100 free stock trades/year for Wells Fargo PMA customers

Once again - execution at WellsTrade is "one penny short" - literally.

I run an experiment today - put a limit sell order for $6.26 for the same security at WT, Etrade and IB ; same 1000 size.
Security is highly liquid, 43+ millions traded today.

I've got lucky and picked the exact daily top.
Well, trade executed at Etrade and IB, expired at WT.

Here goes the free trade: I'm sure it would've executed at $6.25, costing me $10; so it's a wash Etrade vs WT

IB still comes ahead, but I can't rely on them 100% sitting behind a tricky firewall.

TThis is why I believe this account is great for asset allocating long term investors, and is a poor choice for security selecting, market timing traders. I've learned my lesson, I'm not good at trading or market timing, so I stay as close to fully invested at all times as possible. In some sense then, the poor cash sweep option 'forces my hand' into putting the blinders on and sticking it out for the long term. Agree.

neophyte said: Once again - execution at WellsTrade is "one penny short" - literally.

I run an experiment today - put a limit sell order for $6.26 for the same security at WT, Etrade and IB ; same 1000 size.
Security is highly liquid, 43+ millions traded today.

I've got lucky and picked the exact daily top.
Well, trade executed at Etrade and IB, expired at WT.
Same experience here: same limit buy order executed at Ameritrade, but not at WellsTrade (100/yr) or Bank of America (30/mo). Plus, there are no real time quotes!

hppichardo said: Am I misunderstanding something or do these two pages list different fees for PMA linked WellsTrade accounts? If so, which is the correct one? Your second link is outdated; in February 2007 the new PMA pricing scheme was rolled out. There's no $250k requirement to obtain commission-free equity trades.

This 1 penny scam takes the cake! I knew there was something that had to give unfortunately I already did an ACAT from TD I should of left my long positions there since we still had Apex privilages ugh

psychtobe said: jm5chn said: psychtobe said: I saw this ad last night in this month's Money magazine. Good find OP. I am viscerally opposed to Wells Fargo because of my horrible banking experience as a college student (charged me fees and STILL charged me additional fees if I wanted to use a teller. Talk about feeling like a no-good pathetic low-life! I switched to my credit union and never looked back. anyway, maybe the joke's on them - I now have a more measurable net worth and get frankly nauseated when I hear the words "wells Fargo." Lost customer for life). but hopefully others will find this helpful.

Banks charge for talking to a teller?! hmm, maybe it's a location thing but I have never heard of this in Orange County, CA.

this was from the early-mid 90s. I was at Stanford and I still remember that feeling when I slinked up to the on-campus branch. Like I said - lost customer for life. It was just insulting but being a teenager at the time, I took it lying down.

Exact same experience. Its been almost 20 years, although this offer is tempting, I am still wary about doing any business with Wells Fargo.

analytic168 said: ScootyPuffSr said: tooshy said: Why do you suspect the 100 free stock trades might go away? It seems to be the trend, lower trade fees and free trades. I have 3 IRAs with them, so if I'm wrong it will be expensive. Which is the reason I chose Wells Fargo instead of Zecco...the fees. At least at WF, the annual fees are waived.

Because it will be 40 years before I will retire, if then. I've seen so many credit card, banks, brokerages, etc go from having awesome, non-promotional, deals to being completely non-competitive in the span of 6 months to 2 years.

I think it is unrealistic to expect Wells Fargo to offer this for the next 40 years, yes?

I'll go with Wells Fargo eventually. I just don't want to risk my IRA over it. I'll just wait until I build up enough "speculation money" to do the $25,000 entirely with a taxable account.

Hi I just discovered the WF PMA deal and these forums.

I think a hidden but potentially significant long-term concern with these deals is going to be "lock-in": The low-cost commission wars have begun, and eventually commissions everywhere will fall to $0. At that point, brokerages will fight outflows by increasing ACAT fees. It will be just like cell phone plans (gasp): $200 early termination fees etc.

