Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[ottoman]

Honestly, I thought all brokers charged the $0.000119 FINRA TAF pass-through fee.

reference here-->> two fees that every broker charges (sell orders only) includes an SEC trading fee of $21.80 per $1,000,000 of principal and a FINRA Trading Activity Fee (TAF) of $.000119 per share. Investors can ignore these trading fees as they are the same for each regulated online brokerage and amount to no more than a few pennies per trade.

https://www.stockbrokers.com/guides/commissions-fees

(oh and BTW, I recently found out Etrade charges $0.005/SHARE for extended-hours trading). that itself makes it useless for me. too much competition out there for garbage like that.

I've been told that the $38 mandatory reorganization fee, is a standard fee, but that many (if not most) brokers either absorb it, or pass-through a portion of it (e.g. Scottrade charges $20).

If Etrade was absorbing your FINRA TAF fee on all sales, that's great.

TD Ameritrade charges $38 for mandatory reorganization fee, but if you trade frequently enough, you achieve "APEX" status (how impressive sounding! ) and they waive the fee.

I periodically check out online discount broker sites to compare fees etc.

https://www.brokerage-review.com/

but no amount of my researching policies, fees, etc online can tell me exactly what will happen. I have to open an account and play.

I tried shorting a "hard-to-borrow" ETF in Schwab....they want $50,000 in the account first.

TD Ameritrade wants $100k in account to short "hard to borrow"

nowhere in their online literature could I find these little facts

It depends on the kind of trading I'm doing, but I use Fidelity the most. low commish, No extra commission add-on fee for stocks < $1 etc. Fidelity (or really any National Financial Services-cleared brokers) allow instant credit to your account with which to buy stock. As soon as you click the transfer-funds button, you can buy stock. That's come in handy several times.

However, you can no longer buy many pinksheet stocks. Basically anything with a stop sign on otcmarkets.com is off limits. Not that long ago, I could buy greysheets no problem.

[cintrix]

ok that makes sense - are your other brokers passing this FINRA fee to you?

[ottoman]

Im not a premium customer at Etrade. I have several accounts at different brokers. lol. I don't use Etrade much.

[cintrix]

Hmm, aren't you a premium customer? I know you trade often so you should be. I get charged reorg fees for splits, but a day or two later they credit those fees because I am premium.

[ottoman]

Hi Cintrix! don't get me started with Etrade! argh. agreed. They also upped their mandatory reorganization fee from $20 to $38.

but get this,...I recently bought a stock that did one of those reverse split followed immediately by a forward split.....

and they charged me $38 TWICE!!

I raised hell about it. Initially they were trying to tell me it's appropriate because it was two separate corporate actions.

ugh. they credited me one of the $38 charges, but I think it was a complementary, "only this one time" kinda thing.

Too much competition out there for that.

[cintrix]

Yep, I wonder how many people are going to start to notice this. What a scam way of hitting up customers with a fee.

[Marilynt]

I just now clicked on one of my confirmations and see that the commission was $4.95 and the FINRA TAF fee was $5.95.

[cintrix]

You see it in your confirmations. When I put an order in on Pro I only see the commission. That is how I never noticed it for a few weeks. It wasn't until I read one of Michael's posts about it that I went into my confirmations and saw all these charges.

[koolmc]

just wondering are the extra fees appearing when you put your sell order online or are they hidden?

[cintrix]

ETRADE warning. I have touted Etrade many times on this board because I have used them for over 20 years and I have used many other brokers during that time span. While I still like their tools very much, a specific issue has come to my attention regarding their fees. I know I am a bit late in noticing this - apparently it started mid November.

They are now passing along FINRA trading activity fees to their customers on the sell side. They lowered their commissions a little less than a year ago when Fidelity started the price wars and now they apparently are looking for a way to make it up. And the best part is that they didn't alert everyone. There are some out there who aren't even aware of it. Now, if you don't trade often or if you don't buy very large amounts of shares it may not have much of an effect on you. But if you do trade large amounts you will be charged an extra 5.95 (max cap) when you sell or .000119 per share on the smaller sells.

