How Ameritrade Saved me $100K!

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow, was I a lucky, lucky boy today.

I have a position in the Silver ETF (SLV) which is trading around $198.00. I own 1,000 shares (which I opened today at 197.07)

Ameritrade has a feature which allows you to set "Trade Triggers" which initiate orders based on predetermined factors you set. I had some appointments today and wasn't going to be home much of the morning, so I went to set up a trigger.

I set it up as "If SLV Last Sale is > (greater than) 98.08, place limit order to sell 1000 shares at 98.08".

I submitted the trigger and it was instantly activated. Instead of getting filled, I received a message that said "Your trigger has been activated, however we cannot submit the order because your limit price is too far below the bid price".

I read this message and couldn't quite figure out what I did wrong. So, I did it again. And again. And again. 4 times, 4 activated triggers and 4 messages saying "We can't do this."

So finally, I realize. SLV is trading in the 198 range, not 98. I was dropping/forgetting the 1.

In effect, had Ameritrade not had the proper "IDIOT PROOF" UI controls, I would have submitted this trigger and instantly been filled -- at a prompt, instant loss of $100,000 -- $100 short of the market bid.

I feel so lucky and thankful that Ameritrade's web guys have structures in place to check for these types of user errors.

A resounding .... WHEW!!!!

MJ

PS: I ended up closing the trade for a small $1,049 gain in the day trade - I was in the position for about 2 hours. Silver has retraced a bit today and I think it is a good place to be.

 

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[offroadaz]

hah, at work we call those ID 10 T errors

btw what are ETF's? I haven't heard of those before

 

[biophase]

LOL, I was reading the post and wondering 98??? I made the same screw up last week but the schwab system didn't sell at the price I put it in, it sold at market at least.

Today, I have no idea how I did this, but I bought some calls at $8.80. Then I went to click the order status and I accidentally double-clicked it. Before I knew it a sell order at market went through and it sold my calls at $8.60. Instant $0.20 loss per share in less than 10 seconds.

Then I proceeded to watch the call go down to $7.50. :banana:

So I wasn't too mad at myself. I still can't figure out how I placed a sell at market order with just 1 click.

 

[kidgas]

btw what are ETF's? I haven't heard of those before

offroad,

ETF stands for exchange traded fund. You can think of an ETF much like a mutual fund that trades throughout the day on the exchange like a stock as opposed to being priced after the close. ETFs can be set up to track certain indices, commodities, sectors, countries, etc. Examples include SPY (S&P 500), QQQQ (Nasdaq 100), GLD (gold), SLV (silver), XLF (financials), XLE (energy), EWJ (Japan), EWZ (Brazil).

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Even if it's filled it sells at the market price I think, you can't sell under the bid withoutclearing the bids.

Not sure about that, I made the same mistake about 5 years ago ... transposed the order entry limit price from 24.30 to 23.40 -- I was filled instantly at the mistake price despite being $1 under the bid.

 

[randallg99]

I really like Ameritrade... after a couple of mergers, they seem to have the best platform. Only other that seems to come close is Fido.