Robinhood and Other Stock Platforms Banning Stock Purchases (1 Viewer)

[BassNBrew]

For some reason these stock trading platforms have barred retail investors from purchasing GME, AMC, and several other stocks.  They claim it's to protect their customer.  The users claim it's to protect their hedge fund buddies that have shorted these stocks in an attempt to tank the price.  Some want an investigation.  Where do you stand?

 

[Desert_Power]

This is probably the take I most agree with so far:

George "Grants To State & Local Gov NOW" Pearkes @pearkes · 2h

RH is restricting who can get exposure to GME, and that's bad for retail traders because...another segment of retail traders can't become the greater fool being sold to?

Is it bad for existing holders? Sure. Is it bad for retail traders on the RH platform in general? Uh...

I would humbly suggest to @RashidaTlaib that "preventing other RH traders from becoming bagholders for the existing RH longs" is not actually an attack on retail investors at all.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I only became aware of this a couple of days ago, and I started paying attention yesterday because I wanted to watch the inevitable trainwreck unfold in real time.  If I were one of the Reddit investors/gamblers who got in over the last few days, I would be incensed at RH for putting their thumb on the scale.  Most of those people were going to get taken to the cleaners anyway with only themselves to blame.  Now they've got a second person to blame.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Does anybody have a good link that a person like me (with limited stock knowledge) can read to get up to speed on this new development?  I’m generally aware of the whole Reddit/GameStop drama but not about the prohibitions on stock platforms.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I'm going to ask a bunch of questions that will reveal my ignorance about a lot of this stuff.

How many of these stock trading places like Robinhood, etc. are there out there?  Are some of them still allowing regular investors to buy GameStop?  Is there anything preventing investors from just moving to a different platform?

 

[HellToupee]

 AOC &Trump Jr on the same page
 

now you have AOC and Ted Cruz

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I'm going to ask a bunch of questions that will reveal my ignorance about a lot of this stuff.

How many of these stock trading places like Robinhood, etc. are there out there?  Are some of them still allowing regular investors to buy GameStop?  Is there anything preventing investors from just moving to a different platform?

My understanding is that you can still buy GameStop through Fidelity and other traditional institutions.  

I'm too old and out-of-it to comment much on Robinhood.  The literal sum total of my stock market investments involve automated monthly purchases of an S&P index fund, accumulated over the course of 25 years or so.  That's literally 100% of what I own.  I've made two sales during my lifetime: once one we bought our first home, and then again a few years ago when we bought our current home.  

Like I said, I'm mainly just following this for the entertainment value, but there are some legitimate regulatory issues present here IMO.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

To steal from Jason Furman, I too own GameStop and I purchased it as part of a strategy to stick it to hedge funds and Wall Street fat cats.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

My understanding is that you can still buy GameStop through Fidelity and other traditional institutions.  

Thanks.  Can one of the stock guys here clarify whether there's any impediment to just doing this if you were planning to do it on Robinhood?  That's a pretty significant factual issue for me in deciding how to feel about what Robinhood, etc. have done.

Oh I have another question.  Does the explanation Robinhood gave make sense on its face or is it obviously a pretext?  

 

[TheMagus]

I'm lost. I haven't seen any news on this and mentally trying to connect Reddit, Game Stop, and Robinhood is making my head spin with no context. 

 

[The Commish]

Thanks.  Can one of the stock guys here clarify whether there's any impediment to just doing this if you were planning to do it on Robinhood?  That's a pretty significant factual issue for me in deciding how to feel about what Robinhood, etc. have done.

Oh I have another question.  Does the explanation Robinhood gave make sense on its face or is it obviously a pretext?  

It's my understanding that this is being done by specific platforms, so if you wanted to buy, you could go to one of the platforms that allows it and set up an account there.  And no, based on what I've read from Robinhood, it's terrible logic...unless "to protect their customers" is analogous to "do what their hedge fund buddies want"...then it's completely logical.

