My broker sent me this email:
This is an automated message to alert you that your overall account
value has just decreased by -10% within the day.
The broker claims that this message means, the account decreased by 10% from the beginning and is more or less ignoring the within the day.
I am Austrian and therefore not an English native speaker but an English friend [from Liverpool] read the email and she told me that the email means the account value decreased by these 10% in 1 day – be more specific: The previous day the email was sent.
My question:
How is this email really to be understood? Is it clear what the broker says that they mean the account value decreased by 10% from the beginning, or
does it mean the account value decreased by 10% that one day?
Another point:
When writing decrease I consider the minus sign in the percentage value also as not correct. The word decrease is precise enough so in my eyes it should be like this: ..has just decreased by 10%...
I am asking because this a one of the biggest brokers and they send in my eyes not clear statements.
So, in the end I would have expected the email something like this:
... has just decreased by 10% since the account was opened.
Best Answer
"Within the day" seems pretty meaningless in this context. The phrase is commonly used to refer to the future ("we will deliver it within the/a day," or some number of days) or a 24 hour period. Here is an example: ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Wines Pulled Within A Day Of Backlash, meaning it was pulled within 24 hours.
So, for your example, I would expect something more specific like: "since the start of trading today", or "in the past 24 hours" or, if it really does mean what they claim, "since the account was opened" (as you suggest).
I think this is an example of the problems caused by letting engineers or non-English speakers write automated messages!