MaStA's Account Talk

[MaStA]

I recently moved a trad ira, roth ira and taxable brokerage from 3 different institutions to Wells Fargo. In each instance it took about 3-5 days for the transfer. Sure it's a small hiccup but worth it if you have a compelling reason to move.

So during the move do you continue to earn/lose money from what you have invested? Also if you are invested in a specific brokerage's mutual fund such as a USAA mutual fund and if you move your account to another brokerage I wonder if they make you sell it off and it turns into cash or if you keep the investment in that mutual fund even after the move.

Also, were there any fees involved in the transfer?

I think you were the one talking to me in another thread about Wells Fargo and having a specific type of account that gives you free trades every month or something. I'll have to look into that maybe...

Thanks for your help!

 

[Mapper]

https://www.wellsfargo.com/checking/pma/index2
I guess it's linked with a checking account, didn't bother me since I banked there already. You get 100 free trades for each IRA or brokerage account. It costs $30/month UNLESS you have over $25K combined in all your linked accounts. Check this to be sure, it may be different state to state?! Mortgages also help but I don't know any of the details on that. I like it, I get preferred service if I call with issues and all my money accounts (2 Checking accts, Savings, Roth, Trad, Taxable brokerage are under one login THIS was THE FACTOR I used to make my decission. My checking makes a money market interest rate (who cares, it's still low).

There are, however, different branches of the bank for brokerage and banking...so if you call you may be bounced from one to the other. That said, as a PMA customer I have had amazing customer service w/ very professional agents. The guy who called to respond to my PMA inquiry forwarded all the forms I needed for the transfers and he talked me through filling them out step by step answering each and every question along the way. The WFbrokerages group has some rules against trading penny stocks and trading afterhours....I don't know the details I just elected not to bother with those things.

other generic transfer ?s
Some places have nominal fees for moving (closing or opening), it varies. You CAN get a fee from both institutions. You'll have to inquire to know for sure. I didn't worry about it, I was sick of accounts all over the place.

You can usually choose whether to liquidate your investments or keep them. I've done both. For most I basically set my account how I wanted it before transferring and did an "in kind" transfer. My Roth was with Sharebuilder/ING and I was in proprietary funds so the transfer was initially rejected and I was required to liquidate. Sounds like your USAA situation would be the same.

If you keep your shares of whatever, they get transferred over and the value remains the same. Wells did not take my fractional shares however

 

[MaStA]

https://www.wellsfargo.com/checking/pma/index2
I guess it's linked with a checking account, didn't bother me since I banked there already. You get 100 free trades for each IRA or brokerage account. It costs $30/month UNLESS you have over $25K combined in all your linked accounts. Check this to be sure, it may be different state to state?! Mortgages also help but I don't know any of the details on that. I like it, I get preferred service if I call with issues and all my money accounts (2 Checking accts, Savings, Roth, Trad, Taxable brokerage are under one login THIS was THE FACTOR I used to make my decission. My checking makes a money market interest rate (who cares, it's still low).

There are, however, different branches of the bank for brokerage and banking...so if you call you may be bounced from one to the other. That said, as a PMA customer I have had amazing customer service w/ very professional agents. The guy who called to respond to my PMA inquiry forwarded all the forms I needed for the transfers and he talked me through filling them out step by step answering each and every question along the way. The WFbrokerages group has some rules against trading penny stocks and trading afterhours....I don't know the details I just elected not to bother with those things.

other generic transfer ?s
Some places have nominal fees for moving (closing or opening), it varies. You CAN get a fee from both institutions. You'll have to inquire to know for sure. I didn't worry about it, I was sick of accounts all over the place.

You can usually choose whether to liquidate your investments or keep them. I've done both. For most I basically set my account how I wanted it before transferring and did an "in kind" transfer. My Roth was with Sharebuilder/ING and I was in proprietary funds so the transfer was initially rejected and I was required to liquidate. Sounds like your USAA situation would be the same.

If you keep your shares of whatever, they get transferred over and the value remains the same. Wells did not take my fractional shares however

Thank you for all of the info!