Don't let them get away with this without voicing your opinion. Contact them and tell them how unfair this new practice is! Here is the deal:

1. FINRA levies a Trading Activity Fee (TAF) for sales of covered securities that we pass through to you. The FINRA TAF for sales of equity securities is currently $0.000119 per share with a per-transaction cap of $5.95. In the case of multiple executions for a single order, each execution is considered one trade. For example, if you sell 1,000 equity securities the fee would be the number of shares 1,000 multiplied by $0.000119 which equals $0.119. The FINRA TAF for option sales is currently $0.002 per contract. For example, if you sell 100 options contracts, the fee would be the number of contracts 100 multiplied by $0.002, which equals $0.20. The FINRA TAF for a covered TRACE-eligible security (other than an asset-backed security) and/or municipal security is $0.00075 multiplied by the number of bonds, with a maximum charge of $0.75 per trade. For example, if you sell 100 bonds, then the fee would be $0.075. Please note FINRA TAF Fees are subject to change.

[cintrix]

I don't use that screener - the one I have is pre set for #of alerts, Volatility, StandDev, and Relative Volume. It also has a description of the alert such as, trading ____%of historical vol, very high relative vol in the past ____ mins, and high instantaneous vol.

[Preacher]

I am wanting to screen by price and average volume using the OTC markets screener. I can't figure out to set for an average volume. What do you folks recommend?

[Churak]

no one reads that stuff...

[cintrix]

Worse than the spammers are the Ihub questioners. How the freak can anyone not get that? We put it in the title of the board because no one read the Ibox or stickies.

[Churak]

yeah...saw that & reported that jerk to ADMIN

[cintrix]

lmao and the next two posts after you posted that were spam

[Churak]

That alias was set up solely for the purpose of SPAMMING that phone number...iHUB ADMIN removed all 3 posts and booted the cretin...aside from that, don't anyone ever, EVAH think of posting crap here cause CINTRIX will de-ball ya in a nanosecond...sometimes I think she's got a collection of the little fellars sitting on the mantle in her living room...

[cintrix]

Ok, now I have seen it all! That one was a doozie! Now we've got psychics trying to promote here? Wow! Word of warning to anyone even thinking of trying to promote something - even if it is stock related - don't even think of it because if Churak or I don't see it, Ihub will and it will be deleted.

[Churak]

I called that number & they wanted my credit card number...looking forward to some good news!

[cintrix]

To all you traders out there - say a prayer that this new tax plan does not go through at its' present state. If it does we can all say goodbye to picking and choosing which lots we want to sell our shares against. It will all be first-in-first-out. Not good for traders at all. Investors don't really need to worry. Take a look:

America's investing giants have a major problem with the GOP tax plan

Joe Ciolli

Nov. 15, 2017, 6:04 AM

A little-known provision of the GOP tax plan would make investors sell out of positions using an accounting method that would cost them flexibility.
Large investment managers like Vanguard are worried that the measure could cost their clients millions of dollars.


America's biggest investment managers aren't thrilled with the GOP tax bill.

Under a little-publicized provision of the bill, clients would be forced to sell their oldest shares first when cashing out of positions, according to a report from Laura Saunders of the Wall Street Journal. That would reduce flexibility in terms of minimizing taxes, something that investment firms fear could end up costing clients loads of money.

The provision would make investors selling partial positions offload them on a "first in, first out" (FIFO) basis, rather than allow them to selectively liquidate shares bought at different prices.

Saunders received a statement from a spokeswoman at $4.4 trillion money manager Vanguard, who said that the firm is concerned the provision will "most likely increase significantly the amount of taxable distributions made to investors every year."

One popular method that would take a hit is the so-called "harvesting" of losses, which investors implement when they want to cut the cord on a failed trade, in order to get some tax relief. Under the new plan, if those same investors also have an older holding in the same security, that's the one that would get sold, regardless of whether it has a more beneficial tax profile.

With that said, it's still possible that the oldest holdings would also be the most favorably priced from a tax perspective. What's troubling to investment firms is the lack of flexibility.

As posed at present time, the change would take effect for sales in 2018, and it's estimated to raise $2.7 billion over 10 years. With that type of windfall, it's not particularly surprising that the GOP would try to include the provision. But there's no denying that the measure comes at the expense of investor optionality.

Thomas Faust, the chief executive of Eaton Vance, a firm that manages more than $400 million, has a broader take on the provision. And it's not great for market efficiency.

