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Retail traders are literally locked out of buying new shares... they were a scapegoat the whole time. $GME is up 11% as of the writing of this post. Who is buy

Retail traders are literally locked out of buying new shares... they were a scapegoat the whole time. $GME is up 11% as of the writing of this post. Who is buying it? This is actually making me angry to watch. -edit- I had like one share - Robinhood just sold my shares without me ordering it. Dunno what happened there.

Osiris 6y ago
I had a pending market order fill at opening but now by brokerage mobile app won't log me in.
dragontamer 6y ago
I just checked my TD Ameritrade account. I'm able to buy GME just fine (though I didn't hit the "confirm" button). I know RobinHood messed up here. But... they never had a good reputation to begin with. Its an open secret that RobinHood's entire setup is kind of crap.
- itake 6y ago
  I didn't see a failure on Schwab until I hit "confirm" yesterday. My understanding is TD Ameritrade is only blocking the purchase of stock on margin. If you have the cash, you're allowed to make the purchase.
  - swiley 6y ago
    Oh well that's reasonable. If I were a brokerage you bet your ass I wouldn't lend you money to buy GME.
    - aynyc 6y ago
      Why should broker allow margin trading at all? If it's about risk, then who's the decider/calculator of the risk? I think this is the reason why there is a distrust from the next generation.
      - swiley 6y ago
        This really wouldn't be the first time Robinhood changed their software to prevent it's users from doing exceptionally stupid things with margin.
      - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
        > who's the decider/calculator of the risk? The lender. As in all loans. As is in every detail described in one’s margin contract.
        aynyc 6y ago
        I looked at my margin document, other than Federal Reserve requirements and account restriction, there is no provision stating they can block a specific eligible stock as long as I meet their margin requirement.
        kgwgk 6y ago
        Their margin requirement may be linked to the name so increasing the margin requirement to 100% would be a way to block the use of margin.
        aynyc 6y ago
        That would block all margin trades, no? Not a specific instrument. I understand why they did it, but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
        kgwgk 6y ago
        They can set margin requirement separately for each stock. For example, with InteractiveBrokers "long stock positions [of AMC, BB, EXPR, GME, and KOSS] will require 100% margin and short stock positions will require 300% margin until further notice". https://twitter.com/IBKR/status/1354792600004386818 https://twitter.com/IBKR/status/1354792600004386818
  - 52-6F-62 6y ago
    And that's pretty normal for highly-volatile stocks, isn't it?
- swiley 6y ago
  I just bought NOK this morning on TD. I think it's just robinhood.
  - 12bits 6y ago
    My Canadian TD account has been giving me a 502 all morning.
    - swiley 6y ago
      Sounds about right haha.
segmondy 6y ago
hedge funds that shorted have to buy to close out their position, they need to buy.
gherittwhite 6y ago
It's annoying. The regular guy should be able to profit off this too. I was at the gym yesterday and heard like 5 people talking about stocks: gme, amc, bb. Everyone is trying to get in on this and they're trying to stop it. They bogged gme at open to scare people and now it's back up. If they didn't remove the option for users to buy they surely would have bought the dip.
- NickM 6y ago
  Blocking people from buying a stock is not the same as blocking people from profiting off of a stock; nobody knows what the future valuation of the stock will be, so if you prevent people from buying, you may just as well be preventing them from losing money as from gaining. Keep in mind that this is very likely a zero-sum game. At some point the bubble will pop, and as many people as gained money on the way up will lose money on the way down.
  - breck 6y ago
    The bubble only needs to pop though if GME management screws it up. GME has now become a $25B hedge fund with a gaming focus. They absolutely have the ability to become long term successful given these black swans they just experienced. Now, I know *nothing* about their management, but they at least have been given a chance. Their's an Eminem song that they should be playing throughout their buildings right now. If I were them I'd sell more shares, pay down any bad debt, and invest in 10-100 of the best black swan ideas of my rank and file and see what happens.
    - NickM 6y ago
      GME has now become a $25B hedge fund with a gaming focus. I think you're confusing their market cap with their balance sheet. A $25B hedge fund has $25B in assets, but a $25B market cap does not mean that they have access to anywhere near that amount of capital. Sure, maybe they could issue a dilutive follow-on offering and bring in some cash, but who knows where the stock price will be by the time they get through the paperwork on that. And they're currently losing about half a billion per year on about $6B in revenue, so I'm not sure that an extra billion or so in cash is going to fundamentally remake the company....
giantg2 6y ago
Only some brokers were locking it out. Most of the traditional big names did not.
dastx 6y ago
> $GME is up 11% as of the writing of this post. Who is buying it? Robinhood isn't the only investment platform that allows trades on NYSE obviously. Evidently though, it had the highest volume when it comes to GME it seems.

