Well crud. That exchange traded fund purchase I made last night didn’t go through. The markets had already closed by the time I settled on GEX, and it had closed at $42something. I had talked to a rep at Ameritrade who said that if the price for the number of shares I bought went higher than the amount I had in my account, it would show a deficit and I’d have to send in more money to cover it. But I’ve already maxxed out the account for the year, so I can’t send in more money until January. So I had to set a limit above which I wouldn’t buy, in order to not spend more than I have. (I wanted to just say “buy $5000 worth of this etf at whatever price it opens at,” but they wouldn’t let me do that).
So this morning I went in and looked at my account, and the order was still pending, because GEX opened $2 higher than it closed yesterday. Then while I watched, it went another dollar higher. But this time, the markets were still open, so I canceled my pending order and placed a new one, to buy at the current market price. So I ended up with 107 shares instead of 115. The purchase I made in my traditional IRA did go through, because that etf opened at about the same point it had closed at yesterday.
Dang it. If only I had gotten around to my purchase yesterday while the markets were still open. I’d have 300 extra dollars in my account right now. But then again, I could have gotten hit by a car on my bike ride home from the gym last night. All in all, life is still good. And now I really don’t have to think about my IRAs again until January.
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