Tech glitches at Schwab, Fidelity and other online brokers mean some missed out on Monday's monster
rally, CNN, 11/9/20
The US stock market rallied early Monday, but not everyone was able to get in on the fun. Several electronic brokers experienced technical issues that kept some customers from using their services as normal.
Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Schwab and Vanguard reported tech problems on Monday, though all said the issues were resolved within several hours. Some attributed the problems to heavy activity early in the day.
US stock futures surged Monday morning before the opening bell after drugmaker Pfizer (PFE) said early data on its coronavirus vaccine shows it's more than 90% effective, and stocks shot up at the open. Individual stocks such as theater chain AMC (AMC) also spiked on the vaccine news. Investors may also have been reacting to the Saturday announcement that Joe Biden was the projected winner of the US presidential election.
With so many consumers trying to log in and access their financial information at the same time, the tech infrastructure supporting these platforms likely buckled under the stress, Kenney said.
... It's not the first time this year that online brokerages have experienced tech problems at inopportune times. In August, users of Robinhood, E-Trade and others reported problems accessing the services on the first day that Apple and Tesla shares were trading at newly split prices.
Such problems could be because of the huge uptick in usage of online brokerage services during the pandemic — with so many people sitting at home, more people have been trying their hand at retail investing.
More: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/investing/online-brokers-tech-issues/index.html
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The takeaway of course is don't count on always being able to get in and transact when things are wild.
Although the article didn't mention problems with ETF's, another reason I don't like ETF's, by the way, is that bid-ask spreads can get ridiculous, as well as premiums and discounts to NAV, especially for smaller ETFs, during high market turbulence.
