Updated August 17- 8 Business days total from starting the process of buying a share, to owning it in my name with Computershare. Now to transfer for my infinity pool ♾⛲💎🙌
Like many of you, I’ve been reading a lot about Computershare lately and direct registration of GME shares. After getting some promising insight, I decided to open an account last week and transfer some of my shares xxx because fuck you pay me to dedicate to my personal infinity pool, and document the process for the community. Among the many helpful things I read, u/mommap123 wrote a post as well as u/yolosapeien and a few others, that were very helpful!
This post will be live updated next week as more progress is made in my personal account, but for the time being it can serve as a megathread for discussion! So, what’s the deal with computershare?🚨 FUD CONTROL 🚨
Before we go any further, let me just squash any FUD right now about whether Computershare is a legit company. They are the official transfer agent for Gamestop. Link to Gamestop investor relations page FAQ– scroll down to the very last question and see for yourself.
Alright so even though Computershare’s interface seems very boomer-like at best (and scammy at worst), it’s quite legit (and could use a facelift but I digress..)
Like we saw earlier, Computershare is the transfer agent for Gamestop and is the way for you to Direct Register your shares, or DRS. Doing this puts the stock ownership in your name instead of being held in the broker’s street name. This effectively pulls the certificate from the DTC’s possession (which means any associated short positions must be closed) because you now personally hold*, register, and maintain your shares instead of entrusting your broker. (I don’t trust a bitch 🙅♀️)
*Note that you can NOT actually get a physical certificate for Gamestop. You can get a printout from your CS account and there are options for ordering framed replicas, or so I’ve read. But no physical stock certificates are available for GME investors, so don’t expect to get one.
Here’s some more information on the SEC website about DRS
One of the main benefits of DRS, besides pulling the stock from DTC and closing the associated short positions, is the fact that any dividend issued will go directly to you as a registered shareholder, instead of going to your broker. So you are basically guaranteed delivery of dividends, and much sooner than if you were waiting around for your broker to locate and produce your shares for your dividend (glances at estimated SI…. that might take a while…)
So ever since the buy button disappeared in January, I have been invested in GME with multiple brokers. Whenever they say diversify your investments, what they actually mean is to YOLO 100% on GME and diversify your brokers. But now I’m ready to elevate my diversification game and dedicate some shares to my infinity pool, so I’ve decided to begin the trek to Computershare.
Lots of FUD surrounding this conversation as well, and plenty of skeptical users (rightfully so!) who think this “sudden” influx of valid Computershare information may be FUD and it’s all becoming a muddy mess. But that’s the thing- this isn’t a new conversation. Dr. T herself was actually recommending this in early May as a solution to some of retail investors’ woes.
As Dr. T said- minimum purchase for GME shares through CS is only $25, and $10 for recurring purchases because you buy shares based on monetary value, not share value (presumably because it takes so long to settle the transaction and prices fluctuate) and computershare allows fractional share purchases. So that $25 will get you whatever percentage of a share based on the current trading price.
So let’s say you deposit $225 and the price it settles for is $150. You will receive 1.5 shares because it makes your purchase based on cash amount rather than desired number of shares. I particularly love this feature because I always have a little bit of cash leftover after buying a share through my brokers!🚨More FUD Control 🚨
Can I sell my Computershare stock like a normal broker? Does it take longer?
Here’s the CS Direct Stock Handbook. Here’s a copy paste from it:
- A Participant may sell all or a portion of the shares credited to his or her DirectStock account at any time by submitting a request to Computershare online. Methods described below may not all be available at the time of your transaction. At the time of sale, available methods shall be displayed online.
- A day limit order (an order to sell shares when and if the stock reaches a specific price on a specific day) is automatically cancelled if the price is not met by the end of that trading day (or, for orders placed outside of market hours, the next trading day). Depending on the number of shares being sold and current trading volume in the shares, such an order may only be partially filled, in which case the remainder of the order will be cancelled. The order may be cancelled by the applicable stock exchange, by Computershare at its sole discretion or, if Computershare’s broker has not filled the order, at a Participant’s request made online
- For a good-til-cancelled (GTC) limit order (an order to sell shares when and if the stock reaches a specific price at any time while the order remains open (generally up to 30 days), depending 5 on the number of shares being sold and current trading volume in the shares, sales may be executed in multiple transactions and over more than one day. If shares trade on more than one day, a separate fee will be charged for each day. The order (or any unexecuted portion thereof) is automatically cancelled if the price is not met by the end of the order period. The order may be cancelled by the applicable stock exchange, by Computershare at its sole discretion or, if Computershare’s broker has not filled the order, at a Participant’s request made online.
