Once all account application materials/documents have been received at PT, the application will be reviewed and a decision will be made to either accept or decline the account. An email will be sent to the applicant informing them of the decision. Under normal circumstances your account should be approved and open for trading on the same day or the following day after your application and documents have been received.

While waiting for the account to be approved, you may log into Finish a New Account Application to view your latest status.

Please be sure to check your email during this time as we may send an email requesting additional information and we will not be able to proceed until we have received your response or any additional information/documents requested.

Yes. Here are the currencies that you can use to fund your account:

Not all of the currencies listed above can be used as your base currency. For a list of eligible base currencies, see the Configuring Your Account page for Base Currency.

No, PT does not convert funds to different currencies. In addition, PT does not offer Forex (FX) trading.

Please Note:

Deposits that are improperly routed to a bank account that has not been designated to accommodate deposits in your selected currency may be rejected or automatically converted to the local currency based on the policies of the bank. As Place Trade is unable to assume the risk of such errors, please be sure to provide your bank with the correct routing instructions displayed when your Deposit Notification is created.

The securities portion of your account is insured for up to $30 million regardless of your country of residency. Excess funds in your commodities account are swept into your securities account at the end of each day. Click here to learn more about how your account is protected including specifics on your insurance protection.

No, only you or someone that you specifically authorize through Account Management can request a withdrawal on your behalf. Please note that you cannot authorize your financial advisor to withdraw funds on your behalf. We recommend that you, and only you or other account holders, withdraw funds from your account. It is very simple and fast! Place Trade cannot be responsible for the actions of individuals that you authorize to act on your behalf.

It is important to note that Place Trade does not allow third party deposits or withdrawals and does not allow withdrawals to be sent to accounts without the exact same title that matches your Place Trade account. (E.g., Jane J. Doe to Jane J. Doe.) In order to deposit or withdraw funds, you must first set up banking instructions and either a deposit or withdrawal notification (such notifications serve in a manner similar to an electronic deposit or withdrawal slip which you will create in Account Management). If you need assistance settig up a notification please call us at 919-719-7200 and we will be happy to assist you with the process.

The fastest way to find the latest status of any deposit, withdrawal, internal transfer or position transfer request is by viewing the Transaction History page in Account Management. To locate this information please log into Account Management and click on the Funding tab/section. The dropdown menu under Funding will allow you to view the Transaction History for Fund Transfers, Cash Deposits or Withdrawals as well as position transfers. (In this case the maximum time frame that may be reviewed is 90 days.) 

Looking for a transaction that occurred more than 90 days ago?

Your account statements, which are also available in Account Management, offer detailed information on deposits made over longer time periods. Account statements are available through the previous trading day therefore, you will need to refer back to the Transaction History page in order to see any deposits made today.

Customizable account statements are available for your convenience and may be located within Account Management under Reports -> Activity Statements.

The Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) is the National Securities Clearing Corporation's (NSCC) central processing system for the transfer of positions and accounts between brokerage firms that are participants in the NSCC's ACAT program. In short, it is a fast and efficient way to move accounts from one brokerage firm to another.

The ACAT system would allow you to easily enter a partial or full transfer request online to move positions and or cash from other ACAT participant firms.

Under normal circumstances, an ACATS transfer should take between four to eight business days. In certain circumstances, such as an attempt to transfer acceptable, no-load mutual fund shares or non-US assets, this process could take longer. If your assets have not been transferred within 5 business day please give us call at 1-919-719-7200 and let us know. While the sending broker (your old broker) does not have to act this quickly, most brokers do act well within this time frame and if they have not we will work to find out if your request has been delayed, whether or not it has been rejected or if there are other issues that need to be addressed.

An ACAT can be entered as an initial funding method in an application, but the request will not begin processing until application approval is granted. ACATs can be submitted through the Account Management menu for any existing account.

ACATS transfers may be initiated as part of the funding section within the new account application as well as via Account Management.

To set up an account transfer through Account Management please follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to Account Management
2. Select Position Transfers from the Funds Management menu
3. Select ACATS – US Broker Transfer from the Transfer Method drop down list
4. Choose Full or Partial as the type of ACATS transfer
5. Select the firm from the Source drop down list 

Please note that you will need the firm's account number (your account number for the assets that are held at the account that you are moving away from/where your assets are currently being held).

If you choose Partial as the type of ACATS transfer, you will be prompted to select the assets you want to transfer. In this case please be careful to ensure that you have entered the correct symbols AND checked that the appropriate exchanges are covered. Because we offer international trading (we offer securities that trade on over 100 exchanges around the world), we often find that the same symbols are used for different securities on different world markets. If you enter a symbol for a US security you should be careful to check to see if you have US Securities markets/exchanges checked as well. Otherwise you may accidentally enter a security, which you do not hold in the account that you are transferring, that trades on another market. In this case your ACAT request will automatically be rejected because you do not hold the securities that were entered incorrectly. 

The drop-down list displays Clearing Firms that are participants in the ACATS program. Not all firms are self-clearing. If you do not find your firm on the list, please contact one of their representatives to confirm that they participate in the ACAT system. If yes, ask what firm they clear their transfers through. It may also be helpful to obtain their clearing firm's DTC number if available. The clearing firm's name and information may be located on your account statement so you may wish to check that first to save yourself some time.

