Vanguard Down? Investors Report Login Problems With Brokerage Accounts During Volatile Wednesday Trading

MALVERN, Pa. — Some customers of Vanguard, one of the world's largest investment companies, reported problems accessing their accounts on Wednesday morning. Many said they could not log in during a busy day of trading on Wall Street.

Outage-tracking site Downdetector said user reports pointed to problems with Vanguard beginning at 11:20 a.m. Eastern time. "User reports indicate problems with Vanguard since 11:20 AM EST. How is it affecting you?" Downdetector posted on X at 11:27 a.m., using the hashtag #VanguardDown.

Most complaints appeared to center on logging in. The outage-tracking site DownForEveryoneOrJustMe recorded a cluster of U.S. user reports between about 11:17 a.m. and 11:25 a.m. Eastern time, all citing login problems.

No confirmed widespread outage

The scale of the disruption was unclear. As of midday Wednesday, Vanguard had not publicly confirmed an outage or said what caused the reported problems.

Several independent monitoring services showed Vanguard's website as working normally:

• Uptime.com showed Vanguard's site as operational with 100% uptime over the previous 24 hours.
• IsDown listed Vanguard as working normally, with three user reports in the previous 24 hours.
• StatusGator reported Vanguard as operational but had received five user-submitted reports of problems in the past 24 hours. The most reports came from Kentucky, Maine and Missouri.
• DownForEveryoneOrJustMe said it was not detecting a broad outage. It said the last outage it detected for Vanguard was on Aug. 13, 2026, and lasted about an hour.

The mixed picture suggests the problems may have been limited to some users, certain features such as login, or particular devices, rather than a complete outage. Downdetector and similar sites rely on reports submitted by users, so a spike in complaints does not always mean a service is down for everyone.

A volatile day on Wall Street

The reported problems came during a busy session for U.S. stocks. Investors were piling back into technology shares after strong earnings from AI cloud provider CoreWeave revived the artificial intelligence trade. The Nasdaq Composite rose about 1.5% in morning trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered near the flat line.

Markets have been volatile in recent days. On Tuesday, stocks fell after hotter-than-expected inflation data raised expectations of further interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve. Investors have also been weighing the fallout from a scandal involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, which has wiped hundreds of billions of dollars from the chipmaker's market value.

Wednesday is Veterans Day. The U.S. bond market is closed, but stock markets are trading normal hours. That means investors who rely on Vanguard to manage stock holdings could still trade while the bond market was shut.

Problems logging in to a brokerage account can be especially frustrating on volatile days, when investors want to check balances, rebalance portfolios or place trades.

Vanguard's growing pains

Vanguard, based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest asset managers in the world, overseeing trillions of dollars for tens of millions of investors. It was founded in 1975 by the late John C. Bogle, who pioneered low-cost index funds for individual investors.

The company is known for its unusual ownership structure. It is owned by its funds, which are in turn owned by the funds' investors, a model Vanguard says helps keep costs low.

Vanguard is especially popular with long-term, buy-and-hold investors and retirement savers. It manages large numbers of individual retirement accounts and workplace 401(k) plans.

In recent years, Vanguard has faced complaints from some customers about its website, mobile app and customer service, particularly during periods of heavy market activity. The company has invested in upgrading its technology and digital experience.

What investors can do

Customers having trouble accessing their Vanguard accounts can try several steps:

• Check whether the problem is widespread. Outage trackers such as Downdetector can show whether other users are reporting similar issues.
• Try a different method. If the website is not working, the Vanguard mobile app may still work, or the reverse.
• Clear the browser cache or restart the app. Stored data can sometimes cause login problems.
• Check the connection. Problems with a local network, VPN or browser extension can sometimes look like a service outage.
• Contact Vanguard. Customers who need to place urgent trades can contact Vanguard by phone.

Financial advisers generally caution long-term investors against making hasty decisions during brief outages or market swings. Vanguard has long encouraged its clients to focus on long-term investing rather than short-term trading.

Online brokerages have experienced outages before, often during periods of heavy trading. Firms including Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Robinhood have all faced service disruptions in recent years when market volatility drove a surge in customer activity.