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Robinhood is a free service. The customers don’t pay anything. If the order internalizers decide to stop paying them for their order flow, then they have to rou
by dcolkitt 6y ago
Robinhood is a free service. The customers don’t pay anything. If the order internalizers decide to stop paying them for their order flow, then they have to route to the exchanges. which charge fees.
Trading is still ongoing at the exchanges. It’s just the free platforms, where it’s shut down. If someone wanted guaranteed access to the exchange, then they shouldn’t have used a free broker. Are you saying that Robinhood should be forced to continue providing a free service at a loss?
- mancerayder 6y agoI'm saying they should be sued. So, yes, I am saying that. If you buy securities you can't sell, you're pinned and that's not right, is it. I'm not sure if Robinhood traders signed up to that. Free doesn't matter.
- lkramer 6y agoThey still allow selling, just not buying.
- abootstrapper 6y agoAllowing only buying OR selling seems like a good lever to manipulate a stock price.
- pureliquidhw 6y agoBut who's buying if you can't buy? Limiting the audience that can buy reduces demand, and thus the price will be negatively impacted.
- castlecrasher2 6y agoTo me that suggests they're kowtowing to short sellers and manipulating the market.
- maxwell 6y agoNah. "You can only sell up to 0 shares of GME."
- function_seven 6y agoYes. They should be forced to provide the service they promised. It’s not my fault their business model is failing for a particular ticker on a particular day. If they can’t, then some advance notice is needed. Making this decision instantly without giving customers time to move their holdings elsewhere is not okay. That being said, I’m surprised people are still using them for day trading. They don’t have a great track record.
- dcolkitt 6y ago> They should be forced to provide the service they promised Read the TOS. This was never promised.
- function_seven 6y agoYeah, TOS's are famous for being one-sided and permitting all sorts of bad behavior. And for not matching the marketing promises of the product they're attached to. They may be legally entitled to do what they've done. That doesn't make it right. My comment is an "ought" comment, more than an "is" comment. Regulation should moot TOS's that allow this kind of rug-pulling.
- salmon-salmon 6y agoThis is exactly why people don't like Wall Street. It's smart to pay attention to the TOS pragmatically to protect yourself, but the TOS has absolutely no ethical relevance. To people with a well-adjusted ethical compass, a trading platform blocking trades is a violation of their social contract. You should be aware that if you're citing the TOS in any context other than a court case, most people are going to like you less as a result.
- monadic3 6y agoYou can't expect a reasonable person to read the TOS. They have a reasonable expectation to get the same service as any other day, even if this conflicts with Robinhood's business model, unless Robinhood made their expected behavior abundantly clear in advance.
- 6y ago
- sgpl 6y agoIt's not just robinhood, platforms that charge commission such as IBRK [1] have halted the trade of options (which is different from not allowing buying) but it definitely suggests some behind the scenes coordination for all these online brokers to all decide this today. [1] https://www.axios.com/robinhood-gamestop-restrictions-370adfcb-fe22-494d-85e7-eb9c4a98bed7.html https://www.axios.com/robinhood-gamestop-restrictions-370adf...
- dcolkitt 6y agoOptions are different than equities. The possibility of losses far exceeding the initial position is easily possible. If the customer loses all their money, the broker is in the hook. IB clearly is concerned about the credit risk, when the stock could literally rise or fall by a factor of ten in a day. They’re still allowing trading in the underlying stock.
- egman_ekki 6y agoI tried through IB and could not buy GME stock either.
- sgpl 6y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong but if I'm buying a call, my downside is limited to the price that I pay for the option no? Obviously if people are selling options / etc. downside can be uncapped.
- brutal_chaos_ 6y agoYes, this is the bed they made for themselves.
- tartoran 6y agoRobinhood is not entirely free. Just sayin..
- reyqn 6y agoI don't known if the kind of publicity they're getting right now is good for them. They could end up losing way more.
- honest_guy 6y ago> Are you saying that Robinhood should be forced to continue providing a free service at a loss? This seems like an honest framing of the situation!
- 42_ 6y agoAbsolutely yes. If you can't provide a free service, then do not advertise it as a free service.
- malkuth23 6y agoRobinhood has a free version and a paid version. Both account types are blocked from trading GME, NOK and other securities.
- baggachipz 6y agoThis is the second day in a row I've been unable to log in to Ally Invest, a service I absolutely pay for.
- pjc50 6y agoAllowing trading in only one direction is clearly market manipulation and should be slammed by the SEC.
- hawk_ 6y agointeractive brokers is a paid service and they actually pretend they are different by not sharing their flow with Citadel etc... even they blocked trades on options on these symbols.
- rsanek 6y agoRobinhood is not free. You are paying through PfOF. Just because you're not aware that you're paying more for your trades doesn't mean it's actually free. And, as others have pointed out, they have a version of their service which is paid and is exhibiting the same behavior.
- colllectorof 6y agoThis doesn't really answer the main question above. How is this not evidence of a corrupted market system? Free market assumes that buyers can make their own decisions. This is a fundamental requirement. If you are "free" to decide something, but then your decision gets overridden when it doesn't suit a particular third party, you aren't really free. The mechanism of enforcement and excuses given afterwards don't change the fundamentals.
- guerrilla 6y agoSame policy applies to paid Robinhood and other paid brokers.
- mcguire 6y agoI just checked my TD Ameritrade account. I couldn't call up any information on GME.