Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 316 posts

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#161

Post by bcrosby95 »

gnud wrote: post #155
tw04 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When I bought my house, the attorneys sat down with me and had me read through and explained to me every single term of the purchase agreement and my mortgage, checking that I understood them. Absolutely no one has done this for Facebook, throwing a few hundred into Robinhood, etc. It's not worth it, and the terms change with such frequency that it would be outdated immediately. I still have my binder from my closin…

Really? I _know_ I read everything, both for my loan and for the purchase, when I bought my apartment. It wasn't really that much. It took a few hours. I didn't read every law that the contract referred to, but I read the contract itself. Is a house really that much worse when it comes to paperwork? Or is the US just that much worse with this stuff?

I still have my closing documents from our house and it's about an inch and a half of paperwork.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#162

Post by freeflight »

tibbon wrote: post #112
mikestew wrote: post #98

Yeah, brokerages will do that if the stock takes a big drop like it did today. Oh, did you not read that part of your margin agreement? According to thread, some are just now getting to that part. Those same folks shouldn't have been trading GME on margin. If it's any consolation, I've had Fidelity, IB, et. al., do the exact same thing when a trade turned sour. Difference is, I didn't run to Reddit to display my igno…

I honestly didn't read the agreements on Robinhood. Before you call me stupid or irresponsible, I'm going to say practically no one reads these agreements, and even fewer understand them. The NYT a few days ago had an opinion piece on how no one reads the TOS for things like this. A very choice line: > A 2012 Carnegie Mellon study found that the average American would have to devote 76 work days just to read over tec…

> I'm going to say practically no one reads these agreements, and even fewer understand them.

This might be true for the myriad of free online services and applications most people use on the daily.

But with anything I plan to spend or invest my money in/give my real personal information to I will most certainly take care to properly read and understand what I'm agreeing to there.

In that context, comparing your mortgage agreement with signing up for Facebook is apples to oranges. One of those is a very real very long-term financial liability directly and undeniably tied to your real identity with a legally binding contract, the other is a service that tries to monetize whatever data you give to them based on EULA and ToS that in many jurisdictions are not even legally enforceable.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#163

Post by marcinzm »

tibbon wrote: post #112
mikestew wrote: post #98

Yeah, brokerages will do that if the stock takes a big drop like it did today. Oh, did you not read that part of your margin agreement? According to thread, some are just now getting to that part. Those same folks shouldn't have been trading GME on margin. If it's any consolation, I've had Fidelity, IB, et. al., do the exact same thing when a trade turned sour. Difference is, I didn't run to Reddit to display my igno…

I honestly didn't read the agreements on Robinhood. Before you call me stupid or irresponsible, I'm going to say practically no one reads these agreements, and even fewer understand them. The NYT a few days ago had an opinion piece on how no one reads the TOS for things like this. A very choice line: > A 2012 Carnegie Mellon study found that the average American would have to devote 76 work days just to read over tec…

>I don't think having such impossible terms that you "agree" to are in good faith.

These are standard terms and you are borrowing money from them so logically they will have a lot of say in terms of that money. Credit cards will have interest rates, collateral loans will have liens on property, etc, etc. Nothing about this is impossible.

I do find it funny how the people who complain about this are also complaining about government oversight, robinhood stopping trades, etc. If you want full freedom then it's on you to pay attention to the details and not expect someone else to bail you out of your own ignorance.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#164

Post by dv_dt »

tw04 wrote: post #139
tibbon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly didn't read the agreements on Robinhood. Before you call me stupid or irresponsible, I'm going to say practically no one reads these agreements, and even fewer understand them. The NYT a few days ago had an opinion piece on how no one reads the TOS for things like this. A very choice line: > A 2012 Carnegie Mellon study found that the average American would have to devote 76 work days just to read over tec…

>When I bought my house, the attorneys sat down with me and had me read through and explained to me every single term of the purchase agreement and my mortgage, checking that I understood them. Absolutely no one has done this for Facebook, throwing a few hundred into Robinhood, etc. It's not worth it, and the terms change with such frequency that it would be outdated immediately. I still have my binder from my closin…

When i closed on my house I insisted the package be sent to me days ahead so I could read it over. Made everyone unhappy that was necessary including me. But I was in a position to do that and I did. I think most good notaries go over a verbal summary of the documents at the time of signing - but it's obviously not binding if there is a misunderstanding.

Margin accounts someone could read over after the fact - but the length and lack of a critical summary on most agreements is ridiculous.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#165

Post by jagger27 »

mikestew wrote: post #141
simonsaidit wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference here is they prevented people from starting new positions while still allowing closing them .. effectivly being the cause of the drop.

You think a lack of volume from retail traders on Robinhood is the cause of the drop? To put it mildly, that's a little naive.

Please feel free to explain what's so naive about that.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#166

Post by dingaling »

short_sells_poo wrote: post #75
hahla wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my thought process as well, but no where in the app message or email does it say the position was closed out due to a margin call.

If you have a margin account, the broker calculates a risk based margin and can close any position they wish if they deem it a risk. They don't have to give you any justification. With increased buying power comes increased risk. In some sense this was basically inevitable. Robinhood allowed (perhaps even encouraged) a huge mass of clueless investors to flood into the market. As long as the going was good, nobody com…

Maybe it's a good time to stop calling them investors and instead call them speculators.

They're not investing in anything, their money doesn't contribute to any form of progress.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#168

Post by eigenvalue »

eterm wrote: post #7

Browing the top of reddit right now is really reminiscent of /r/The_Donald, particularly the shift from a bunch of 'ironic' jokers to conspiracy theories and shouty chest beating and calls for upvotes. I'd treat anything like this with a huge pinch of salt.

Losing a lot of money very quickly is a hell of a motivator for action.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#169

Post by Apocryphon »

SamBam wrote: post #148
Animats wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, it worked for Bitcoin. I never expected that. I thought Bitcoin was overpriced at US$20.

I think the Bitcoin example was exactly what the investors were thinking. A stock that magically always goes up and everybody gets rich. With a real stock, somebody has to be left holding the bag at the end. (Probably with BitCoin as well, but that's a separate discussion.) My understanding was that, with the short squeeze, for a certain number of those stocks the buyer would be the hedge funds. But it seems like at…

I mean, that's exactly what's been happening with Tesla for months.

Re: Robinhood is automatically initiating GME sell orders on users' behalf

#170

Post by wegs »

mikestew wrote: post #103
firebaze wrote: post #100

Smelled like scam, is a scam. So glad I didn't fall into the robinhood trap, I was really close to. Edit: yes this comment isn't related to the linked article.

Fidelity and every other brokerage of which I have knowledge would let you do the same thing (get into a bad trade, and then liquidate your position when you exceed margin limits). This isn't a "Robinhood" thing, this is an "ignorant gamblers who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a margin account" thing.

Kinda....

1) I'd expect a credible brokerage to treat me like a human being. Call me up. Talk to me. Allow me to add money to my account if need be. Simply liquidating my position with no notice with an automated script isn't how I'd like my money to be treated.

2) This is among a rather large number of sketchy practices.

I have no horse in this game. My money's mostly in index funds and mutual funds, with maybe 1% actively managed. There's a certain way I expect solid financial institutions to behave with my future. There's a different way fly-by-night institutions behave. This very much sets of my fly-by-night detector....

Post reply on HN