Whenever you start to place trades through a brokerage account with a new stockbroker, you will receive a brokerage account confirmation or trade confirmation.
You have options to get those documents. You can choose traditional mail or paperless delivery.
What can you find in the brokerage account confirmation?
The trade confirmation can contain various information, depending on your broker and brokerage firm. However, there are few things every trade confirmation have.
The first information that every brokerage account confirmation have is the name of your traded investment, the shares, and the cost per share.
In the name of the investment part, you usually an also find ticker symbol. A ticker symbol is a shortcode to identify specific stock or security.
Other than those you may also find the amount of commission you have to pay your brokerage firm, the execution date, and settlement date. That commission you pay depends on your specifics.
If your broker was also acting as you in the dealer capacity, then, you may see bond spreads on fixed income security.
The trade execution date shows when you placed your trade. Meanwhile, the settlement date shows when you transfer the money and investment, like shares of stocks.
Additionally, every account confirmation also mentions the total gross value and the total net value of the transaction. The last information in the trade confirmation is the account number and the type of order you use, like market order, limit order, etc.
Carefully examine your broker’s trade confirmation
This trade confirmation is extremely essential to prove that your broker has filled an order based on your instruction. Consequently, anytime you find an error, you have to contact your bank or broker immediately.
You have to also keep the accurate copies of all your trade confirmations. Later, you will need them when you file your taxes; tracking capital gains; and if you ever get audited.
Writer: Lisa Ramadhani
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