ETA:  There are dozens of day trading apps out there.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

It's my understanding that this is being done by specific platforms, so if you wanted to buy, you could go to one of the platforms that allows it and set up an account there.  And no, based on what I've read from Robinhood, it's terrible logic...unless "to protect their customers" is analogous to "do what their hedge fund buddies want"...then it's completely logical.

ETA:  There are dozens of day trading apps out there.

Thanks, so if Robinhood's statement was a pretext, what was their actual motivation here?  I've heard "protect hedge fund guys" but what motivation do they have to do that?  

Also, I just read in a NY Times article that Robinhood does commission-free trades.  How do they make money?  This is all very confusing to me.

 

[The Commish]

Thanks, so if Robinhood's statement was a pretext, what was their actual motivation here?  I've heard "protect hedge fund guys" buy what motivation do they have to do that?

These hedge fund guys basically made it possible to exist in the first place.  They dumped a ton of money (and raised a ton of money) to make the platform an option.  At one point (not sure if it's still true) they had aspirations of becoming an actual banking entity and they'd need that support to realize that.  In short, they are trying to avoid biting the hand that's fed them and allowed them to grow as a "feeless" service.

 

[The Commish]

In my view, you have to be a complete moron to even be on the platform given their security problems in the last two years.

 

[Ron Popeil]

I'm no expert but here's the story I have.

Robinhood makes its income by pooling its user's trades ("flows") and selling them to other entities, typically high frequency trading firms with large balance sheets.  Citadel is one such firm and Robinhood's biggest buyer of flows.  Citadel is the customer.  Robinhood users are the product.  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-15/robinhood-investing-app-makes-millions-selling-users-data-high-frequencstealing

Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, shorted Gamestop in a rather reckless way, in a volume exceeding the number of issued shares of Gamestop stock.  In a well-known maneuver, people (r/wallstreetbets et al) bought and encouraged others to buy Gamestop driving up the price and forcing Melvin to also buy shares (a consequence of shorting stock that goes up instead of down).  Reeling from the mounting losses, Melvin looked for help.  Citadel took a position in Melvin.  But the momentum continued and now Melvin and Citidel were losing.  So Citadel told Robinhood to put a stop to it.  

Robinhood was put in a position of having to satisfy its customer by shutting off parts of its product.  

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Thanks, so if Robinhood's statement was a pretext, what was their actual motivation here?  I've heard "protect hedge fund guys" buy what motivation do they have to do that?

These hedge fund guys basically made it possible to exist in the first place.  They dumped a ton of money (and raised a ton of money) to make the platform an option.  At one point (not sure if it's still true) they had aspirations of becoming an actual banking entity and they'd need that support to realize that.  In short, they are trying to avoid biting the hand that's fed them and allowed them to grow as a "feeless" service.

What could the hedge funds do to Robinhood now?  I feel like I'm still missing something about Robinhood's motivations here.

 

[Ron Popeil]

I'm no expert but here's the story I have.

Robinhood makes its income by pooling its user's trades ("flows") and selling them to other entities, typically high frequency trading firms with large balance sheets.  Citadel is one such firm and Robinhood's biggest buyer of flows.  Citadel is the customer.  Robinhood users are the product.  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-15/robinhood-investing-app-makes-millions-selling-users-data-high-frequencstealing

Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, shorted Gamestop in a rather reckless way, in a volume exceeding the number of issued shares of Gamestop stock.  In a well-known maneuver, people (r/wallstreetbets et al) bought and encouraged others to buy Gamestop driving up the price and forcing Melvin to also buy shares (a consequence of shorting stock that goes up instead of down)***.  Reeling from the mounting losses, Melvin looked for help.  Citadel took a position in Melvin.  But the momentum continued and now Melvin and Citidel were losing.  So Citadel told Robinhood to put a stop to it.  

Robinhood was put in a position of having to satisfy its customer by shutting off parts of its product.  

I can't edit but at the *** I would add that this is a feedback loop:  people buy, the price goes up, Melvin has to keep buying as it's losses widen.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I'm no expert but here's the story I have.

