Q: Good Afternoon Peter,
Sorry for the length, but I would appreciate a second opinion please.
A cautionary tale for any other members using BMO Investorline, the new website no longer displays journaled stocks correctly or coherently.
For example: Earlier this year I bought NVEI:US in US dollars, it’s dual listed so I called in and had it journaled to the “Canadian side”. With the old BMO Investorline website the stock’s symbol would update the next day to “NVEI:CA” and display in Canadian dollars. Clear and logical.
With the new website however, the stock’s symbol did not update and remained as NVEI:US.
Thus, I called in again to confirm that the journalling had actually worked. They confirmed that it had & the representative seemed surprised that the symbol was still displaying on my screen as NVEI:US in US dollars, instead of NVEI:CA and in Canadian dollars.
Fast forward a few months: I wanted to sell my NVEI as a tax loss. I clicked the link to sell it and the symbol that automatically showed up on the website’s trading page was NVEI:US and in US dollars.
To my understanding this was incorrect. While NVEI:US is an equivalent and exchangeable with NVEI:CA, they are in fact two entirely separate stocks, listed on two entirely separate markets, in different currencies. I can’t just go ahead and sell one as if it were the other. {Question 1: Do I have this right?}
So I manually changed my sell order to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars and sent in the order.
When the order filled, everything got more visually confusing on my computer screen with this stock. So I called in again and found out that when I manually changed my sell order from NVEI:US in US dollars to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars I had failed to notice that the website had automatically switched it to a buy order. (I can only assume the reason was because the website didn’t recognize that I owned NVEI:CA not NVEI:US...) So what happened was that I wound up buying more shares of NVEI:CA instead of selling what I already owned.
To relieve my stress, I then asked the representative on the phone to please sell all of the NVEI:CA I now owned and wipe my hands of it. {Question 2: I think this now voids my tax loss sale?}
My frustration only boiled when the explanation I was given regarding why the stock journalling went awry in the first place was non-sensical. I’m trying to remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of: “the market you bought the stock on can’t be changed … the dual listed stock will display on the screen based on the primary market that the stock is listed on regardless of which version you own.” It made me wonder if the representative I was speaking to this time didn’t know what journalling a stock actually was, or if it was me.
If you can please confirm or correct my understanding of the two points I highlighted, that would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Sorry for the length, but I would appreciate a second opinion please.
A cautionary tale for any other members using BMO Investorline, the new website no longer displays journaled stocks correctly or coherently.
For example: Earlier this year I bought NVEI:US in US dollars, it’s dual listed so I called in and had it journaled to the “Canadian side”. With the old BMO Investorline website the stock’s symbol would update the next day to “NVEI:CA” and display in Canadian dollars. Clear and logical.
With the new website however, the stock’s symbol did not update and remained as NVEI:US.
Thus, I called in again to confirm that the journalling had actually worked. They confirmed that it had & the representative seemed surprised that the symbol was still displaying on my screen as NVEI:US in US dollars, instead of NVEI:CA and in Canadian dollars.
Fast forward a few months: I wanted to sell my NVEI as a tax loss. I clicked the link to sell it and the symbol that automatically showed up on the website’s trading page was NVEI:US and in US dollars.
To my understanding this was incorrect. While NVEI:US is an equivalent and exchangeable with NVEI:CA, they are in fact two entirely separate stocks, listed on two entirely separate markets, in different currencies. I can’t just go ahead and sell one as if it were the other. {Question 1: Do I have this right?}
So I manually changed my sell order to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars and sent in the order.
When the order filled, everything got more visually confusing on my computer screen with this stock. So I called in again and found out that when I manually changed my sell order from NVEI:US in US dollars to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars I had failed to notice that the website had automatically switched it to a buy order. (I can only assume the reason was because the website didn’t recognize that I owned NVEI:CA not NVEI:US...) So what happened was that I wound up buying more shares of NVEI:CA instead of selling what I already owned.
To relieve my stress, I then asked the representative on the phone to please sell all of the NVEI:CA I now owned and wipe my hands of it. {Question 2: I think this now voids my tax loss sale?}
My frustration only boiled when the explanation I was given regarding why the stock journalling went awry in the first place was non-sensical. I’m trying to remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of: “the market you bought the stock on can’t be changed … the dual listed stock will display on the screen based on the primary market that the stock is listed on regardless of which version you own.” It made me wonder if the representative I was speaking to this time didn’t know what journalling a stock actually was, or if it was me.
If you can please confirm or correct my understanding of the two points I highlighted, that would be appreciated.
Thank you.
