I am not sure how this is a pump & dump scheme. Covester (backed by USV and acquired by Interactive brokers) has a similar model. Wealthfront's predecessor -KaC

I am not sure how this is a pump & dump scheme. Covester (backed by USV and acquired by Interactive brokers) has a similar model. Wealthfront's predecessor -KaChing-(backed by Benchmark) also allowed you to replicate trades of smart investors. Both Covester/Ka-Ching wanted to disrupt the mutual fund model where any smart guy sitting in a basement can become a portfolio manager. The theory is not so far fetched because Michael Burry ( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Burry http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Burry ) was discovered by Wall Street after talking about on Yahoo Message boards. BUT... KaChing pivoted to a modern day financial advisor focused on making Index investments (like DFA) & Covestor sold to IB. This leads me to believe that the market to build a big VC backed size business may not be there.