- For any orders not designated as one of the order types set forth above, Computershare may, in its sole discretion, treat such order as a market order or batch order (an accumulation of sales requests for a security submitted together as an aggregated request). Batch order sales will be processed no later than five business days after the date on which the order is received by Computershare, assuming the relevant markets are open and sufficient market liquidity exists (and except where deferral is required under applicable federal or state laws or regulations). Sales proceeds will equal the weighted average sale price obtained by Computershare’s broker for all shares sold in such batch on the applicable trade date or dates, net of taxes and fees. Any such orders received by Computershare are final and cannot be stopped or cancelled. For an additional fee, a participant may choose additional proceeds delivery option which may be available. These include electronic funds transfer and foreign currency disbursement (subject to additional terms and conditions).
So you can set limit orders, and they settle in T+2 just like any other broker.
There is, however a $100k limit to online transactions. For larger limit orders, you have to make a written request, which falls under the last bullet point above.
Basically I might sell a few out of CS, but these are my forever shares. They don’t seem readily equipped, willing, or prepared to handle a large influx of large orders (or pay it out- they’ve been historically slow in all regards- including paying out, just like any large broker you deal with) so I will personally be keeping my “selling” shares in my broker accounts (maybe someday I can find that fabled sell button?)🤷♀️💎🙌🚀
_______________My Personal Progress
With that, I decided on Friday, August 6 to deposit $25 with Computershare and get the process started.
Based on some of the posts I read by MommaP and others, I decided it would probably be less hassle to buy the share directly through CS first, then transfer my existing shares in to the newly opened account. Because it seems to be a mixed bag on whether you can directly transfer out of your broker and if so, how to do that. I will say I am using my TD Ameritrade account for this and I have spoken to 2 different agents who had no idea what I was talking about and both times had to put me on hold to speak with a manager to even know wtf I was saying- and they still had little answers. I was given this form to send in,~~(~~update- don’t use that form. That’s to transfer from CS to TDA. It’s the wrong form for what I’m trying to do and I didn’t figure that out until Friday August 20th. Use this form, it’s the right one. )but you need an existing Computershare account number for this, so back to the $25 deposit. (That form will come in later though once I have my account open!)
So I went to computershare.com and clicked “Make a Stock Purchase”.
After going through all that process with my banking info and initiating a $25 transfer, CS arranged a buy for me and gave me this update. Note that at this point I still do not have a login nor have I registered with the investor center. I did provide my phone number and email and opt in to receiving updates that way. Once the stock is purchased and settled, then I can register a new account in the investor center to transfer shares into.
Here’s what my first update looked like on Monday, which would have been the next business day from my initial request:
Aaaaaand that’s where I’ve been since Monday.
The estimated settlement date is not until next Monday on the 16th so I will update this post then with the next steps on how I create my investor account and transfer some of my shares from TDA. As far as fees- I was told TDA does not charge anything for this service. There are some other resources for other brokers that I’m sure will get linked below!UPDATE August 17, 2021- 8 business Days after starting the process, my transaction is complete and I am able to register an online account!
Here is a copy of their fee schedule, which also shows definitive proof that you can set Limit orders.
I was able to create an online account in the Investor center since the transaction settled. I had to verify my identity first though. To do this, I was given two options; either wait for a verification letter in the mail, or verify my identity online by answering personal questions only I would know (from a soft credit report pull, most likely… things like “which car have you previously owned” and “which address have you previously been associated with?”- type questions.)
I chose the second option and gained immediate access to my account
After finishing the verification process which consisted of 3 multiple choice questions, I was able to create a log in for myself. I had to confirm my email with them before I was able to login but once I did, I was good to go!
When I log in, this is what I see:
Now I am in the process of filling out the transfer form for TDA! Stay tuned!
For the record: This is not a method being endorsed to “start MOASS” or anything of the sort. There are still lots of details to confirm with CS. I personally am adding what I plan to keep in my own infinity pool- just like Warren Buffet suggests 😉 ♾⛲
As I said earlier this post will be frequently edited with new information and links throughout it’s posting so stay tuned! I have also reached out to Computershare with several questions I look forward to getting answers to. In the meantime, discuss in the comments. Cheers everybody! To infinity pools!
🍻🍻🍻♾⛲♾⛲♾⛲