Share Dealing Discussion Area

Optimist

lisak79 wrote: »

hi all. I have shares which I bought in 1997. I was never sent a share certificate. I bought my shares through Lloyds bank stockbrokers for which I no longer have the contact details. I have sold my shares but need to find my shares certificate to send to the company I have sold the shares to. How do I go about getting my certificate? I am new to all this so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

You have sold shares for which you have no certificate ! I think you will have a problem which is liable to cost you.

If you bought through Lloyd's Bank Stockbrokers, were they acting in a nominee role ? If so you will have an account with them and your shares should show on your account. Contact them on 08453001843

If they were not acting in a nominee role and you expected a share cert then you will need to identify the registrar of the company. Go to the company website and look for the investor relations section. The registrar contact details will probably be in there. Then you will need apply for a replacement certificate. There will more than likely be a charge for this. However if Lloyd's were acting in a nominee role the registrar will have no record of you, the shares will all be bundled in their name

prudryden

Worst scenario. You have sold the shares short and you are unable to obtain shares to deliver to the buyer. The company whose shares you sold gets taken over at a huge premium. You are then issued with a buy in notice which forces you to buy the shares in the open market at a substantial lost in order to cover your short (deliver to buyer).

Best solution: If you can't find any information about your share certs soon. It could be best to buy in the stock soonest in order to limit your liability.

tradetime

lisak79 wrote: »

hi all. I have shares which I bought in 1997. I was never sent a share certificate. I bought my shares through Lloyds bank stockbrokers for which I no longer have the contact details. I have sold my shares but need to find my shares certificate to send to the company I have sold the shares to. How do I go about getting my certificate? I am new to all this so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

How exactly did you sell the shares? I mean you shouldn't really be able to just phone up a broker and tell him you own shares and want to sell them and he just takes your word for it and sells.

tradetime

prudryden wrote: »

Worst scenario. You have sold the shares short and you are unable to obtain shares to deliver to the buyer. The company whose shares you sold gets taken over at a huge premium. You are then issued with a buy in notice which forces you to buy the shares in the open market at a substantial lost in order to cover your short (deliver to buyer).

Best solution: If you can't find any information about your share certs soon. It could be best to buy in the stock soonest in order to limit your liability.

You require a margin account in order to short sell due to the risk involved, at least you do with any normal broker.

prudryden

tradetime wrote: »

You require a margin account in order to short sell due to the risk involved, at least you do with any normal broker.

Only if the trade was entered (registered) as a short sell - not if the client told his broker he was sending in the shares or if the broker thought that the shares were already in the account e.g a broker covering for the client's regular broker. The broker never should accept a trade without having the shares in the account but, alas, it has been known to happen, especially if the client has other shares which the brokerage firm could sell to make up the difference should there be a buy in demand.

tradetime

prudryden wrote: »

Only if the trade was entered (registered) as a short sell - not if the client told his broker he was sending in the shares or if the broker thought that the shares were already in the account e.g a broker covering for the client's regular broker. The broker never should accept a trade without having the shares in the account but, alas, it has been known to happen, especially if the client has other shares which the brokerage firm could sell to make up the difference should there be a buy in demand.

Interesting, that's potentially dangerous, I'd have thought they would have to at least have some sort of proof you actually had the shares you were planning to sell, I suppose for a small amount they may not care, but I'm sure that must break some sort of FSA regulation

prudryden

tradetime wrote: »

Interesting, that's potentially dangerous, I'd have thought they would have to at least have some sort of proof you actually had the shares you were planning to sell, I suppose for a small amount they may not care, but I'm sure that must break some sort of FSA regulation

No regulation as far as I know but the firm who accepted the trade would certainly be on the hook for any deficit if the client didn't send in the certs or have any other assets with the firm which they could sell.

Usually, brokers will take buy orders with no free funds in the client's account on the expectation that the client will send a cheque as soon as the total amount is known. But they do this only if their are other assets in the account and if you have a good relationship with the client. Not a particularly good practice as anything can go wrong with the post.

Lokolo

Ok can anyone explain the process?

Charges £10 buy and sell.

So I have £1000
X price is £1 a share

£1000 - £10 (to buy) = £990
£990 - 0.5% = £4.95

Total shares = 985.05

Is that correct?

sabretoothtigger

Roughly, theres two prices for buyers and sellers but usually the difference is not more then the duty

tradetime

prudryden wrote: »

Usually, brokers will take buy orders with no free funds in the client's account on the expectation that the client will send a cheque as soon as the total amount is known. But they do this only if their are other assets in the account and if you have a good relationship with the client. Not a particularly good practice as anything can go wrong with the post.

Essentially, that is how a margin account works, if I have say £100k in my account the broker will extend margin of another £300k intraday, and another £100k overnight, essentially they just monitor the positions, and in all but a catastrophic collapse they can liquidate the positions when their value falls below the minimum marginable level, thereby limiting their risk, whilst charging margin interest as long as it is extended.