The Money Mustache Community

Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: Kyle on April 12, 2012, 09:41:39 AM

Title: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: Kyle on April 12, 2012, 09:41:39 AM
A few days ago I finished off my 5,000 contribution to my Roth IRA and placed a trade after hours.  At the current market rate, I could afford 119 shares, so I processed the order.  In the morning, the stock price had gone up and therefore the cost of 119 shares was 30$ higher than my cash balance.

At this time I have a 30$ negative balance in my Roth IRA.  I cannot contribute anymore to offset it and I do not want to make a $9.95 transaction just to appease this.

Is anybody aware of what happens if I do nothing to correct it?  If Sharebuilder has to sell some of my stock to offset it, will I be charged  a $9.95 fee?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: lazydragon on April 12, 2012, 09:46:58 AM
As an after-the-fact FYI, you may want to investigate "limit" trading orders to prevent situations like this in the future.

No clue with how to deal with the situation now though, sorry.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: Kyle on April 12, 2012, 10:01:32 AM
Quote from: lazydragon on April 12, 2012, 09:46:58 AM
As an after-the-fact FYI, you may want to investigate "limit" trading orders to prevent situations like this in the future.

Yeah, lesson learned... got too excited.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: AJ on April 12, 2012, 01:05:10 PM
A long shot, but did you max out last year as well? I'm guessing you did, but if not, there is still time to make a 2011 contribution.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: Chris on April 12, 2012, 02:47:51 PM
Dumb question: are you sure it's displaying a negative cash balance, and not just negative performance (lost value)?

I've only seen a negative cash balance when trading on margin. If you bought on margin, Sharebuilder lent you money to allow you to buy the full 119 shares. And they'll be charging you interest on that $30 until you have more cash in your account.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: arebelspy on April 12, 2012, 04:01:57 PM
The best thing to do is call Sharebuilder.  We're all just doing our best guess otherwise.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: Kyle on April 26, 2012, 11:20:16 AM
To tie off on this if anybody is finding this with a problem and seeks the solution...

I left this alone (kind of forgot about it to best honest).  What happened is Sharebuilder automatically sold enough of a share (a fraction of a share) to cover the amount I owed plus a $5.00 fee.  Cheaper than the 10.95 trade I would have had to make to make it even out, so I'd consider this a win.
Title: Re: Sharebuilder Negative Cash Balance
Post by: arebelspy on April 26, 2012, 11:27:12 AM
Cool.  Glad it worked out, and thanks for following up.