The trade confirmation is extremely important because it is your way of verifying that the broker has filled an order according to your instructions. It will also help provide documentation for taxes and gain and loss tracking.
Depending upon your brokerage firm or broker, the information on a trade confirmation will vary, but there are a few things that are included on almost all of them:
- The name of the investment you traded, along with the ticker symbol
- Total shares bought or sold
- The cost or selling price per share
- The commission paid to the brokerage firm. This will not include hidden bond spreads.
- The trade execution date, which shows when the trade was placed.
- The settlement date, which is when the money and investment, such as shares of stock, actually take place. If you have your purchases or sales settled against a bank account, this is the date the money will be taken out of or deposited into your account.
- The total gross value of the transaction.
- The total net value of the transaction after deducting brokerage commissions.
- The account number in which the trade was placed.
- The type of order - market order, limit order, etc.
It is important that you keep accurate copies of all of your trade confirmations. If you notice that the trade confirmation includes information on it that you believe is in error, you must contact your bank or broker immediately to attempt to get it corrected.
For more information, read the New Investor's Complete Guide to Brokers.
