have to call-in to notify them of possible symbol changes before they happen if they want to trade them without a 24-hour delay? I'm really sorry for whining about this, and I'm sure you all have better things to do then read about my little temper tantrum, but I am floored that IB can't adjust their system in real-time without an overnight system-reboot.
I've had this happen with new issues. Sometimes it isn't set up in Trader Workstation until someone asks for it. They also change symbols when a preferred stock is recalled and one time inadvertantly changed the symbol of the underlying common stock instead. This caused an execution of an order for the wrong stock (which, by the way, they timely corrected).