Why does it take 5 days?

[Nika]

Transferring funds to optionshouse to buy some stock. Takes one day, according to them. But than they "hold" it for 3 days. What is up with that? A lot of things happen to a stock in 3 days. I'm aggravated here.

Are they doing it to play with your money in the meantime?
Or is it their way of coaxing people to have a margin account if they want to buy fast?

BTW, last time we were re-financing our mortagage, underwriter just could not get past another margin account that we have never ever used, but while it was there we could not close on our mortgage. It was stupid. The only way I could convince them we were not going to do anything insane was to call the company and close the account.

[snafu]

I believe a 3 day 'hold' is common practice at brokerages. That time is used for money to transfer from your account to brokerage a/c + paperwork and 3 days when reversed when you sell a stock and have money returned to a cash type account.

You can buy on 'bid' price and sell on 'stop loss' for prices you set. It's important to fully understand the rules and practices for different investment products. For example, when you buy a Mutual Fund, the price [NAV] per unit isn't set until after close oaf trading day. It will be different than the on-line listing which reflects the previous business day.

[Nika]

I know how to buy stock. The problem is I'm missing the low. It is not the same length with all brokerage houses.

[kv968]

Transferring funds to optionshouse to buy some stock. Takes one day, according to them. But than they "hold" it for 3 days. What is up with that? A lot of things happen to a stock in 3 days. I'm aggravated here.

Are they doing it to play with your money in the meantime?
Or is it their way of coaxing people to have a margin account if they want to buy fast?

Optionshouse is a little on the slow side with transferring funds into the account. I think I had to wait almost a week before they showed up in my account.

If you're talking about the money sitting there after trading stock, that's a different story. That money has to settle which is 3 business days if you're using the money from a previous stock sale. You can buy another stock in the meantime but you can't sell it until the original one clears which is T+3 due to Reg T.

Do you have a margin account? If not you should probably sign up for one even if you don't use it just so you don't fall into that problem.