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Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

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Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#2
This is clearly photo shopped right?

I mean going up vs going down?

and the high vs medium risk statement is, at best, debatable.

If this is real, can anyone shed light on how they ensure a user has the capital required to purchase options? ie if I purchase 1 calls of GOOG and they expire ITM what does Robin Hood do if I dont' have $10,000 in cash for the exercise?

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#5

This is clearly photo shopped right? I mean going up vs going down? and the high vs medium risk statement is, at best, debatable. If this is real, can anyone shed light on how they ensure a user has the capital required to purchase options? ie if I purchase 1 calls of GOOG and they expire ITM what does Robin Hood do if I dont' have $10,000 in cash for the exercise?

In the thread they say Robinhood doesn’t allow selling calls if you don’t hav the shares already.

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#6
post #5

This is clearly photo shopped right? I mean going up vs going down? and the high vs medium risk statement is, at best, debatable. If this is real, can anyone shed light on how they ensure a user has the capital required to purchase options? ie if I purchase 1 calls of GOOG and they expire ITM what does Robin Hood do if I dont' have $10,000 in cash for the exercise?

In the thread they say Robinhood doesn’t allow selling calls if you don’t hav the shares already.

Sure, that makes sense, but i asked about buying calls and not having cash to settle the transaction at expiry.

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#7
post #4

What's wrong with removing the jargon from stock trading?

The trouble is that Robinhood has a very low barrier of entry and now you have laymen who, if they don't understand basic finance terms, likely do not understand the fundamentals of trading options.

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the thread they say Robinhood doesn’t allow selling calls if you don’t hav the shares already.

Sure, that makes sense, but i asked about buying calls and not having cash to settle the transaction at expiry.

According to Robinhood, "If you don’t have enough buying power to exercise your option, we’ll sell the contract in the market for you about 1 hour before it expires." https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005656423...

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#9
Honestly, this doesn't surprise me at all. The interface in Robinhood makes me think it can only be useful for people that have 0 idea what they are doing. Case in point: their graphs (at least on Android) have no labled Y axis! Seriously, WTF.

Re: Robinhood replaced “call” and “put” with “up” and “down”

#10
post #4

What's wrong with removing the jargon from stock trading?

> What's wrong with removing the jargon from stock trading?

Because you're removing all specificity from it at the same time.

If you show me that screenshot without the text in the tweet, I'd have no idea what action it actually refers to. It could mean you're buying or selling an option. Or it could mean you're buying or selling a stock (potentially short selling). It could even mean you're buying stock on margin.

In fact, buying a call option is probably not even the most reasonable interpretation of "I think that this stock will go up", because purchasing the stock outright would be the default workflow. Especially since it doesn't even specify a timeline for the option[0]! Am I betting that it will go up today? Next week? Next month? Next year? There is literally no way to tell from that display.

And quite honestly: if you know about the distinction between buying equity and buying a call option, you will care about the difference between the two. And if you don't know about the distinction, you have no business trading options, because you'll undoubtedly screw yourself over.

[0] Timelines matter less than you'd think, because you can sell an option early to recoup its value and call options are always worth more alive than dead[1]. But it still matters, because buying an option that expires in a month is a very different bet from buying an option that expires in a year.

[1] In other words, you never exercise an option early even in markets where it's permitted.

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