 

[Mapper]

By the way, I'm in no way endorsing Wells Fargo as a great trading platform. I used Etrade before and really liked their platform and research tools. I used Sharebuilder and loved their free automatic investing for no fee weekly purchases into mutual funds (disliked customer service, platform and inability to move in and out of mutual funds. Both of these had trading fees that I was sick of because I like to ladder into and out of positions AND my accounts/positions usually aren't very large.

I just wanted everything in one place. I was getting all twisted up trying to manage accounts in different places. My dad steered me toward Wells Fargo and for my trading I found the 100 annual free trades to be great. Especially since I get 100 annually in 3 different accounts (300 total is WAY more than I need). The WF trading platform is marginal...it works, and that's all I really need.

 

[MaStA]

By the way, I'm in no way endorsing Wells Fargo as a great trading platform. I used Etrade before and really liked their platform and research tools. I used Sharebuilder and loved their free automatic investing for no fee weekly purchases into mutual funds (disliked customer service, platform and inability to move in and out of mutual funds. Both of these had trading fees that I was sick of because I like to ladder into and out of positions AND my accounts/positions usually aren't very large.

I just wanted everything in one place. I was getting all twisted up trying to manage accounts in different places. My dad steered me toward Wells Fargo and for my trading I found the 100 annual free trades to be great. Especially since I get 100 annually in 3 different accounts (300 total is WAY more than I need). The WF trading platform is marginal...it works, and that's all I really need.

Understood. I'm going to try out OptionsHouse and see how I like them for now. It is nice having everything in one place like I did with USAA. What Wells Fargo offers for free is nice, but what is required to get the freebies is a lot it seems. We shall see.

Thanks again.

 

[MaStA]

My $1,000 initial transfer made it to OptionsHouse today and I found out that I misread what it took to get the free 100 trades. I had to move $3,000 into it...so I submitted another request for the $2,000. I really like the interface and am considering moving my Roth IRA from USAA to OptionsHouse as well because their trades are cheaper and you can do a lot more with their interface than USAA's basic setup.

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

My $1,000 initial transfer made it to OptionsHouse today and I found out that I misread what it took to get the free 100 trades. I had to move $3,000 into it...so I submitted another request for the $2,000. I really like the interface and am considering moving my Roth IRA from USAA to OptionsHouse as well because their trades are cheaper and you can do a lot more with their interface than USAA's basic setup.

What kinda of orders can you submit on equities?

 

[jpcavin]

My $1,000 initial transfer made it to OptionsHouse today and I found out that I misread what it took to get the free 100 trades. I had to move $3,000 into it...so I submitted another request for the $2,000. I really like the interface and am considering moving my Roth IRA from USAA to OptionsHouse as well because their trades are cheaper and you can do a lot more with their interface than USAA's basic setup.

Let me know how it works out for you after you've tested it for a few months. I may follow in your footsteps

 

[MaStA]

What kinda of orders can you submit on equities?

Limit, Market, Stop, Stop Limit, LOO, LOC, MOO, MOC

Hopefully this is what you are looking for. They have a trailing stop feature as well and it appears you can set it up for a numerical value or percentages. That is past my knowledge as of right now though.

 

[MaStA]

Let me know how it works out for you after you've tested it for a few months. I may follow in your footsteps

Will do!

 

[MaStA]

IFT 100% G Fund today to take a break. Hopefully I get a little bit of my losses from the last couple days back today. With Big Ben speaking on Friday who knows what that will do to the market...

Still have one IFT for the month to get back in when the time is right.

 

[MaStA]

I'm riding this out into May. Everytime I get out on a down day the next day is positive so lets see if we get a pop back tomorrow.

 

[Handballer]

I'm riding this out into May. Everytime I get out on a down day the next day is positive so lets see if we get a pop back tomorrow.

