Courtesy of Pam Martens.
It’s gotten to the point that to maintain an account on Wall Street you have to surrender to a no-law zone. Wall Street is the only industry in America that can force its customers’ claims into its own private justice system, effectively closing the nation’s courts to its customers, while imposing a system where case law and legal precedent can be ignored and the public and press are barred from observing the proceedings.
Under that shield from the courts and the full measure of the law, Wall Street rules itself much of the time. Just yesterday it was reported that after Wall Street firms pummeled their self-regulator with angry letters, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) withdrew a proposed rule that would force brokerage firms to tell customers what financial incentives they had paid a broker to switch firms. Often those incentives require reaching set commission goals which can encourage brokers to churn accounts. The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) filed a noteworthy letter explaining why customers are required to have this “material” information and what the proposed rule left out. As usual, the industry got its way.
Sometimes, the iron will of Wall Street is such that investors completely overlook the rights that they do still have. Let’s take a look at how millions of stock trading orders are conducted every business day on Wall Street between the retail client and their stockbroker.
Let’s say you call your broker to sell 100 shares of XYZ stock held in your account. The conversation typically goes something like this?
Broker: Shall I put that in as a market order or a limit order?
You: a limit order at $38.00, good-until-cancelled. (You could also enter the order just for the day.)
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