Robinhood makes its income by pooling its user's trades ("flows") and selling them to other entities, typically high frequency trading firms with large balance sheets.  Citadel is one such firm and Robinhood's biggest buyer of flows.  Citadel is the customer.  Robinhood users are the product.  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-15/robinhood-investing-app-makes-millions-selling-users-data-high-frequencstealing

Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, shorted Gamestop in a rather reckless way, in a volume exceeding the number of issued shares of Gamestop stock.  In a well-known maneuver, people (r/wallstreetbets et al) bought and encouraged others to buy Gamestop driving up the price and forcing Melvin to also buy shares (a consequence of shorting stock that goes up instead of down).  Reeling from the mounting losses, Melvin looked for help.  Citadel took a position in Melvin.  But the momentum continued and now Melvin and Citidel were losing.  So Citadel told Robinhood to put a stop to it.  

Robinhood was put in a position of having to satisfy its customer by shutting off parts of its product.  

OK, I understood about 90% of this and it answers my question, thanks.

ETA:  You can edit by clicking the three little dots in the upper right corner.

 

[The Commish]

What could the hedge funds do to Robinhood now?  I feel like I'm still missing something about Robinhood's motivations here.

Take all their financial support away to start.  

 

[Steve Tasker]

Thanks, so if Robinhood's statement was a pretext, what was their actual motivation here?  I've heard "protect hedge fund guys" but what motivation do they have to do that?  

Also, I just read in a NY Times article that Robinhood does commission-free trades.  How do they make money?  This is all very confusing to me.

There is speculation - though I have no idea how founded it is - that major hedge funds pay Robinhood for advance notification on trades, which allows them to theoretically undercut the trades and make a fractional profit.

Say, for example, you put in an order to buy 5 shares of Gamestop stock at market price, on Robinhood.  Citadel has access to this information, because they pay Robinhood for that access.  Market price is increasing from, say $1.00/share to $1.01/share.  Citadel sees this, and undercuts the trade, buying 5 shares from the market at $1.00, and selling them to you for $1.01.  You, the consumer, just see that your market price order ended up costing $1.01/share.  Whereas Citadel skimmed some profit off of it that you didn't see.

Citadel and other hedge funds are taking an absolute beating from this, because they've bet very, very heavily on companies like Gamestop, Blackberry, Nokia, and others to fail.  I saw an estimate this morning that hedge funds had lost approx $71 billion year-to-date on this fiasco.

So Citadel gets in front of Robinhood and demands that Robinhood stop letting people buy these shares.  That depresses the price, causes a bunch of holders to try to sell to lock in whatever they can, and allows Citadel and other companies to cover their shorts.  Basically, the big hedge funds pressure Robinhood into stopping new purchases of these companies, because without Citadel paying for those services, Robinhood doesn't exist.  Robinhood caved because the other option is turn off the money tap that funds their business.

This is the rampant speculation, at least.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

There is speculation - though I have no idea how founded it is - that major hedge funds pay Robinhood for advance notification on trades, which allows them to theoretically undercut the trades and make a fractional profit.

Say, for example, you put in an order to buy 5 shares of Gamestop stock at market price, on Robinhood.  Citadel has access to this information, because they pay Robinhood for that access.  Market price is increasing from, say $1.00/share to $1.01/share.  Citadel sees this, and undercuts the trade, buying 5 shares from the market at $1.00, and selling them to you for $1.01.  You, the consumer, just see that your market price order ended up costing $1.01/share.  Whereas Citadel skimmed some profit off of it that you didn't see.

Is this legal?

 

[The Commish]

There is speculation - though I have no idea how founded it is - that major hedge funds pay Robinhood for advance notification on trades, which allows them to theoretically undercut the trades and make a fractional profit.

Say, for example, you put in an order to buy 5 shares of Gamestop stock at market price, on Robinhood.  Citadel has access to this information, because they pay Robinhood for that access.  Market price is increasing from, say $1.00/share to $1.01/share.  Citadel sees this, and undercuts the trade, buying 5 shares from the market at $1.00, and selling them to you for $1.01.  You, the consumer, just see that your market price order ended up costing $1.01/share.  Whereas Citadel skimmed some profit off of it that you didn't see.

