Yet another post on Sogoinvest
I have written many posts on Sogoinvest (you can search for them under this category, the latest of which was Positive steps taken by Sogoinvest). This is yet another post on Sogoinvest; this time I have two positive things to say about them.
The first is related to the margin charges that were levied on my account in August when they were changing and finalizing their ACH timeline. I wrote them a polite secure mail, pointing out that I had relied on their customer service’s reply to time my transfer of funds into Sogoinvest in order to avoid margin interest. In the mail, I asked that they waive the margin interest charged.
I received a prompt reply about half an hour later: they were unable to waive the charges but they will credit me with free trades to compensate me. The number of free trades (based on $1 per trade) happens to be the amount of margin interest charged. I think this is a reasonable resolution.
The second issue is related to the trading fill of one of the trades I made. I submitted a limit order to purchase 50 shares of VWO this afternoon at $66.30 and it was filled at $66.26 around 12.57pm PDT. This was a good fill as the lowest transacted price at that time was $66.31 and the bid and asking prices at that time were $66.26 and $66.37, respectively. No transaction was reported on level I at $66.26, so I felt like I had bought below the “market” price. 
The level I quotes are shown below:
Overall, I am happy to continue my ETF investments with Sogoinvest.
Stumble it!
October 4th, 2006 at 9:48 am
OK, so Sogo is starting to come around. I was reading your previous posts and comments and they seem to be getting their act together. That’s good.
October 4th, 2006 at 10:21 am
Hi BrianR, thanks for your comment. Yeah, Sogoinvest seemed to be getting better. Still a few things which they promised must be implemented:
1. get the online ACH-out working
2. reflect the dividend distribution activity in real-time instead of only in the monthly statement.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:11 am
They’re pretty good for limit trades, but their market trade record with me has been less than impressive.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Hi LUC, I am quite happy with limit orders. Since the fees are the same, is there any particular reason why you are using market trades?
October 9th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Hey indexfundfan, great post and thanks for the update.
It’s impressive that you’re getting filled BELOW you’re limit order. Do you think their ties directly to the NASDAQ and NYSE have something to do with that, or is it just coincidental? Of all the limit orders I’ve placed with Ameritrade, I’ve only once been filled below my order…
Best regards,
Grant
TheCornerOfficeBlog.com
October 9th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Hi Grant, thanks for visiting.
By my count, I have 4 out of 12 trades that were filled with prices better than the limit price I set. The difference is usually small, and the difference in the above example, which is the largest so far, is only 50 x 0.04 = $2. But hey, it’s better than nothing.
I am guessing that one of the other brokerage clients of Gensis must have placed a market order at that momemt for only 50 shares; and it got matched to mine because the other bids were for larger all-or-nothing lots.
October 12th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Good deal. Low commissions are nice and all, but if you can’t execute a trade, it’s all for not.
-Grant
TheCornerOfficeBlog.com
December 14th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Well I have ben using SOGO for about a month so far and have eecuted a number fo trades 6-7 per day at times. And they have been wonderful. ACH is zippy. It has met there schedules EVERY time. Initiate on Monday for an execution date of Tuesday, Can trade with funds on Wednesday. No hiccups at all.
Havnt tried the margin account yet.
Limit trades and some market trades have been filled under Level I quotes
Ex. Level I $4.59 my Fill $4.49
This is by far the best example. others were anywhere from 2 to 4 cents lower. This seems to be typical on Limit orders.
Market orders get filled VERY quickly. I have a real time streaming data feed on my charting software so I am able to compare the fill speed/time with the current ticks
Overall I am very happy.
All the problems this person initially had (in August) with SOGO are all the problems I regularly have with ETRADE. That place is hell. 5-7 days before you can touch your money even though they take it out the next day, and so on.
Sogo seems perfect for me.
Glad they have an improving track record. Although Customer service could be a tad quicker on answering questions.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for your detailed report. And I agree with you. Sogoinvest has improved with all the customer feedback.
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I have patiently waited for SoGo to come around, but about 10 weeks ago I got fed up with the general headaches (funding, account setup, lack of ability to track stocks, no GTC) and the poor execution performance of the platform.
In October I was purchasing a house. I liquidated my stocks three weeks prior to needing the funds, and I made certain that it would be possible to get my funds prior to my closing date. I fill out all the proper forms for withdraw, and a week later, I see nothing and calls. After 3 calls (the woman handling these sorts of things was on vacation), I was told that they could not locate my original authorization for electronic transfer. Of course, they didn’t bother to tell me they’re not processing the withdraw. After many many calls to customer service and getting someone to walk over to the filing cabnet to check my paper file (bringing to question the general security of my files including my SSN), they confirmed that all is in order and that the withdraw will be processed. Another week passed, nothing. I called again and was told the woman is out to lunch, and I must call back. Fine. I call back 3 more times, no one can tell me what the heck is going on, but that my withdraw will be processed that day and it would take a few days. Meanwhile, my home purchase fell through (unrelated to SoGo), so the pressure is off, and I stopped bothering. The withdraw never got processed.