Seems like we have similar investing styles. :embarrest:

 

[Sensei]

MaStA - I really have no business giving advice, but some of your posts in other threads sound really frustrated. What do you think about something like a buy and hold 60/40 split between stocks and bonds? Stocks might go down, but you just keep DCA'ing into lower prices per share. The F fund ought to be good for a return of 3-6% over the long haul. Better than just quitting TSP and putting everything into a 0.75% savings account, isn't it? Keep your chin up. If it makes you feel any better, I'm watching my gains slip away. C'est la vie - or something French.

 

[Kaufmanrider]

MaStA - I really have no business giving advice, but some of your posts in other threads sound really frustrated. What do you think about something like a buy and hold 60/40 split between stocks and bonds? Stocks might go down, but you just keep DCA'ing into lower prices per share. The F fund ought to be good for a return of 3-6% over the long haul. Better than just quitting TSP and putting everything into a 0.75% savings account, isn't it? Keep your chin up. If it makes you feel any better, I'm watching my gains slip away. C'est la vie - or something French.

I agree, you sound like you have many years to go. Either a split between stocks and bonds, which is what the American Association of Independent Investers www.aaii.com would recommend, or maybe buy into a life cycle fund and just forget about, let'er roll for a few years.

Or go with some simple investing strategies, i.e., seasonal, 20/50 day or 50/200 day moving average cross overs, etc.

Something you have, which myself and a few others on this forum don't have, is time.

 

[MaStA]

I agree, you sound like you have many years to go. Either a split between stocks and bonds, which is what the American Association of Independent Investers www.aaii.com would recommend, or maybe buy into a life cycle fund and just forget about, let'er roll for a few years.

Or go with some simple investing strategies, i.e., seasonal, 20/50 day or 50/200 day moving average cross overs, etc.

Something you have, which myself and a few others on this forum don't have, is time.

Thank you for the input from both of you. I'm frustrated, but I'm sure it will blow over...

The only issue I see with buy and holding at this point is we are at some all time highs in some sense and if we can't push past that the only way is down so there won't be much growth. Eventually maybe we will make new all time highs, but who knows when that will be. I was doing great this year and I was even one of the monthly winners in like March or one of the earlier months on the Autotracker. I've since lost almost everything I gained. I just need to be more cautious I guess and not so greedy.

 

[Sensei]

... I was doing great this year and I was even one of the monthly winners in like March or one of the earlier months on the Autotracker. I've since lost almost everything I gained. I just need to be more cautious I guess and not so greedy.

I was in the top 5 in March 2011 - got my TSPTalk.com traveler's mug to prove it! I think I was also 11th in September. Ended 2011 down 2 or 3%!!! Crazy the way things work. I feel your pain. :blink:

 

[MaStA]

I was in the top 5 in March 2011 - got my TSPTalk.com traveler's mug to prove it! I think I was also 11th in September. Ended 2011 down 2 or 3%!!! Crazy the way things work. I feel your pain. :blink:

At least I'm not alone

I just looked at my 12 month PIP from tsp.gov and it is down a little over 9%...sucks.

 

[SkyPilot]

MaSTA, this is where we all stumble. That is to say, it is our emotions that get the best of us and causes us to make unfortunate decisions. Emotional decision making rarely works out well in life situations in general, and it is especially true when it comes to business, finance and investment. Discipline is always hard, but usually turns out to be the most profitable, regardless of the subject matter. This is why gamblers get caught in an "equity rescuing" dynamic, and cannot walk away from the table and cut their losses. Then they suffer from regret as they watch other players win with the next pull of the handle, deal of the cards, throw of the dice, etc. That is why casinos prohibit card counting, etc. So, find a discipline with acceptable risk over a particular time horizon, and stick with it. To the extent that you are faithful, you will likely find that your outcomes are more acceptable than the emotion driven buy and sell decisions that we are all prone to make. We can't win all the time, but we can all make some progress over time.​

 

[MaStA]

Finally started investing my Roth IRA again with a couple long positions. I only have a little over $5,000 to invest since I just started it last year, but I am waiting on my $5,000 for this year to be transferred in :nuts:

Today I bought some INTC and MCD. MCD has a nice dividend payout coming June 1st and I made the ex-dividend date so that will be nice.