As mentioned last Monday, I was giving serious consideration to taking some money off the table. The markets were up on the Bin Laden effect and it was looking like a good day. My plan was to pull out of my largest single holding, the Canadian Endeavour Fund.
Shortly after 1:00 PM 'Toba time I pulled the trigger and dashed off an email to finance guy in The 'Peg. "Switch ALL of my Endeavour Fund # 1234 to the Bond Fund #2345" (fictional fund numbers). I sent the email High Priority and requested a Read Receipt and confirmation by return email. Naturally, I expected an email saying that he'd do it but would need a signed form for this size of transaction. He'd never remember that he sent the required form at my request some months ago. All that was left was me to sign it and date it.
I did not hear back. Why? Well, on Tuesday I learned that finance guy was out west, with his computer, but not checking email. For his failure to put a simple out-of-office notifier on his email account, which would have caused me to contact someone up the ladder, my ship sailed without me aboard.
Monday was the perfect day to make the requested switch. By Tuesday I was down thousands of dollars because of the market decline. It was a double hit. I lost on the units that I tried to get out of when they dropped and lost some more when the units I wanted to buy went up. Wednesday added insult to injury as the same thing happened again. Ouch! That hurts!
As for finance guy, he takes no blame and has offered to do not a thing. I contacted what I thought was his head office in Toronto only to learn that finance guy is an independent broker licensed through them but not employed by them. A similar call to the fund company in Toronto was to no avail...and no, had I contacted them directly on Monday, they would not have been able to make the switch. They only act upon orders from licensed dealers. So, there you have it. If you're watching your portfolio and think that you may wish to make the occasional timely change, deal with an independent at your own risk. Me, I'm seriously considering taking my business to the financial services department of one of the major banks. From past experience I believe that banks tend to support their staff and make amends when someone drops the ball.
Shortly after 1:00 PM 'Toba time I pulled the trigger and dashed off an email to finance guy in The 'Peg. "Switch ALL of my Endeavour Fund # 1234 to the Bond Fund #2345" (fictional fund numbers). I sent the email High Priority and requested a Read Receipt and confirmation by return email. Naturally, I expected an email saying that he'd do it but would need a signed form for this size of transaction. He'd never remember that he sent the required form at my request some months ago. All that was left was me to sign it and date it.
I did not hear back. Why? Well, on Tuesday I learned that finance guy was out west, with his computer, but not checking email. For his failure to put a simple out-of-office notifier on his email account, which would have caused me to contact someone up the ladder, my ship sailed without me aboard.
Monday was the perfect day to make the requested switch. By Tuesday I was down thousands of dollars because of the market decline. It was a double hit. I lost on the units that I tried to get out of when they dropped and lost some more when the units I wanted to buy went up. Wednesday added insult to injury as the same thing happened again. Ouch! That hurts!
As for finance guy, he takes no blame and has offered to do not a thing. I contacted what I thought was his head office in Toronto only to learn that finance guy is an independent broker licensed through them but not employed by them. A similar call to the fund company in Toronto was to no avail...and no, had I contacted them directly on Monday, they would not have been able to make the switch. They only act upon orders from licensed dealers. So, there you have it. If you're watching your portfolio and think that you may wish to make the occasional timely change, deal with an independent at your own risk. Me, I'm seriously considering taking my business to the financial services department of one of the major banks. From past experience I believe that banks tend to support their staff and make amends when someone drops the ball.
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