In October and November did a somewhat unscientific experiment comparing SoGo against Scottrade and found nearly 100% of the time, the exact same limit order I had set would execute on Scottrade, but not SoGo. I did this about half a dozen times, for different stocks, in different sectors, on different dates. This did not encourage me, and I finally decided that SoGo is a nightmare and can’t even save me enough money to be worth the loss in trades. I decided to close the account, which started a whole new chapter in my nightmare with SoGo.
Trying to close my account—
Day 1: I called to close my account. Was told that wasn’t possible, that I had to first withdraw all funds then send an e-mail to customer support. Okay. I submitted a request and waited. Having had zero success withdrawing electronically previously, I decided to ask for a paper check.
Day 7: my account was still fully funded, so I called. There’s no record of my withdraw request. So I scanned the document in, e-mailed, faxed and sent it by post.
Day 14: Another week passes with no change. Fantastic. I called back and was told that it’s being processed, but that the person who is handling my withdraw is out to lunch and I can not get a status of my withdraw. Okay.
Day 15: I call back. They still haven’t processed the withdraw.
Day 16: Another call to SoGo, they finally processed the withdrawl… it should go in the mail that day.
Day 21: Still no check, called back… they just mailed the check that day. Wait, I thought it was mailed 5 days ago?
Day 25: Finally, I get the check… BUT ONLY FOR HALF THE AMOUNT. Oh my gosh… I’m really pissed now. I called and was somewhat unpleasant towards the unfortunate customer service guy, who, of course, can not for the life of him explain why I only got half of the check.
Day 26: I resubmit another withdraw form for the balance by fax, e-mail, and post. Then immediately called to make sure that they are going to process it.
Day 31: STILL NO CHECK. I’m no longer pissed… I expected this. I called and no one answers, the site is down (totally dead – server crashed) so I can’t check my balance.
Day 32: I called still no one answers… the site’s back up, and what’s left of my balance is still there. I decided to call Genesis directly because this is rediculous. Genesis is no help. I recounted my experience, and the woman cuts me off, and says, I’ll transfer you to SoGo. It was someone at the brokerage desk. He couldn’t help me and transfers me to the main line. No one answers.
Day 33: I called still no one answers… I called Genesis again and gets transfered to the brokage desk again, then the main number, then someone in withdraw. My check is in a backlog, but supposedly is going to be processed. So I expect it will be at least 15 more days before it really gets processed. That’s okay, it’s only a few thousand dollars… I’m gonna just count that as a loss and stop aggrevating myself with SoGo.
Most of my friends have had similar experiences with the company… I am warning everyone to stay away.
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:19 pm
sogo-nogo,
Your experience with Sogo sounds terrifying. Perhaps the easiest to get money out (if you are not in a big hurry) is to ACAT the entire holdings to another broker. That way, you would not lose interest if they some how hijack your money for a long time before paying you.
I have not tried withdrawing money from Sogo. I will feedback when I tried it.
December 26th, 2006 at 11:04 am
[...] During this time, a few people have voiced concerns of the “hoops” that they to jump through to get their money out from the Sogoinvest account (for example, see Raj’s experience HERE and Sogo-Nogo’s experience HERE and HERE). This got me concerned since I want to know if I can make a timely ACH withdrawal whenever I need to. [...]
December 29th, 2006 at 8:29 am
[...] Withdrawing money from Sogoinvest As mentioned in a previous post, a few people have voiced concerns of the “hoops” that they have to jump through to get their money out from the Sogoinvest account (for example, see Raj’s experience HERE and Sogo-Nogo’s experience HERE and HERE). [...]
January 13th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Just a followup. My Sogo experience is still 100% better than my Etraitors experience. I havtn treid ACH out, though I did submit all paperwork properly as they requested.
I plan to go on Margin in about a week, so we will see how friendly they are. I was hoping to read someone elses guinea pig experiences. LOL.
WHat I can say, is that for a little guy just getting back in to active trading, this experience has been my best.
I do wish they would allow shorting SOON and I wish they would get the OTC’s up and running SOON. There are a few choice OTC’s (major corps that fell out of favor) That I’d like to trade. Not to mention when I did my ACAT from Etrade, my OTC’s transferred over, but you have to phone in to liquidate.
Other than that, I have no complaints. Personally I believe all the complaints are due to people not filling out EVERY single form (which you can do in acrobat) as required.
Support is a tad slow. Sometime I wait a day to get a response, but once they are on the case…..They are on the Case. Richard and Dustin over there have been great.
January 27th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Wel I upgraded my account to a Margin account. It was an eventful 3 days.
I received 3 margin Calls though I had not purchased one share on Margin. The staff was energetic but friendly. It took 3 days to find out that they had placed all my cash purchases into the margin account. Leaving Zero Value in my Cash accunt. Thus the margin calls. The good part is they realized the mistake, didnt liquidate any of my holdings and as of 9:30am Saturday, they are showing the correct buying power (with margin.)
We will see how next week Goes. I am confirming that they charge Margin Interest on T+3 and not T+1.
Just to followup, all my ACH deposits into sog are T+1. Initiate on Monday, Execute on Tuesday, Trade on Wednesday.
And they have been VERY consistent with these moves.
January 27th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hi Bryan, thanks for the update. My experience also shows that margin interest is charged only if additional money is not received on T+3 after a trade.