Citadel and other hedge funds are taking an absolute beating from this, because they've bet very, very heavily on companies like Gamestop, Blackberry, Nokia, and others to fail.  I saw an estimate this morning that hedge funds had lost approx $71 billion year-to-date on this fiasco.

So Citadel gets in front of Robinhood and demands that Robinhood stop letting people buy these shares.  That depresses the price, causes a bunch of holders to try to sell to lock in whatever they can, and allows Citadel and other companies to cover their shorts.  Basically, the big hedge funds pressure Robinhood into stopping new purchases of these companies, because without Citadel paying for those services, Robinhood doesn't exist.  Robinhood caved because the other option is turn off the money tap that funds their business.

This is the rampant speculation, at least.

There's also speculation that the hedge funds have say in the algorithms created by Robinhood used to do auto trading that yield a similar effect.  

 

[Steve Tasker]

Is this legal?

I'm sure I've sufficiently dumbed-it-down into a way simpler construct than how it actually works, but I have no idea.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

For some reason these stock trading platforms have barred retail investors from purchasing GME, AMC, and several other stocks.  They claim it's to protect their customer.  The users claim it's to protect their hedge fund buddies that have shorted these stocks in an attempt to tank the price.  Some want an investigation.  Where do you stand?

OK, now that I have educated myself a little, I support an investigation of all of these shenanigans and probably some regulatory changes as a result.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

 

[Desert_Power]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

Most brokerages have already followed their lead

Merrill: Due to recent volatility in certain securities and to reduce risk of market volatility, we will be placing restrictions on certain securities, including increased margin requirements and/or limiting transactions. Game Stop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) are now blocked for opening transactions and they have also been moved to a 100% margin requirement for existing positions.

 

[sfflchamp]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

You would have to transfer your cash from RH to Fidelity and it would probably take a couple days to clear so you could trade with it.

 

[Sea Duck]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

My guess is that a lot of the people pumping up the stock were using Robinhood to do it, and now those people are locked in to that service.

 

[The Commish]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

You could if you had other money not tied up in Robinhood...until the other groups follow suit.

ETA:  Nevermind...already covered.

 

[Desert_Power]

Does anybody have a good link that a person like me (with limited stock knowledge) can read to get up to speed on this new development?  I’m generally aware of the whole Reddit/GameStop drama but not about the prohibitions on stock platforms.

A biased summary from Chamath: https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1354883147523997697

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

My guess is that a lot of the people pumping up the stock were using Robinhood to do it, and now those people are locked in to that service.

OK, more dumb questions from the idiot fringe.  What does it mean to be "locked in to that service"?  

 

[RCon]

OK, now that I have educated myself a little, I support an investigation of all of these shenanigans and probably some regulatory changes as a result.

While we're at it, let's add a federal fee onto high-frequency trading.  Any or all of this may be legal, but if it is, it's only because the hedge funds wrote the rules and got Congress to pass something it neither read nor understood.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

You would have to transfer your cash from RH to Fidelity and it would probably take a couple days to clear so you could trade with it.

Thanks.  I feel dumb for not thinking about the time lag involved in moving cash around.

 

[jon_mx]

The people who make money on these pump and dump schemes are the people who started it and got out.  Now it is just a bunch of random volatility that soon will go back below $5 a share.  Robinhood is doing people a favor by stopping people from buying into this now.  The only people buying now are the bag holders who will lose 90 percent if their investment..  

 

[The Commish]

OK, more dumb questions from the idiot fringe.  What does it mean to be "locked in to that service"?  

Typically, you have an account with them.  You deposit $1000 and you use it to do your investing.  If you make $100K it's in that account.  When you go to close that account, it's not instant.  It takes some days to get it closed, deposit the money in your account etc.  Even moving funds out of the account that you aren't closing can take a day or two to do.  So until you get your hands on the money you are "locked in"....if that makes sense.

 

[The Commish]

While we're at it, let's add a federal fee onto high-frequency trading.  Any or all of this may be legal, but if it is, it's only because the hedge funds wrote the rules and got Congress to pass something it neither read nor understood.

meh....those kinds of trades only make up 60% of the daily transactions we see...no big deal!!!

