Transaction notices from any broker will generally show a date called the process date. This is when the trade went through the broker’s computer. This date is nearly always the same as the trade date, but there are exceptions. One exception is an IPO; the IPO reservation could be made a week in advance and until a little after the IPO has gone off, the broker might not know how many shares his firm was allocated so doesn’t know how many shares a buyer gets.
A day or two after the IPO has gone off, things might settle down. (The IPO syndicate might be allowed to sell say 10% more shares than obligated to sell – and might sell those even after the IPO date “as of” the IPO date.) So a confirmation might list a trade date that is two days before the process date. Other times the broker might have made an error and admit to it, and so correct it “as of” the correct date. So the confirmation slip might show August 15 as the process date of a trade “as of” a trade date of August 12. It happens.
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Contributed-By: Art Kamlet, Chris Lott