Are brokerages messing with us?

[tsptalk]

I have to admit that I'm a little paranoid after the Robinhood Gamestop fiasco. This morning I had a typical incident with Fidelity during busy trading. I tried to buy a couple of heavily beaten down names that were on my list, but the order kept getting rejected for not having the sufficient margin / cash in the account, when there clearly was. About 30 minutes later I finally started getting some fills but the prices had move back up quite a bit by then.

Are these brokerages messing with us and buying up all the bargains for themselves on mornings like today, leaving us to wait it out and in some cases, completely miss out on a trade?

 

[Bullitt]

Strange, Fidelity is a top tier broker with which Robinhood can't compare. Different leagues.

I had an issue with TD a few months ago when my instant cash transfer didn't settle for two hours. I called customer service and they said it was a technical problem and funds were just taking longer to clear across the board.

Assuming you have a margin account since you sell short? I would think that credit wouldn't be an issue in that case.