Investing With ShareBuilder

How does the Automatic Investment Plan work?

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:

  1. Select your securities and investment amounts. You can select from more than 7,000 stocks and ETFs included on the ShareBuilder Stock List.

  2. Set the frequency and schedule of your plan. Investments are made on Tuesdays - you can choose to invest once a month, every week, twice a month, one time only or when the funds are available.

  3. Transfer funds to cover your investments. You can fund your investments automatically with a transfer from your checking or savings account.

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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How do I place a real-time trade?

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.

To place a real-time trade, please follow the instructions below:
  1. Navigate to Trade > Real-time Trades (log in required).
  2. Select an Action (Buy or Sell).
  3. Enter the Symbol and # of Shares you want to trade.
  4. Select an Order Type (Market, Limit, or Stop-Loss).
    • For Limit orders, enter the Limit Price and select the Order Expiration.
    • For Stop-Loss orders, enter the Stop Price and Order Expiration.
  5. Select a Funding Source:
  6. Click Next to review order details.
  7. Once you have verified your order, click Place Order.

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.

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How do I determine the status of my Automatic Investment Plan order?

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.

All Automatic Investment Plan orders that meet the filtration criteria are listed in the Automatic Investment Plan Orders table. The possible order statuses are as follows:
  • Pending-funding/Open: This order is open but has not yet been processed or sent to market and can be cancelled. If you are funding your account with an automatic transfer from your checking or savings account, these funds have already been requested and the transfer cannot be cancelled.
  • Processing: The order is being processed or has been sent to market and cannot be cancelled. If you have an order with this status, please check back at a later time to view the final order details.
  • Posted: The order has been executed. To view a trade confirmation, navigate to Accounts > Records & Statements > Trade Confirmations (log in required)
  • Cancelled: This order was cancelled and was not executed. Any funds reserved by this order are now available for other uses.

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How do I determine the status of my real-time trade order?

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.

All real-time trade orders that meet the filtration criteria are listed in the Real-time Trade Orders table. The possible order statuses are as follows:
  • Open: This order is open or is currently being processed. With the exception of market orders placed during market hours, orders with a status of open may be cancelled.
  • Posted: The order has been executed. To view a trade confirmation, navigate to Accounts > Records & Statements > Trade Confirmations (log in required)
  • Cancelled: This order was cancelled and was not executed. In the case of buy orders, any funds reserved by this order are now available for other uses.

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How do I view my trade confirmations?

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.

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Why are Automatic Investment Plan trades made on Tuesdays?

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.

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How do I switch my plan off?

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.

You can switch off your Automatic Investment Plan by following the instructions below:
  1. Navigate to Trade> Automatic Investing (log in required)
  2. Click the Edit status link.
  3. Select the Switch off my Automatic Investment Plan radio button.
  4. Setup a reminder email or provide feedback, then click Save.

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.

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How do I switch my plan on?

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.

You can switch on your Automatic Investment Plan by following the instructions below:
  1. Navigate to Trade> Automatic Investing (log in required)
  2. Click the Switch plan on link.
  3. Review your plan settings and click Save.

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.

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Securities products are: Not FDIC insured • Not Bank guaranteed • May lose value