Osiris 6y ago

I had a pending market order fill at opening but now by brokerage mobile app won't log me in.

dragontamer 6y ago

I just checked my TD Ameritrade account. I'm able to buy GME just fine (though I didn't hit the "confirm" button). I know RobinHood messed up here. But... they never had a good reputation to begin with. Its an open secret that RobinHood's entire setup is kind of crap.

itake 6y ago
I didn't see a failure on Schwab until I hit "confirm" yesterday. My understanding is TD Ameritrade is only blocking the purchase of stock on margin. If you have the cash, you're allowed to make the purchase.
- swiley 6y ago
  Oh well that's reasonable. If I were a brokerage you bet your ass I wouldn't lend you money to buy GME.
  - aynyc 6y ago
    Why should broker allow margin trading at all? If it's about risk, then who's the decider/calculator of the risk? I think this is the reason why there is a distrust from the next generation.
    - swiley 6y ago
      This really wouldn't be the first time Robinhood changed their software to prevent it's users from doing exceptionally stupid things with margin.
    - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
      > who's the decider/calculator of the risk? The lender. As in all loans. As is in every detail described in one’s margin contract.
      - aynyc 6y ago
        I looked at my margin document, other than Federal Reserve requirements and account restriction, there is no provision stating they can block a specific eligible stock as long as I meet their margin requirement.
        kgwgk 6y ago
        Their margin requirement may be linked to the name so increasing the margin requirement to 100% would be a way to block the use of margin.
        aynyc 6y ago
        That would block all margin trades, no? Not a specific instrument. I understand why they did it, but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
        kgwgk 6y ago
        They can set margin requirement separately for each stock. For example, with InteractiveBrokers "long stock positions [of AMC, BB, EXPR, GME, and KOSS] will require 100% margin and short stock positions will require 300% margin until further notice". https://twitter.com/IBKR/status/1354792600004386818 https://twitter.com/IBKR/status/1354792600004386818
- 52-6F-62 6y ago
  And that's pretty normal for highly-volatile stocks, isn't it?
swiley 6y ago
I just bought NOK this morning on TD. I think it's just robinhood.
- 12bits 6y ago
  My Canadian TD account has been giving me a 502 all morning.
  - swiley 6y ago
    Sounds about right haha.

segmondy 6y ago

hedge funds that shorted have to buy to close out their position, they need to buy.

gherittwhite 6y ago

It's annoying. The regular guy should be able to profit off this too. I was at the gym yesterday and heard like 5 people talking about stocks: gme, amc, bb. Everyone is trying to get in on this and they're trying to stop it. They bogged gme at open to scare people and now it's back up. If they didn't remove the option for users to buy they surely would have bought the dip.

NickM 6y ago
Blocking people from buying a stock is not the same as blocking people from profiting off of a stock; nobody knows what the future valuation of the stock will be, so if you prevent people from buying, you may just as well be preventing them from losing money as from gaining. Keep in mind that this is very likely a zero-sum game. At some point the bubble will pop, and as many people as gained money on the way up will lose money on the way down.
- breck 6y ago
  The bubble only needs to pop though if GME management screws it up. GME has now become a $25B hedge fund with a gaming focus. They absolutely have the ability to become long term successful given these black swans they just experienced. Now, I know *nothing* about their management, but they at least have been given a chance. Their's an Eminem song that they should be playing throughout their buildings right now. If I were them I'd sell more shares, pay down any bad debt, and invest in 10-100 of the best black swan ideas of my rank and file and see what happens.
  - NickM 6y ago
    GME has now become a $25B hedge fund with a gaming focus. I think you're confusing their market cap with their balance sheet. A $25B hedge fund has $25B in assets, but a $25B market cap does not mean that they have access to anywhere near that amount of capital. Sure, maybe they could issue a dilutive follow-on offering and bring in some cash, but who knows where the stock price will be by the time they get through the paperwork on that. And they're currently losing about half a billion per year on about $6B in revenue, so I'm not sure that an extra billion or so in cash is going to fundamentally remake the company....

giantg2 6y ago

Only some brokers were locking it out. Most of the traditional big names did not.

dastx 6y ago

> $GME is up 11% as of the writing of this post. Who is buying it? Robinhood isn't the only investment platform that allows trades on NYSE obviously. Evidently though, it had the highest volume when it comes to GME it seems.