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Oh wait while we're in here discussing I have another question.

Why did it take these Reddit guys to figure out how to do these short squeezes?  Why didn't some rich investor do this earlier?  Is there some reason that they couldn't have done so or is it just that they didn't think of it?

 

[knowledge dropper]

Oh wait while we're in here discussing I have another question.

Why did it take these Reddit guys to figure out how to do these short squeezes?  Why didn't some rich investor do this earlier?  Is there some reason that they couldn't have done so or is it just that they didn't think of it?

I believe Elon Musk is involved on the GameStop side.  He was shorted a while back and has a bone to pick with hedge fund managers.  

 

[Shula-holic]

Oh wait while we're in here discussing I have another question.

Why did it take these Reddit guys to figure out how to do these short squeezes?  Why didn't some rich investor do this earlier?  Is there some reason that they couldn't have done so or is it just that they didn't think of it?

The problem they are going to run into IMO is inevitably the thing is going to crash back to reality and someone is going to be stuck holding the bag.  All of us can pretty much say with fair certainty right now it's going to be those folks piling into this. 

I view this as a game of musical chairs.  They are creating demand through volume of buying, not through intrinsic value of the company itself.  The stock is just the vehicle being used, it only has value in that those short being forced to cover positions due to losses MUST buy it to exit those positions.  The short float on this thing was ridiculously high, thereby causing the shortage of shares to acquire to exit positions.  By putting these shorts in this vice grip, that alone drives demand.  Additionally, the volume of people piling on is driving the stock up higher and higher with their share purchases. 

What happens when the average person on Reddit runs out of cash to buy more, enough decide to take their profits, or the shorts without adequate financial backing to withstand this have all shaken out?  No investor is buying these shares for anywhere near this price.  By taking profits now and selling, people are locking in huge gains but not enough are doing so yet to crash the stock.  Those who sell out at these crazy values, more power to them for getting out and "sitting in a chair".  The crash will come hard and fast IMO and just as in musical chairs, when the music stops, your bottom better have a seat or you're in big trouble.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Oh wait while we're in here discussing I have another question.

Why did it take these Reddit guys to figure out how to do these short squeezes?  Why didn't some rich investor do this earlier?  Is there some reason that they couldn't have done so or is it just that they didn't think of it?

I'm pretty sure hedge funds execute short squeezes when the opportunity presents itself.  I don't think there's anything illegal about that.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

The problem they are going to run into IMO is inevitably the thing is going to crash back to reality and someone is going to be stuck holding the bag.  All of us can pretty much say with fair certainty right now it's going to be those folks piling into this. 

I view this as a game of musical chairs.  They are creating demand through volume of buying, not through intrinsic value of the company itself.  The stock is just the vehicle being used, it only has value in that those short being forced to cover positions due to losses MUST buy it to exit those positions.  The volume of people piling on is driving the stock up higher and higher. What happens when the average reddit person runs out of cash to buy more, enough decide to take their profits, or the shorts without adequate financial backing to withstand this have all shaken out?  No investor is buying these shares for anywhere near this price.  By taking profits now and selling, people are locking in huge gains but not enough are doing so yet to crash the stock.  Those who sell out at these crazy values, more power to them for getting out and "sitting in a chair".  The crash will come hard and fast and just as in musical chairs, when the music stops, your bottom better have a seat or you're in big trouble.

Right, I understand all this.  I can see why rich guys aren't jumping in now.

My question went back to before the Reddit guys did anything.  But I think I understand it now.  The Reddit guys were just excited to do this to screw over the hedge fund guys, even if they themselves ran the risk of getting burned.  An actual rich guy worried solely about his bottom line wouldn't be willing to take that risk.  Is that about right?

 

[Joe Mammy]

 AOC &Trump Jr on the same page
 

now you have AOC and Ted Cruz

Not even the same book let alone page between AOC and Cruz:

"Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign."

 

[Shula-holic]

Right, I understand all this.  I can see why rich guys aren't jumping in now.