I haven't opened my PMA account yet, but I'm strongly leaning towards it. I think Zecco will eventually turn out to be the real winner here, as they gain credibility over time. But I'm betting that WF's customer service will turn out to be better for now.

Regarding the account closing fees, we certainly can't predict the future. This in particular prevented me from moving my IRA just like Scooty talked about.

However, there are no account closure fees on the taxable accounts. Of course that could change at any time. The only catch is you have to liquidate all your investments and transfer them out as cash. If you transfer assets then you can be charged a fee.

At least that is my understanding from the CSR. I guess when the time comes to leave, I'll have to decide. But for my taxable account I feel like I've already saved close to a hundred in terms of saved commission costs and the fact that I could replace my higher expense index mutual funds with index ETFs.

If this lasts for a few years the closing cost would have to be mighty big to wipe out all those gains.

asdf9876 said: I like the idea of a external sweep account so the "cash core" is irrelevant. However, I did just buy some RMMXX (money market fund so I'm allowed to say it). It has an APY of ~5.20%. I did this for some short term cash and the fact that 5.20% is now higher than my external account.
Do you use up one of the 100 free transactions to purchase RMMXX? It doesn't appear that this is a NTF fund.

asdf9876 made good points - in the past month, I've made several very small equity purchases during the recent market downturn and have been very pleased. While I do not use Wells Fargo as my primary bank - my primary day-to-day transactional accounts are with credit unions - I've appreciated the Portfolio Management Account program for my two IRAs and long-term investments.

If Wells Fargo offered healthier rates for PMA Checking, or a high-yield savings similar to BofA's Affinity Savings accounts (i.e. "Defenders of Wildlife"), people like me might keep higher bank-account balances with them. The 1.73% rate on medium-balance PMA checking accounts isn't enormously attractive.

soi6 said: Interesting????? Looking at the Wells Trade listings of no transaction Russell funds RMMXX is not listed.

RMMXX is an institutional money market fund.

Can someone verify no commission will be charged under the PMA plan?

I think they might charge you a commission to purchase this fund. For example, none of the Vanguard money market funds are listed no load no transaction funds.

asdf9876 said: scanchain said: asdf9876 said: I like the idea of a external sweep account so the "cash core" is irrelevant. However, I did just buy some RMMXX (money market fund so I'm allowed to say it). It has an APY of ~5.20%. I did this for some short term cash and the fact that 5.20% is now higher than my external account.
Do you use up one of the 100 free transactions to purchase RMMXX? It doesn't appear that this is a NTF fund.

You are correct. Obviously I'll use up another one when I sell too. So I won't be making a habit out of doing this. But I'm only planning on using 26 buys a year, coinciding with my paycheck.

I found RMMXX on here but I also used Wells Fargo own "fund screener" and they listed it as the top yield with no minimum.

Also when I made the purchase it said, "estimated commission $0.00".

They will charge me a commission. Fortunately for me, my first 100 commissions are free.

So I will be charged $0.00

That is a good deal.

You can use the money market account without using your 100 trades.

How quickly does the money market account settle? Can I sell the money market today and purchase stocks tomorrow?

asdf9876 said: I just talked to a Wells Fargo broker and I was wrong.

Not only will I not be charged any fees, they won't even count it against my 100 free trades. It is included as free for all accounts.

As I posted my last message I got a message this thread was under moderation, Why? Is it because RMMXX?

There is no real way to "pump and dump" a money market fund. I suppose that promoting a money market would indirectly benefit the underlying company because it would bring extra investor fees. However, that is such a secondary effect that would be a piss poor way to manipulate a stock.

The mods have been pretty good at letting us freely discuss any ***XX fund.

By the way, maybe I missed the off-topic comments, but it seems like this thread has been pretty useful and productive, at least for me. Maybe the mods could let it be free for a while.

Also I'm still loving RMMXX.

