called my broker this morning

[Horace]

My trading platform wouldn't start up and the 800 number for tech support is on the splash screen, so I called it. The automated recording said there was a two hour wait time. It also said not to ask for an extension or an exception on margin calls. None will be granted. (I like how they phrased it - "in order to better help our clients, we cannot provide extensions or exceptions on margin calls").

I guess lots of people were shorting back in march, into the biggest and sharpest stock market rally in history.

By the way, I hate it when they tell you to enter a number on the phone but don't specify whether to hit # to "enter". Especially when they are expecting #, and won't accept the entry till you hit it. It's always a guessing game. Pressing # when it's not required can just as easily invalidate the entry, or not pressing pound when it is expected can invalidate the entry for taking too long.

[Mik]

I learned about that 40 years ago when the richest guy in town lost it all shorting.

[89th]

I was very tempted at shorting the S&P in mid-march during the free fall, glad I didn't. But I remember that feeling, I bet a lot of folks gave into it.

And yeah, the pound sign... funny/true observation.