My question went back to before the Reddit guys did anything.  But I think I understand it now.  The Reddit guys were just excited to do this to screw over the hedge fund guys, even if they themselves ran the risk of getting burned.  An actual rich guy worried solely about his bottom line wouldn't be willing to take that risk.  Is that about right?

Yeah and in the beginning your risk is pretty low compared to doing it now.  If you are in at $20/share and just buying 5 shares to be involved and try to pull this off, you lose it all it's $100, who cares.  Obviously the cost to be involved goes up as we move along.  I'd be willing to bet some of the guys initially getting squeezed on the short side are finding ways to get involved with the manipulated long side now.  Likely they find their way out and these other folks end up with nothing in the end.

 

[2Squirrels1Nut]

OK, more dumb questions from the idiot fringe.  What does it mean to be "locked in to that service"?  

They were buying on margin dollars, aka a loan, from RH, so they can't just walk away to another broker.

 

[Steve Tasker]

Right, I understand all this.  I can see why rich guys aren't jumping in now.

My question went back to before the Reddit guys did anything.  But I think I understand it now.  The Reddit guys were just excited to do this to screw over the hedge fund guys, even if they themselves ran the risk of getting burned.  An actual rich guy worried solely about his bottom line wouldn't be willing to take that risk.  Is that about right?

The idea of r/wallstreetbets being a coordinated effort from the start is overblown.  The subreddit is filled with general lunacy, mostly ####posts, and occasionally nuggets of solid due diligence.  There's a media narrative that the subreddit is some sort of cohesive mob - as someone who's lurked there for a long time, trust me, it's not.  Right now there's a collective "#### Wall Street" going on, but that is not the norm.

One poster did his own research and due diligence months ago, and put together an argument that Gamestop was legitimately undervalued.  His idea was that Gamestop would stay afloat by moving to online sales model (buoyed by Chewy's CEO becoming the largest investor), cutting costs by closing physical stores, and the fact that they have a surprisingly strong real estate holding portfolio.

Nearing the end of 2020, someone else did some digging and discovered that the amount of shares shorted exceeded the number of shares available.  Combining the idea of it being an undervalued investment, and the concept of potentially rising stock prices from hedge funds making irresponsible short-sale bets, people started buying Gamestop stock.  It wasn't originally a massive collective effort, just once the momentum got going and hedge fund people started attacking back, people started realizing "holy ####, we're actually doing something here", and more money poured in.  The more CNBC, Wall Street types denigrate r/wsb, the more people will invest.  The big push this week in particular is because a significant number of options close tomorrow. 

Is Gamestop way, way, way overvalued right now?  Absolutely yes.  But the difference between a hedge fund and r/wsb investor is that the average wsb investor has much less on the line.  For the hedge fund, it's a legitimate loss.  For a wsb investor, it's an investment on principle now.  

 

[Redwes25]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

Robinhood is free trades.  They sell information to make revenue vs. making money on stock commissions.  Also, it takes a few days to move over to Fidelity and if you want/need to trade now it isn't relistic.  

 

[tonydead]

Can somebody explain why Redditors and other folks don't just open up a Fidelity account (or whatever) to buy GameStop?  I can see where that's a pain, but it's not as if RH is literally forcing anybody to sell.  Or is this one of those things where Melvin is just expecting people to be too lazy to do that?

Fidelity accounts put out error codes and stopped buying too.  They all did.  I have an account at fidelity and can confirm.  This was coordinated to stop the bleeding.

 

[tonydead]

 AOC &Trump Jr on the same page
 

now you have AOC and Ted Cruz

Not so fast mister.

Apparently Ted tried to murder AOC.

 

[BassNBrew]

The people who make money on these pump and dump schemes are the people who started it and got out.  Now it is just a bunch of random volatility that soon will go back below $5 a share.  Robinhood is doing people a favor by stopping people from buying into this now.  The only people buying now are the bag holders who will lose 90 percent if their investment..  

Except that GME is now up $100 after hours for a 50% gain in two hours so the people buying today weren't bag holders, they beat your index fund return over the next five years.

 

[Mile High]

Not so fast mister.

Apparently Ted tried to murder AOC.

Following in his father's footsteps.