CookieMonsterMD said: Speaking of loving RMMXX I just went ahead with it as well. And settlement is next day so you can purchase stock the same day you sell the fund. The CSR initially told me the first trade has to be placed through a broker but when I was transferred he said it can also be traded online and sure enough it appeared on his system immediately after I place the buy. RMMXX at a 7 day yield of 5.04% is a better option then FSLXX at 4.78%. The only problem is it is not as convenient for billpay purposes as Fidelity which automatically deducts from MMF; at Wells you need transfer money to checking but manageable nonetheless.

Another tidbit I found out is RMMXX is an exclusive MMF at Fidelity so the average investor can't trade it; and it's not at all available at TDAmeritrade.
I don't think you can sell a MMF and use the proceeds to purchase a stock in the same business day unless you have a margin account. I tried to do that with WFGXX in an IRA (non-margin) and it doesn't work.

For those using RMMXX, what is the minimum required initial and subsequent investment? The profile page for this fund seems to indicate a minimum of $0. Is this consistent with your experience?

But were they talking about in an IRA?

A nice thing about Fidelity, Vanguard, and a few other brokers, is that the sweep MMF pays a good rate, so there's no need to buy a MMF outside of sweep, and in an IRA, generally have to wait a day after selling to buy something else.

Losing 1-3 days of interest isn't a big deal compared to the free commissions, unless your trades are large, but it's a nuisance that you can't suddenly decide to trade one day (in an IRA) unless you keep money in sweep, or sell a stock.

A workaround is using a bond ETF, but then you have to pay a spread, and there aren't a lot of choices.

If Wells really does allow selling a MMF and buying stock on the same day in an IRA, and someone gets it to work in their account, please let us know.

1. if I have $25K in my PMA account and use them all to buy stocks, do I need to pay the 25 dollars monthly fee? The reason I ask is because I will use this mainly for trading stock.

SeattleNative said: PicPop said: If I have $25K in my PMA account and use them all to buy stocks, do I need to pay the 25 dollars monthly fee? If you keep a minimum $25,000 in brokerage and bank assets, no. If your total balances in all WF accounts dips below $25k (i.e. all of your funds are in stocks which drop in value), you may be assessed the $25 fee. However, you will still get the commission-free trades.

It is just if you are below $25K when the statement closes, right?

If intra-day fluctuations of your stocks drop below $25K on the 15th but you have $26K on the 31st you are still ok, right?

SeattleNative said: PicPop said: If I have $25K in my PMA account and use them all to buy stocks, do I need to pay the 25 dollars monthly fee? If you keep a minimum $25,000 in brokerage and bank assets, no. If your total balances in all WF accounts dips below $25k (i.e. all of your funds are in stocks which drop in value), you may be assessed the $25 fee. However, you will still get the commission-free trades.

I see..so basically I don't need to pay $25 dollars even my balance is 0, but my total assets (stocks) is over $25K??

This is a naive question, but here goes:
I have a Wells Fargo mortgage, and was going to open this account for free trades. If I move in the future and don't have said mortgage, this account is undesirable. I see that trades are $19.95, which is not a good deal. And there's a $15/year fee if I don't do anything. So how would I go about getting the shares out of this account? I could obviously sell the stock in advance of losing the mortgage, and liquidate the account. But is there a way to transfer the shares from this brokerage to another, without selling? And what kind of fees would that entail? I see a $50 "outgoing account transfer fee" - is that what would apply? And is transferring to another brokerage pretty easy?

Thanks.

scanchain said: CookieMonsterMD said: For those using RMMXX, what is the minimum required initial and subsequent investment? The profile page for this fund seems to indicate a minimum of $0. Is this consistent with your experience?I tried to buy a block of this in my IRA at 3:40 EST today, and got disclaimer screens asking whether I intended to buy more to get a lower "breakpoint", as if this fund had a load.

When I answered yes, it wouldn't let me purchase online. So naturally, the whole process took me after the market close, and I get WF's crappy sweep interest rate until I can get this trade settled (sigh).

Did anyone else experience this? While I suspect this is a generic notice, I want to make darn sure there won't be any attempts to charge loads on the front or back end of this fund.