Automatic investing allows a user to set up a recurring set of investment instructions with the objective of building wealth over the long term using dollar cost averaging. ShareBuilder is proud to offer you the Automatic Investment Plan to help you meet this objective. Here's how it works:
Note: Dollar cost averaging won't ensure a profit or protect against loss. Investment experience will vary with stock selection and changing market conditions. You should consider your financial ability to continue investing in periods of declining markets.
Once you have followed these three steps and saved your Automatic Investment Plan, ShareBuilder will automatically process your scheduled instructions, including transferring funds (if using this option), creating open orders and executing your trades. If you need to make an adjustment to your investments or schedule, go right ahead – you can edit your plan as often as you like.
Note: Changes to your plan must be entered prior to 5:00pm (ET) on the business day before a scheduled investment to be applicable for that week. Any changes entered after this deadline will be applicable to future weeks only.
Commissions for your Automatic Investment Plan are determined by the pricing program you are enrolled in. If you have any trade credits, these will be used first, with the remaining commissions being deducted from the investment amount set for each security.
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For investors who would like to place an order subject to the ongoing markets, ShareBuilder offers the ability to place real-time trades. Orders placed during non-market hours will be entered when the markets next open.
Once you have placed your order, you can check its status by navigating to Trade > Order Status (log in required).
Note: For buy orders, funds must be available at the time the order is placed unless you are using Express Funding.
For full commission details, please see the ShareBuilder Pricing & Rates.
To view recent Automatic Investment Plan orders placed in your ShareBuilder account, navigate to Trade > Order Status (log in required). The default view on arrival will be to view orders of any status placed in the last 30 days, although you can refine these settings via the menus provided.
To view recent real-time trade orders placed in your ShareBuilder account, navigate to Trade > Order Status (log in required). The default view on arrival will be to view orders of any status placed in the last 30 days, although you can refine these settings via the menus provided.
You can view a list of your recent trade confirmations by navigating to Accounts > Records & Statements > Trade Confirmations (login required).
Confirmations contain the details for transactions made in your ShareBuilder account. When viewing confirmations, the default display period is for the Current Month. You can view past activity by selecting Last Month or Year to Date from the Time Period menu.
Once you have found the trade confirmation you want to review, clicking View will open the confirmation in a new browser window that is formatted for printing. To print your trade confirmation, go to your browser's File menu and select Print.
Note: To keep trading and account costs to a minimum, ShareBuilder does not mail out hard copies of confirmations. To view your statements, please follow the directions below. Please print all confirmations and monthly statements for your records.
ShareBuilder uses a specific day each week for Automatic Investment Plan trades to help provide you with a consistent investing schedule. A schedule based on set days of the month (7th, 15th, etc.) would constantly require adjustments to the trading schedule when the date fell on a weekend. Tuesday was selected as it is rarely impacted by market holidays or other scheduled closures.
If your Automatic Investment Plan is currently On but you would like to stop investing for a while, you can switch your plan Off. This will instruct ShareBuilder to stop investing with your plan until you are ready to switch it on again. Alternatively, if you currently do not have the funds available to invest but would like to invest again when you have cash available, you can set your plan to invest when the funds are available and leave your plan on.
Important: To prevent investments or funding requests from occurring, you must switch off your Automatic Investment Plan by 5:00pm (ET) on the Monday (excluding holidays) before your next plan investment date. If you switch on your plan after this deadline, it will be active for future investment dates.
Please keep in mind that switching off your plan will not affect any open orders. To view any orders that may be open on your account, navigate to Trade > Order Status (log in required).
Note: Active one-time plans are automatically switched off at the above deadline, regardless of whether open orders could be created. Switching off the plan will not affect open orders; they will execute as scheduled unless manually cancelled.
If your Automatic Investment Plan is currently Off, you can resume investing by switching it On. This will instruct ShareBuilder to resume investing according to your plan instructions.
The deadline for switching on your Automatic Investment Plan is 5:00pm (ET) on the Monday (excluding holidays) before your next plan investment date. If you switch on your plan after this deadline, it will be active for future investment dates.
Note: Active one-time plans are automatically switched off at the above deadline, regardless of whether open orders could be created. Switching off the plan will not affect open orders; they will execute as scheduled unless manually canceled.
Securities products are offered by ShareBuilder Securities Corporation, a registered broker-dealer and Member FINRA/SIPC. ShareBuilder Securities Corporation is a subsidiary of ING Bank, fsb. Brokerage Financial Statement