Wednesday, February 7, 2007

retiree portfolio update

Today, Retiree and I finally wrangled his money from Brokerage2. Retiree seemed puzzled regarding why I stubbornly insisted to be on the conference call with him and Brokerage2. When I saw Retiree's equity positions with Brokerage2, each one had the word "Margin" next to it.

Retiree definitely is in no condition to be playing around with margins. Really.

Upon asking the Brokerage2 CSR who was helping us what the "margin" label now indicates, especially since Retiree insists every position was placed using his own cold cash, she replied that it was purchased via margin monies at some point in time. Therefore, the "margin" label stayed. Huh??

Plus, each transaction cost $15. Talk about a relic from the dotcom days. Talk about a crack outfit.

Anyhow, we're now expecting a check in the amount of nearly $6000 to arrive at Retiree's doorsteps within the next couple weeks.

The only significant capital left sits in a CD that will mature by the end of this month.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not sure it matters at this point, but could it be that the "margin" label designed the fact that the stocks were held in a margin account (one where the client could use margin and could consider these stocks as collateral for margin purchases?)

Usually, when an account is set up it is either set up as a margin or a cash account.

By getting your retiree to sign a margin account, the brokerage was authorized to loan his shares to other clients or brokers who wished to go short. The label had to remain because the stocks were still available to be loaned out. In actual practice, this means littel for your client (though he should have collected some interest) but it means fees and interest spreads for his broker.

I think if they had really been purchased on margin, you would have seen a margin loan in the account.