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Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

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Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#601
What upsets me is the fact that selling isn't halted. If only buying is halted, it's obviously going to cause the stock to plummet. Retail investors who bought AMC, GameStop, Nokia, or Blackberry are going to fear losing a lot of money and sell. If everyone does that, the stock price decreases. It's obvious manipulation in favor of hedge funds shorting the stocks. I really hope Robin Hood gets hit with a class action lawsuit. I don't want to sound greedy because I'm losing money, but the way this is being dealt with is beyond unfair. Losing money for a stupid decision is fine by me, but joining a movement like this and having it shut down by force is absolute bullshit. How can hedge funds be allowed to manipulate the market but we can't come together to fight them?

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#602
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely paternalism, IMO. I'm less sure whether I think it's a good thing or not (because I think people buying new positions in GME at this point are unlikely to end up happy about that in mid-Feb.) I'm all for "let 'em play" in general but this is not going to end well for a lot of folks...

Why are you so quick to assume that people don’t know what they are doing? Is it so hard to believe that at this point buying GME is more about activism than making profit? “When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose”

This hit mainstream this week. There are people out there now buying stock based on a Reddit thread because they think it will get them some quick cash.

I am pretty much in like with the OP in that this is definitely paternalism, and I have no idea if it's good or bad. People were going to get screwed because of this, but I don't think Robinhood or other online trading apps stopped buy's to protect these people.

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#603

Can someone help me understand Robinhood's POV? This just seems so outrageous that there must be some sane rationale that I'm not seeing. Why do Robinhood, Reddit, Discord, etc feel like they have to respond to this? Whether the investments being made are responsible or not, it doesn't seem like it should be their place to intervene. If the hedge funds over-shorted GME and WSB recognized that and traded against that…

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Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#605

Sure. Robinhood got a call from someone very powerful in their circle, politely asking them to stop the amateur plebes from interfering with their professional market manipulation. We are taking about people commanding titanic amounts of capital and (indirect) regulatory power. Robinhood then had the choice, do we make enemies out of these people or do we just screw, er, I mean protect, our customers? Unburdened by a…

This is so true. It's all connected. It's probable that Reddit, Discord, RobinHood have all received calls to disrupt retail traders from political players or financial backers. There's no evidence of this, the truth is we'll never know, but how its most obvious reason. If only RobinHood would live up to its namesake. It is alarming that "soft" circuit breakers are being used to target retail traders on exchanges. I…

When Wall Street is making billions off of selling balloon interest mortgages with no income verification the position is "The consumer is an adult and can make decisions for themselves and read the fine print.... blah blah blah .. personal responsibility."

When the people are causing Wall Street to lose billions on their absurdly large short position, suddenly they are concerned for the "amateur" investors. The "unsophisticated" investors. "We need to save them from themselves, we have to do something, they don't know what they are doing! How could they possibly be responsible adults taking this position that is hurting us financially? I know! Let's strap on these training wheels for their own good so they cannot hurt themselves cough or us cough. "

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#606
post #555

Sure. Robinhood got a call from someone very powerful in their circle, politely asking them to stop the amateur plebes from interfering with their professional market manipulation. We are taking about people commanding titanic amounts of capital and (indirect) regulatory power. Robinhood then had the choice, do we make enemies out of these people or do we just screw, er, I mean protect, our customers? Unburdened by a…

This narrative doesn't make any sense. Hedge funds aren't a monolithic entity. Some hedge funds lost billions of dollars on shorts. Redditors made millions of dollars. Where do you think the rest of the money went to? That's right, other, more powerful, hedge funds. BlackRock held 9.2 million shares as of a few weeks ago.

There is a saying that if you're not paying for a product, you are the product.

Robinhood's real customer, the paying customer isn't the users of its app, which they offer out for free. It's actual paying customers are HFT firms, and specifically Citadel, the same Citadel that on Monday bailed out Melvin Capital with a 3 billion dollar loan.

Wouldn't surprise me one bit to find out Citadel called up Robinhood and said either shut this GME trading down or they're pulling the plug.

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#607

Can someone help me understand Robinhood's POV? This just seems so outrageous that there must be some sane rationale that I'm not seeing. Why do Robinhood, Reddit, Discord, etc feel like they have to respond to this? Whether the investments being made are responsible or not, it doesn't seem like it should be their place to intervene. If the hedge funds over-shorted GME and WSB recognized that and traded against that…

The way to make money in a bubble like this is to sell right before the pop. At some point the word will go out that it’s over—“we won”—and everyone will rush to sell their GME and take profits. It’s not possible for all those people to succeed. Broker apps like Robinhood will be absolutely overwhelmed with sell orders, many of which will run into technical problems and/or no counter parties. A lot of people are goin…

> Not everyone buying GME today understands the social movement /r/wsb angle.

I mean read the top comments in the top WSB posts today. It ain’t about sticking it to the man. It’s about making money, fast.

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#608

Can someone help me understand Robinhood's POV? This just seems so outrageous that there must be some sane rationale that I'm not seeing. Why do Robinhood, Reddit, Discord, etc feel like they have to respond to this? Whether the investments being made are responsible or not, it doesn't seem like it should be their place to intervene. If the hedge funds over-shorted GME and WSB recognized that and traded against that…

Robinhood’s actual customer is Citadel. Citadel was funding the short sells, investing directly into Melvin Capital, for example.

Robinhood did not act against its customers. Its users are their product, which it sells to Citadel. As you see now, this is way more than an edgy quip: when its free you are the product.

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#609

If they were just blocking margin trading or trades with unlimited risk that would be one thing. But this smacks of either paternalism or trying to manipulate the market. I hope they lose a lot of customers (or product depending on your POV).

Lost this customer! They canceled my literal 4$ but in gme, which was more of a statement than an investment on my part.

Re: Robinhood is limiting purchases of stocks: AMC, Blackberry, Nokia, and GameStop

#610

If they were just blocking margin trading or trades with unlimited risk that would be one thing. But this smacks of either paternalism or trying to manipulate the market. I hope they lose a lot of customers (or product depending on your POV).

I'm pretty happy they are doing it. This is really in the best interest of the average Robinhood user trying to buy GME right now. Maybe they shouldn't completely ban it, but there should be at least very extreme warnings about why its a terrible idea to buy.

But there are tons of overpriced stocks out there. Where do you draw the line? TSLA? AAPL? S&P 500?
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