If you were trying to access your online brokerage account during Tuesday’s market nosedive – or even earlier today - you may have encountered some trouble.
As investors flooded the various online brokerage websites to assess the carnage, some experienced major delays in gaining entry into their accounts, obtaining quotes, and launching web pages in general. In some cases, it took two to eight times as long to complete the steps before executing a trade, according to Gomez Inc., a software vendor that assesses website performance for companies.
“Members of the old guard, such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Vanguard didn’t hold up as well as E*Trade and TD Ameritrade, who fared significantly better,” said Matt Poepsel, vice president of performance strategy at Gomez, which is based in Lexington, Mass.
The so-called old guard continued to experience some slowdowns on Wednesday due to residual demand and volume, he added.