normally i use IG, but the company in question is a real tiddler and too small for CFD ..... IG are not a broker as such

the americans have a very colourful phrase of "lower than a snake's belly" which, imo, sums up TD Waterhouse and their business practices and (lack of) ethics very well indeed.

under Waterhouse rules, which i am quite sure are legal, they may arbitrarily sell some of your stock should the portfolio you are holding with them fall below 5000, to cover so called admin costs (about 35)

on 29th August, i phoned Waterhouse to tell them i had strong objection to this and wished to close my account immediately.

i requested an e-mail setting out full details of what this would entail ...... by the way, to add insult to injury, Waterhouse have the cheek to charge 20 for the transference of "your" stock.

no e-mail was ever received , but on 5th September i received a letter telling me that Waterhouse had sold stock on 1st September to cover their arbitrarily imposed costs.

i phoned Waterhouse today and was told that although i had objected and was expecting a response from senior management (which never appeared), they were still perfectly within their rights to sell the stock and had no intention of reversing that.



if any of you guys think that is a fair and reasonable way to treat clients, small or otherwise, i would be dleighted to hear from you.

assuming not, all i can do is to warn you to stay as far away as you can from this bunch of shysters.