Stocks surged on Monday but some customers of online brokers Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard and others could be missing out on the record market highs.
E-brokers experienced technical issues with their trading systems while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 hit all-time highs from optimism around a Covid-19 vaccine. It was unclear how many customers of the brokers were unable to get timely access and make trades.
“Due to a technical issue, clients may have difficulty logging in to http://schwab.com website and mobile apps. We’re working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Hold times may be longer than usual,” Schwab Vice President of Trading and Derivatives Randy Frederick tweeted shortly after the opening bell.
U.S. equities were soaring after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech announced that their Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 during trials. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 800 points higher, or 2.95% and hit an all-time high. The S&P 500 also reached a record before posting a gain of 1.2%.
“There are login issues with our apps. Until this is resolved, please use a browser and log in at https://invest.ameritrade.com or use our TOS desktop platform. We appreciate your patience,” TD Ameritrade tweeted from its company twitter account.
Vanguard tweeted some clients were experiencing difficulty accessing their accounts. Fidelity said it is “experiencing high volumes this morning which impacted processing speeds.”
Robinhood’s status remained “operational” according to the company’s website however, some Robinhood customers tweeted about issues with the app on Monday.
Retail investors from Robinhood, Fidelity and Schwab have been excluded from big market days several times this year. In March during the record market volatility, the stock-trading sites and apps experienced day-long outages. Clients are taking to twitter on Monday to express their frustration with the outages.
Interactive Brokers did not appear to be having technical issues.
Schwab said around midday the technical issues have been resolved.
