How I stagged the Medibank float (not!)

A story of a stag beginner follows. Move on if you are an expert because I hope other prospective staggers learn from this.

1. I decided earlier in the year that MPL was was going to be a good opportunity to make a profit by getting some shares and sell on the first day (stag). Mainly because I was a public applicant and the professionals were limited in access to prop up the price.

2. 20 Oct (float-20): preregister in our family account name. Not easily done on the website so had to call them (full account field would not fit in website field).

3. 14th Nov (float-4): paid up entering details in the online application field and transferred cash using BPay.

4. 28th Nov (float): First day shares around 2.18 looking OK for a stag effort. I looked in broker account but no shares there yet. I checked with broker and it turned out that unless you nominated them as your broker and applied through them you cannot trade until they are transferred to your account. Very annoying. They sent me some documentation that said they should be transferred by the registry on 4th December.

4. 4th Dec (float+6): Registry dispatched holding statements. I assumed this meant the broker would now allow me to sell the shares. However, none in the account. I contacted the broker and they informed me I had to complete a transfer form because the information I put on the float application did not contain my broker account information. I needed to send a copy of the holding statement posted by snail mail from the registry. It takes 3 days for mail from Melbourne to reach me.

5. 9th Dec (float+10): Holding statement arrived by mail. I thanked modern technology for not needing to post the forms and copy of holding statement back to broker. I scanned papers and e-mailed them to broker.

6. 10 Dec (float+11): Received e-mail from broker. Sorry, there is a problem. You are registered with your middle names as initials and not fully spelled out. You will need to correct this on the register. So, I now remember typing the middle initials so the name would fit on the on-line application field. Big mistake. I immediately contact the registry to see how to change the initials to full names. The nice man (really, very polite) said he would e-mail me the form. He also said they needed hard copy of the form so I needed to post it by snail mail before it could be actioned, which would take 3-5 days on top of the 3 days post delay.

7. 11 Dec (float+12): E-mail arrived with electronic copy of form. Why it takes 24 hour to e-mail a form is a question I have no answer for. Unfortunately, by the time I drive around town for signatures it now is after the mail cutoff to it would not leave town until the following day, add to that 3 days for mail to reach Melbourne.

8. 30th Dec (float+31): After checking the online registry every day for a week (except Xmas public holidays) the name is now changed but not correct. The registry has typed "Nr" instead of "Mr" in front of my name when they transcribed the form into the registry. I ring the registry and they say they will fix the name withing 24 hours without me sending the same forms again. I contacted the broker who requires me to resend the exact same forms I sent previously. Why the same forms again I do not know. They say a few days for processing after the registry confirms the name change.

9. 5th Jan (float+37): Shares appear in my account and I immediately "stag" them for $2.38.

Lessons:
1. apply through your broker when you apply for shares in a float.
2. make sure the account name exactly matches your broker's account name. Even initials cause problems so ring them if the on-line form has limitations.
3. between the float and the day I could eventually sell them the shares went from 2.18 to 2.39. Maybe stagging a float is not always the most profitable strategy.

I hope learning from my "mistakes" helps someone else. My mistakes actually made me some money.