Investors ran into trading difficulties Monday as several
leading brokerage firms experienced technical issues that limited user access.
The issues arose as the S&P 500 surged in early trading
on positive news from Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine.
The Charles Schwab Corp. said some of its investor
applications had “technical issues” early in the morning, which resulted in
some clients being unable to log into their accounts.
TD Ameritrade, which was recently acquired by Schwab, said
that due to unprecedented volumes of activity, there were login issues across
multiple platforms that affected some clients’ ability to log in.
Both Schwab and TD Ameritrade said the problems were
resolved.
Fidelity Investments said its customers were able to access
its online systems but that some may have experienced slower processing speeds
for a short period when the market opened due to extremely high volumes, but
trades were processed.
Stocks jumped Monday, in the first day of trading since the
presidential election was called for Democrat Joe Biden, though the moves were
driven largely by the vaccine news. Some Schwab clients complained on Twitter
and elsewhere saying the technical issue was costing them greatly as they tried
to sell on the market’s jump.
Vanguard also said its clients may have experienced
difficulty accessing their accounts on Monday. The company said the issue has
been resolved and suggested clients clear their internet cache and cookies, and
recycle their web browser, before logging back on.
The S&P 500 rose as high as 3.9% Monday but an afternoon
decline in some big technology stocks put a damper on the gains. The index
closed the day up 41.06, or 1.2%, to 3,550.50.
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