Regulatory Disclosures
Form CRS Relationship Summary and Regulation Best Interest Disclosures
Form CRS Relationship Summary provides investors with information about the nature of their relationship with their Wedbush Securities’ investment professionals including an overview of the firm’s services, including information on certain fees and conflicts of interests, and other relevant information.
Regulation Best Interest aims to provide retail customers with full and fair disclosure about the products and services offered by broker dealers, including relevant conflicts of interest, to allow these customers to make appropriate investment decisions pertinent to their investment goals and needs while understanding the associated risks with such decisions.
To download Form CRS, click here.
To download Form Regulation Best Interest Disclosures, click here.
USA Patriot Act
To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. What this means for you: When you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents.
Securities an Exchange Commission Rule 605/606
Securities and Exchange Commission Rule (“SEC”) 605 requires market centers that trade National Market System securities to make available to the public monthly electronic reports that include uniform statistical measures of execution quality. These reports are available as electronic data files downloadable in a raw form appropriate for advanced analytics. Please be aware that the majority of the order flow executed by Wedbush Securities is not covered by NMS Rule 605 due to special handling requests by clients. The execution results from this order flow will not appear in the data and may differ substantially from the results.
Wedbush Securities is pleased to announce that it has recently contracted with S3 Matching Technologies LP (“S3”) to act as the Firm’s new service provider for order execution quality statistics and order routing information under Regulation NMS Rules 605 and 606. In the course of its migration to S3, Wedbush has experienced delays in Rule 605 reports covering the years 2021 and 2022. Wedbush is diligently working with S3 and its Order Management System provider in an effort to post the delayed and amended Rule 605 reports as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Download NMS Rule 605 reports after October 1, 2020 by clicking here.
Download NMS Rule 605 Reports before October 1, 2020 by clicking here.
Securities and Exchange Commission Rule (“SEC”) 606 requires broker dealers that route client orders in certain equity and option securities to make available to the public quarterly reports that represent a general overview of their routing practices. Upon written request, Wedbush Securities will provide the market center location to which your specific equity and/or option order was routed for execution, and/or a copy of our website information.
Wedbush Securities, Inc. (WSI) routes non-directed, customer orders in NMS stocks to its own trading desk, other market centers, and/or broker dealers where it believes it will receive the best execution for its clients, based on various factors. WSI may receive payment for order flow (PFOF) from certain market venues. The source and specific amount of such compensation is available upon request. Pursuant to SEC Rule 606(a), WSI is making available certain information with respect to its order routing practices during the preceding quarter.
Download NMS Rule 606 Reports before October 1, 2020 by clicking here.
Download NMS Rule 606 Reports after October 1, 2020 by clicking here.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Rule 155
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission requires each futures commission merchant to make publicly available on its Web site firm specific disclosures and financial information to assist you with your assessment and selection of a futures commission merchant. Information regarding this futures commission merchant may be obtained by clicking here.
NFA and CFTC Advisories on Virtual Currencies
FINRA BrokerCheck Hotline
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. offers investors information and education through the FINRA BrokerCheck Hotline at 800-289-9999 and FINRA website at www.finra.org. Available is an investor brochure that includes information describing FINRA BrokerCheck.
Privacy Statement
At Wedbush Securities, protection of your privacy has been a long-standing policy. We do not sell our current or former customer’s personal information to third parties. We collect certain “nonpublic personal information” about you from:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;
- Information about your transactions; and
- Information we receive from non-affiliated third parties, including consumer and industry reporting agencies.
Wedbush Securities does not disclose your nonpublic personal information to anyone except as described as follows. On a confidential basis, we may share the information we collect with companies that perform services to maintain your account information on our behalf. For example, we share information with third parties that assist us with data processing, preparing monthly statements, or companies that help us service our products. With your approval, we may share information within the affiliated Wedbush companies to improve your experience with us and better serve your financial needs.
Wedbush Securities restricts access to your personal and account information to those employees who need to know that information to provide services to you. We maintain physical and electronic safeguards to protect your nonpublic personal information.
To download the current Wedbush Securities Privacy Statement, click here.
Important Disclosures For Investors Using Margin
Wedbush Securities (WS) is a registered broker-dealer and a member of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”); consequently, WS must adhere to NYSE margin rules and rules promulgated by the Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Margin represents the equity in your accounts. Account equity generally is the difference between the current market value of the securities in your account less the amount you owe. While it is not our practice to change our minimum margin requirements without prior notice, WS can, at any given time and without advanced warning, increase the amount of equity a margin account must maintain.
