My broker chat went silent right as I needed to make a trade on Thursday afternoon

I was sitting at my desk in Austin around 2:30 PM last week with a position I wanted to close before earnings hit. Opened up the broker chat function to ask a quick question about margin requirements on a stop loss. The agent popped on, said they'd look it up, and then nothing for 15 minutes. I kept refreshing and finally got a "still checking" message. By the time they came back with an answer the market had moved 2% and my exit point was gone. Ended up taking a $400 loss instead of a $50 one because I waited. Anyone else have a broker chat just drop the ball at a critical moment like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

wilson.jesse12d ago

Used to think chat support was fine for quick stuff. Changed my mind hard after a similar situation. Now I only use phone calls when the trade actually matters.

drew_grant528d ago

Yeah I had the same wakeup call last year. Had a chat support window open while I was trying to close a position and the rep took 15 minutes to respond with a copy-paste answer that didn't even apply. By the time I got on the phone and got someone who actually knew what they were doing, I was down an extra $200. Phone calls suck but at least you know in real time if they're actually listening. What platform were you dealing with?