I call Charles Schwab and ask to speak to someone who can help me with some options contracts I purchased on my brokerage account.
A Schwab rep transfers me to a broker who specializes in trading. I ask the broker if he can confirm whether or not my 10 NVDA long call option contracts have closed out for profit (the contracts had gone in the money after hours). Dennis tells me the options contracts were sold for a profit. I ask Dennis to confirm the total amount the options contracts were sold for. Dennis confirms the contracts were sold for a nice profit and gives a precise value. I celebrate, as this is a substantial amount of money for me.
When I do not see the transaction an hour later I call Charles Schwab back. After I get through to a new investment representative I am told that there has been a mistake. I am told that the options were worthless. The representative starts to doubt my recollection of what Dennis (the previous rep) had told me. I ask Benjamin (the new rep) if there is a recording. He agrees to have his supervisor listen to the recording. After being put on hold, Benjamin tells me that he is shocked, and that his supervisor confirmed everything had happened as I described it and that they will work to fix this. Benjamin puts me on hold again. When he gets back he tells me that he is very sorry, and Charles Schwab will not honor the transaction at this time. Benjamin tells me that he is having an issue with his trade desk, but that he is unhappy with the outcome and would like to contact me on Monday possibly with a better outcome.
Today (monday) I get a call from Benjamin informing me that Schwab would like to offer me $50 as a gesture and Benjamin asks "Would you accept this". No Benjamin, no I will not. With restraint I am politely declining the $50 and would like to pursue other avenues to obtain the profit from my trade.
Fortunately I was recording the callback today, and informed Schwab's reps that I was recording. They re-confirmed the above events had happened as described and agreed to be recorded.
I have received the most ludicrous of reasons for why Dennis would say that 10 NVDA long calls had sold for the amount he quoted. One of the excuses was "maybe Dennis was looking at the wrong account."
Any advice on where to go with this? SEC/Legal? Has anyone else had something similar happen with Charles Schwab? Again I have recordings that clearly confirm everything I am saying here.
Broker kept my options profits
byu/Medical__Marinara ininvesting
Posted by Medical__Marinara
11 Comments
What was the actual profit?
How do you write all this without posting any actual numbers and the actual trade?
This is a confusing post but first of all, equity options don’t trade after hours. It would not have been possible for you, or anyone at Schwab, to have traded the options until the next day. The thing to do if you want to lock in option profit outside regular hours is to hedge with the underlying equity.
First thing to pin down is whether there was ever an actual fill, because equity options do not trade after hours. If no execution happened, Schwab probably misquoted you rather than “kept” settled profits. I’d still escalate it in writing to trade review/compliance, ask them to preserve the call recordings, and ask for a written explanation of exactly what the rep was looking at. If they stonewall, this feels more like FINRA arbitration or a written broker complaint than waiting for the SEC to sort it out for you.
I suggest you keep away from options trading until you know what youre doing
if they were worthless at close, you didn’t have margin or cash to cover, and you didn’t inform them beforehand you intended to exercise then they would not have auto exercised and therefore expired worthless.
You should’ve sold the long calls before expiration. There’s no single stock option trade available after 4:15 ET. So assuming you called between 4-4:15pm, how much ITM were the options? Given how thin the market is AH, it maybe difficult to fill at the price you asked. What was the fill price the first representative told you? He maybe looking at the ask or last price and couldn’t actually execute the trade. It’s always risky to take a trade that close to expiry.
$500 is life changing?? Take the 50
ya i’m sure they put you on hold to review a recording of the previous phone call and came back to confirm the details. riiiiiiiight
If $500 is a huge amount to you then stop gambling on options.
First. You said they want ITM after hours. They don’t exercise after hours bro. So market closes – contracts expire. You made zero.
Move on, if 500 is a ton for you while options trading then you need to stop gambling and build up funds.