Dear Ryan
It has to do with $GME, and may interests you,
I use (recently) eToro.
I copy – paste the question I sent a few days ago (at April 12) to eToro, because I think it interests many / all of us.
—————————
Questions to eToro:
Hello,
I am your customer. I have shares of $GME.
Here a question:
- Do I own the shares I buy through eToro, GME stock or any other, with all their privileges?
Do I own the stock I buy or some kind of IOU product that follow the (any) stock’s price movement?
Because stocks have some rights/privileges like:
- dividends are paid to them,
- in case of Capital Increase, can have a privilege to participate with a discount compared to its market price.
- can vote in company’s General Assembly.
So, in the stocks I have bought through eToro, do I have all the above privileges?
Sub-questions to be answered:
- If not (if I don’t have all the above privileges), why?
a2. When I was informed about this (limited privileges)?
a3. Doesn’t the limited privileges would have lead to a discounted price? How is it possible to pay the normal market price of a legitimate stock and get something with limited privileges? If I got a stock with limited privileges, then I would have pay a lower price, a price with a discount, because it has less rights (in action).
Further, if the stocks I buy, are not registered in my name, in who’s name are registered? In someone else? But I have bought them and obviously, can not be owned by someone else. How do I know that the shares I bought to be long on a company, are used without my permission from “someone else” who has my shares, to lend them e.g. to a Hedge Fund that shorts my (long) position? And shouldn’t be aware of this and shouldn’t have given my permission?
Bottom line: I want to vote in the coming General Assembly of GameStop, in June. How can I practise my legal right?
=====================================================
The answer that I received, today April 22 (copy-paste):
*****
Dear PANAYIOTIS,
Thank you for contacting eToro customer service.
Please note that While eToro does not currently engage in securities lending, we may decide that this is the appropriate action to take in the future. Securities lending refers to the temporary transfer or loaning of securities including shares of stock, commodities, or derivative contracts from one party to another in return for cash collateral.
It is widely used by investment brokers, fund managers and other investors. It provides liquidity to markets and can generate additional income for the holder of the securities.
We hope that this explanation has reassured you. If you have further questions then do let us know.
The benefit of trading with us or similar broker is that you can trade real fractional stocks commission free, or any other investing tool which we offer, with any amount of money above the minimums (which are small and convenient), while also being issued with any dividends paid by the assets.
However you are not able to be issued with a stocks certificate or move holdings to another account or another broker.
Should you require further assistance or information, please reply to this message or chat live with us during our business hours.
Best Regards,
Daniela
eToro Customer Service
ref:_00D24d2qa._5000845XFNQ:ref
=====================================================
For me, the “answer” did not satisfied me at all. It seems to me that eToro customer service, in reality avoided to answer my questions. That’s why I answered back, the below:
*****
Dear Daniela or any other eToro Customers Service member,
Thanks for the answer but was a partial answer and did not answered in my crucial questions, so I repeat them, and please, I want some exact answers:
- Do I own the shares I buy through eToro, GME stock or any other, with all their rights/privileges?
- Answer can be that I do own them or I do not own them.
- Do I own the stock I buy or some kind of IOU product that follow the (any) stock’s price movement?
- Answer can be that I own the stocks or I do own some kind of IOU. If it is some kind of IOU, what exactly it is?
- I want to vote in the coming General Assembly of GameStop (I have bought through eToro its shares), in June. How can I exercise / practise my legal right?
- Answer can be that I can and explain me the process or that I can not and explain analytically why.
- From your answer you gave me, I understood that relatively to securities lending, eToro till now, does not do it, but may decide that this is the appropriate action to take in the future. Can you do this without my permission?
If Yes, explain why you can do it without my permission (who is the owner of the stock, that we, eToro users buy? We, the users or eToro? … and HOW is it possible the owner to be eToro, if we, the users, buy (any) stocks, with our money and without any discount from the normal market price?) and tell me, if in the future, you do it (lend stocks to others), if you will inform me and if I will get a fee because eToro would use my shares, to make a profit from lending to others, and indeed to others that will have contradictory interest (I will be long on a stock, while the others that will borrow my stocks, they will obviously short my stock).
Please, this time, give me exact answers to each of the above questions.