The minimum equity requirements vary depending on different factors, such as liquidity and price stability of the collateral. If the equity in an account falls or is falling, WS generally will issue a margin call for additional funds or collateral. In the event that you receive a margin call and are unable to meet it within the required timeframe, WS will decide whether an extension of time can be granted. Failure to satisfy a demand for additional margin could result in the involuntary liquidation of collateral held in your account. The consequences of a forced liquidation may be a loss greater than the initial deposit you made into your margin account. In addition, if liquidation doesn’t provide the funds necessary to meet the firm maintenance margin requirement, you must meet the deficiency. If your account holdings include SEC Rule 144 restricted or affiliate securities, such securities can be sold by WS under the provisions of SEC Rule 144 and related SEC interpretations governing our rights as pledgee in the event of default.
Accordingly, we want to take this opportunity to help you better understand the liquidation provision of the Margin Agreement. This provision covers the liquidation rights WS has over all assets held in your account as collateral for amounts due WS for loans, short positions, losses, or other charges in your account.
Generally before liquidating assets held as collateral, it is our practice (but not our obligation) to attempt to give prior notification whenever additional funds are required in order to protect the loans or other amounts due us. However, prior notification is not always a viable option because of adverse conditions in the market. Consequently, we might take action to sell positions (or buy in short positions) in your accounts without any prior notification to you, or we might elect not to sell or buy in positions to avoid aggravating an unfavorable market situation. Frequently, concentrated positions or positions causing the margin call could be sold before the liquidation of other securities held in your accounts. WS chooses which securities that serve as collateral for a margin account will be liquidated.
Please be aware that your margin agreement gives WS unlimited discretion to take action to protect itself against losses. Involuntary liquidation of assets is a significant risk factor which you should seriously reconsider and reevaluate from time to time, because it might result in material losses to you or other unforeseen negative consequences. We suggest you monitor your accounts frequently and be alert to prevailing market conditions, especially respecting concentrated positions, so that you can take preventive action in avoiding involuntary liquidations.
While it is not our intention to discourage you from using margin for buying and selling securities or for borrowing to satisfy your other business and personal needs, we believe that it is in your self-interest to focus on the market risks associated with all margin loans in order for you to make an informed decision.
Interest on Cash Balances in Securities Accounts
Wedbush Securities pays interest on free credit balances left on deposit with us for investment or reinvestment purposes, unless you advise us otherwise. The interest paid by us is a floating rate with periodic adjustments. Interest amounts of less than $1.00 per month will not be credited.
Business Continuity Plan Information
Wedbush Securities (“Wedbush”) is committed to protecting the interests of clients at all times. Wedbush has developed a plan to provide for business continuity (Continuity Plan) in the event that business is disrupted. The Continuity Plan addresses all critical business processes, including providing clients with the ability to buy and/or sell and providing access to securities and funds.
The Continuity Plan addresses interruptions that are either localized or regional in scope, whether short or long term, regardless of the cause. The Continuity Plan is reviewed and tested annually and has been approved by senior management.
Wedbush maintains multiple sales offices that are geographically dispersed. In the event of a disruption that affects your local sales office, you will be able to contact other offices where our professionals will have access to your account information and can provide you the normal level of services. Contact information for each sales office is posted on the website under “Office Locations.” You may also continue to view your account information and process your activity using ClientLink over the Internet.
Should a disruption occur at our headquarters in Los Angeles, California, some operational functions may be temporarily disrupted while staff relocate to predetermined alternative sites.
Wedbush has Information Technology services that are housed and operate concurrently in dual, geographically disperse sites. Either site is capable of supporting all critical functions should one site be disabled. Information is also backed up and stored at a third location at predetermined intervals. Any business disruption at Wedbush will not result in the loss of your account information, securities or money.
Your account information and transaction history are also stored at our data processing provider that has its own business continuity plan that is regularly tested. Your securities and funds are held at banks, custodians and other providers of services to the securities industry that each have their own successfully tested business continuity capabilities. These facilities are all located remotely from Wedbush’s corporate data processing sites.
In the event that a disruption occurs that affects Wedbush, relevant information, including contact information, will be prominently displayed on the website.
Extended Hours Trading Risk Disclosures
Customers should be aware that extended hours trading involves material risks that are specific to extended hours trading. Click here to read the full disclosure.
Day-Trading Risk Disclosure
You should consider the following points before engaging in a day-trading strategy. Click here to read the full disclosure.
ADA Accessibility
At Wedbush Securities (WS) we are committed to providing outstanding service to people with disabilities, while we continue to develop and enhance our ADA Accessibility features, we encourage you to contact us at 213-688-8049 or you may email us at connect@webush.com. As we work to improve the user experience for all, with a strong commitment that our website follows the requirements of section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act as amended and to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (WCAG)2.0 level standards.