If a hacker steals money out of your brokerage account, the financial industry would like to reassure you that a reimbursement is in the cards.
But those “guarantees” often come with extensive demands that you have been vigilant about online security.
A lot of firms, for example, insist that you regularly check your account for unauthorized transactions. And there’s more. You can read my article for TheStreet here.
As if a turbulent day for stocks wasn’t problem enough for investors, glitches in the websites of many brokerage firms added to the public’s headaches today.
Testy customers took to Twitter to blast their brokerage firms and mutual fund companies for Web sites that had crashed, leaving them unable to execute trades in a volatile market.
As always, euphemisms abounded. Brokerage firm spokespeople said they had “a slowness issue,” or “a brief period of sporadic Web site inaccessibility,” and the like. But a crash? Not us.
Investors weren’t buying it. “@TDAmeritrade seriously? your servers are crashing today,” wrote one customer. And another: “What a disaster. Time for a new broker.”
You can read my article for TheStreet here.
CNBC’s SquawkBox invited me in yesterday to discuss my story about The Vanguard Group’s online security. A whistleblower has been speaking with me on the record about a complaint she filed against Vanguard with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can read the article here.
And here’s the CNBC video:
A whistleblower has gone to the Securities and Exchange Commission with complaints about the security of customer accounts and information at The Vanguard Group.
The world’s largest mutual fund company told me that its security is strong. But the whistleblower, who spoke to me on the record about her complaints, disagrees. You can read my latest column for TheStreet here.
The good news: A problem brokerage firm is shutting its doors.
The bad news: A lot of its bad brokers will be finding work elsewhere.
I wrote about the shutdown of Atlanta-based J.P. Turner Associates in my latest column for TheStreet. You can read it here.
If you read the warm-and-fuzzy ads and Web site copy, you’d be convinced that you were a VIP in your stockbroker’s life. So why would your best-pal broker not want to work under a standard that he or she put your interests first?
The sad answer is in my latest column for TheStreet. You can read it here.
The securities industry doesn’t like the idea of reminding investors to check the records of their stock brokers. So when Finra suggested that there be a hyperlink on brokerage firms’ home pages to take customers to its BrokerCheck tool, the industry went on a letter-writing campaign to oppose it.
My personal favorite: The brokerage firm chief compliance officer who told Finra he was worried about “unscrupulous investors.” Yep, you read that right. Here’s my column for TheStreet on Wall Street’s latest anti-investor campaign.
Finra arbitration is often a surprise to investors — not least of all because so many Wall Street customers have no idea that they sign away their right to court when they open an account.
But how about the surprise of learning that one of your arbitrators had been indicted? Or that he had said he was a lawyer, but wasn’t?
My June 24 column for TheStreet tells about Finra’s latest surprise arbitrator — the guy who was arrested for being a Peeping Tom. Really. You can read it here.