"Markets will work less well," he told Saunders. "Our fund managers will have their hands tied, and our shareholders will owe more in taxes."
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-tax-plan-biggest-us-investment-firms-have-major-problem-2017-11

[cintrix]

I don't know the exact particulars when it comes to how the lender converts their shares, but they get them at a huge discount of the current share price. Also remember there is shorting going on too with death spirals. Here is a video on that:

[pantalons]

Note conversion Qs:

Hi, newbie to OTC generally here, have done some googling but unsatisfactorily, so thanks in advance for fielding these:

If I'm a lender who has convertible notes, and let's say they've defaulted, so I convert them "at par", which according to the terms of agreement par value is .00001, what exactly does this mean? -- example below:

If I am owed $100, does this mean that I can convert that debt into 10,000,000 shares and then issue them on the market at whatever the current pps is at? So, say, if the stock price is currently .0005, does that mean my $100 is now worth $5000, assuming I can get paid for all of those shares?

What am I missing in my math/reasoning? I don't quite understand par value vs pps, as perhaps you see.

On another note, when dilution occurs, how does it happen? Like this?: The company or lender converts authorized shares / convertible notes into shares and does this through a MM who pays the company/lender right there, or...?

Thanks again
P

[Wildbilly]

I get similar, thanks for the help.

[cintrix]

Etrade doesn't allow you to put the order through - you get a message that the stock is participating in the tick size program and you have to change the order.

[Wildbilly]

Gawd that's awful on every level

I try in between b & a every now and then forgetting, if my broker re-priced my order I'd have a cow, especially since I'll assume it's to the upside in keeping with the general unfairness of the rule.

"...your broker should either re-price your order in these pilot securities to a nickel increment, or reject the order as being priced in an impermissible increment."

[cintrix]

That's what makes it so unfair when you put your order in. There are three different test groups:

The pilot securities assigned to the first test group generally will be quoted in $0.05 increments, but will continue to trade at their current price increment of $0.01, subject to limited exceptions.
https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-bulletins/ia_ticksize.html

[Wildbilly]

Hey, what I don't get about the .05 tick rule is why all the prints between bid(.35) and ask(.40) re:RELY?

[Renee]

As far as I know each company name must be submitted to obtain corporate postings, though there is a general list of all companies registered in each State.

[HighPeaks]

Is there a way to search the nvsos.gov site for ALL of the latest filings related to penny stocks, or does one have to put in a symbol/name to find specific filings?

[ThirdSyte]

Thank you for the thorough reply.

Status is unknown, so I didn't specify, and taking the moment for the thorough explanation is very much appreciated.

[Renee]

Your question doesn't specify if the company wants to be current with OTC Markets or with the SEC.

To be current with OTC Markets as an Alternative Reporting company, ie., not registered with the SEC since it filed a FORM 15 to de-register in 2010, probably an unaudited yearly Financial would meet OTC Markets requirement to be current. OTC Markets is not a Regulator so their acceptance of material to be current is subjective, ie., no reporting standards that the SEC would have for an SEC registered company.

If the company wants to re-register with the SEC the company would need to file a FORM 10 comprising audited Financials for at least the last two years with auditor comments regarding missing material since 2010 when the company de-registered from the SEC. The SEC would likely have questions about some of the audited data, particularly the time gap from the 2010 FORM 15 de-registration to whatever start point the auditor uses for a FORM 10.

[cintrix]

They would need to file Forms 10-K, 10-Q or 8-K but I am not sure how far back they have to go. Let me get Renee to answer that question since she knows all about that.

[ThirdSyte]

Another answer could be when the ask is getting loaded or "stacked".

This happens when you look and you see 25000 shares are being sold at a certain ask, and you look a few seconds later and see 2000000 shares have been added to the same ask.

There are a few reasons this would occur.

1). Loading wall. Someone wants traders to see an impenetrable number of shares in the ask so they may dump into the bid.

Guess what. The person who put 2 million more to the ask, is sitting on the bid. He just persuaded you to sell.

2). Impatience

Doesn't matter if chart resistance is 10 ticks up. If, for the moment, traders see this ask is potentially profitable, they will stack it to exit.

3). Resistance.