Place Trade accepts only products that are available for trading and deemed transferable by the NSCC. Certain products, such as Commodities/Futures, Limited Partnership Units and Restricted Securities are not transferable.

The ACAT system facilitates the transfer of identically titled/typed accounts between participant firms (i.e. John Doe to John Doe, or Jane Doe, Traditional IRA to Jane Doe, Traditional IRA). In certain instances, the delivering firm may make exceptions to validate requests between non-identical titles (i.e. John E. Doe to J. Edward Doe). New, existing and prospective clients please call us at 1-919-719-7200 for assistance. Existing clients (only) may also contact Funds and Banking directly at 1-877-442-2757 for assistance for questions on common acceptable circumstances. Please have your account number handy when you call.

PT receives value on the business day following its processing date for ACH deposits initiated via the PT website. However, an ACH deposit is essentially an electronic check and therefore the originating bank can reverse the transaction and in this case PT’s bank account will be debited (in the same way that a bounced check would be reversed), because the sender has non-sufficient funds, closed the bank account etc. Therefore, PT has implemented a four-business day hold period to protect itself against these reversals.

PT wishes to keep its commissions as low as possible and therefore it avoids preventable losses. We encourage our clients to send funds via bank check or wire if they require immediate availability of funds.

Neither PT nor our clearing firm (IB) knows exactly when client checks actually clear. Our clearing firm has a corporate account and our bank credits corporate accounts based on the expected clearing date of the check. The bank uses ABA routing numbers as a proxy to determine how long it will take a check to clear. For example, PT will receive value on a check drawn on a New York bank faster than it will receive value on a check drawn on a California bank.

Check processing speed has improved because of system developments other than Check 21. However, the return check process does not seem to have improved yet. When the maker’s bank receives a check for payment it either provides payment or submits notification to the payee’s bank that it will not honor the check for payment because of non-sufficient funds, closed account etc. PT’s bank receives the notification of a returned check via the Federal Reserve and deducts the funds from PT’s bank account since it originally credited PT based on an estimated funds availability schedule (not when the check actually clears). PT then reverses the funds to its client’s PT account. There is no set time frame for returned checks and PT has experienced returned checks up to seven business days.

Before PT implemented the seven-business day hold period, it experienced losses from returned checks. PT wishes to keep its commissions as low as possible and therefore it avoids preventable losses. We encourage our clients to send funds via bank check or wire if they require immediate availability of funds.

PT's bank typically posts incoming wires to PT's bank account within a few minutes. However, bank posting delays may occur on days with heavy Fedwire activity.¹ 

PT retrieves incoming wires to its bank accounts every 15 minutes during business hours and, if there is match to a deposit notification, our system automatically posts the funds to the client's account.

Posting delays to client accounts can occur because:

• the client did not submit a deposit notification (Deposit notifications are required and serve in a similar manner as a deposit slip to avoid processing errors. Location: Account Management > Funding > Fund Transfers)
• the sending bank improperly formatted the wire (and therefore client identifiers do not appear on our bank reports)
• the sending bank misspelled the client’s name or incorrectly input other client identifiers so an automatic match to the deposit notification cannot occur
• PT's bank did not display the client identifiers on its bank reporting system (we then ask our bank for additional details on the incoming wire)

If we cannot identify the client, then PT will return the funds to the sending bank. This can often be avoided by ensuring that you have triple checked that your deposit notification (that you entered via Account Management) includes your exact bank information and that you have given your bank the exact information that we provide to you after you have filled out the deposit notification (which includes line by line specific information that your bank will need to process your wire request). Please ask your bank to read the information back to you so that you may confirm that they have the proper information to process your request.

¹Please Note: In some cases you will not see that a Fedwire has been processed on a given day due to heavy activity or for wires that were initiated late in the day; in this case it may be booked "as of" the processing date. You will be able to see the posting on the following day (as of the previous day/date of actual posting).

No, PT does not accept physical stock certificates.

How can I put my securities in my brokerage account if you will not accept paper/physical certificates?

In order to add your paper/physical shares to your PT account you will need to send your paper/physical certificates to the transfer agent (the name of the transfer agent for your particular shares is listed on your stock certificate - often in the lower right hand side of the front of the certificate). Once your transfer agent receives your shares and moves them into electronic form we may transfer the shares to Place Trade.

Please contact your transfer agent for their specific requirements (for receiving certificates as well as for transferring shares to your PT brokerage account) as they may vary from agent to agent. We do not have their requirements so you must contact them for this information. Transfer agents generally do not include their contact information on the physical certificate however you can easily find this information by entering the transfer agent's name into Google. 

Please note that you must have an account set up and have USD 100 in available funds settled in your account before we can process the incoming transfer of your shares. Our clearing firm requires this deposit which may be used to cover expenses incurred due to errors or issues that are outside of their control. The funds will remain in your account and a fee will not be charged unless actual errors or issues have incurred. Although most clients do not incur this fee our clearing firm will not begin the process prior to receiving cleared/settled funds in the client's account. There is a great deal of work involved in this process and it is important that we receive the correct information from you (that you should receive from your transfer agent) to help avoid errors.