If the ticker identified a new pps resistance, and traders see it will be their best exit, many traders will load an ask in hopes volume will buy them outm

[ThirdSyte]

If a company filed a form 15 in 2010, and was merg8ng with a private company, what would it need to file to be considered current?

Would it need to file every 10k and Q since it deregistered?

[Eli's Gone]

The comments you're asking about are traders looking at Level II...you can find a tutorial link here:

http://learn.advfn.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

[Zorax]

_momo. Do you have a account with a broker yet? All brokers platforms will have a screener as well as a beginners guide on using them.
If not yet, try downloading a demo platform and they also will have a simple screener program. There are also free stand-alone stock screeners on the internet. There's plenty and too many for me to review to knock them down to a few.

Those comments of 'slapped' and 'there goes the 4's' on stock specific penny stock boards are almost always paid promoters on stock tout web sites like this one and elsewhere and are trying to influence your trading decisions. You would do well to also try and get an unbiased read on stock promotion and nomenclature.

gl

[_momoney]

I am a relatively new trader and would like to know what screener, program or what other screens investors are using that they can see what is going on. Specifically, when they say 5's are getting slapped. Or there's goes all the 4's, or there is a 1,000,000 on the ask.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[cintrix]

I would think they mean to keep buying on the ask and not to try and get a better price by putting your order in at the bid. An order at the ask will give you a guaranteed fill (as long as there is enough before upticking). The theory is that if you keep hitting the ask it will keep upticking.

[Preacher]

What is meant by "keep loading the ask"?

[cintrix]

I don't use them so I don't have an opinion of that site, but are you just talking about the barchart that states whether a stock is a buy or sell? If that is what you are referring to my opinion is that I wouldn't trade anything based on that.

[Preacher]

What are the thoughts about researching stocks using Bar Chart?

[cintrix]

Not sure if you posted that comment on the wrong board. Nothing on topic is censored here. If you see posts that are missing on this board they are either one of three reasons:

1. The main reason and the most deletions go to any posts that ask questions about IHUB - we do not work for Ihub - it is right in the Ibox: NO IHUB QUESTIONS OR COMPLAINTS! - that doesn't work because many don't read Ibox's. We also have it in the stickies and a link to which board to post Ihub questions. That obviously wasn't enough because the ihub questions still roll in. So we put the No Ihub questions in the TITLE of the board. And guess what? We still get Ihub questions.

2. Many new posters will create an account in order to promote a product or object to a certain issue. Once they have their account, this is the first place they attempt to post their agendas. The posts are deleted and Ihub eventually boots them off the site.

3. Sometimes a free poster will get booted from a particular board. So they come here to either say whatever it is they are dying to say on the board that they were booted from, or they may want to say something to another Ihubber but they don't have PM privileges so they use this board to talk speak to that person.

[shawley]

Very censored boarded, I have been on this for over 10 years. Their sensor whatever they don't support.

[cintrix]

In terms of trading and executions I like them both. Never had a problem with Ameritrade. Used it for a few years. But Etrade has been my go-to broker for years (I opened my first trading account with them in 1996). I have used others too. I highly suggest you stay away from the little guys and go with either of these two. Etrades's trading platform (Pro) was much better than Ameritrade's and that is why when I decided to consolidate and use one broker I stayed with Etrade. Don't know if Ameritrade is better now and if they offer everything Etrade Pro does because it has been a few years now since I closed my account.

[kaos2k]

Me too. Most likely my fault not being able to use the correct terminology... Yet. Giving e-trade a call and ameritrade also. Coffee time! I wish you a rock in' Monday!

[cintrix]

NOt following. I must have had too long a weekend. Are you asking me about Schwab? I never used them.

[cintrix]

I'm not sure what you are asking but if it is regarding Ihub on an app ask it here: http://investorshub.advfn.com/iHub-Apps-(For-iPhone-iPad-Droid-Facebook-others)-19518/

[kaos2k]

Mac platform... Or indy Citrix (Windows) such as Schwab junk?

[Patswil]

The board is missing from my fanny stock. It's available on PC but not on Android nobody else having problems

[cintrix]

I would call them and ask them. I don't trade off an ipad - i use a desktop with a big screen and then I use two laptops in addition.