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Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

wsj.com

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Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#241

Post by qaq »

gruez wrote: post #125
outworlder wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as their primary investing platform :%s/investing/speculation/g Very few people use RH as 'investing'. Those will be on boring brokers like Vanguard. I have a Tastyworks account too - the fills are way better than Robinhood's. As expected, since they charge some amount per trade. But that means that the "free" platform will definitely have more users, just because it's supposedly free (even though you pay for it in…

>just because it's supposedly free (even though you pay for it in the fills, and get frontrunning trades) Can you provide a source for this? Citadel (one of the companies robinhood sells order flow to) claims in regulatory filings[1] that the overwhelming majority of orders are executed at market price or better, and that they on average save traders money. [1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/citadel-wordpress-prd101/wp-con…

Wha the point of paying for order flow if you "execute at market price or better"? Are you suggesting Citadel is a charity?

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#242

Post by richbell »

SergeAx wrote: post #187
jrochkind1 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize it's not something that happens, but I would say "taking responsibility" would mean taking, oh, I dunno, $50M of that $800M in compensation in 2021, and distributing it to those laid off? (How the hell is your life different with $750M instead of $800M anyway?)

What do you mean "how is your life different"? His yacht may not have a second helicopter pad, for example!

Or he may have to settle with a medium-sized jacuzzi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frh5lA5uGRU

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#243

Post by ethbr0 »

xpe wrote: post #217
manquer wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rich don’t see it that way. At its core wealth accumulation is a scoring contest so every penny counts for those care. Also if you have all the material needs that is satisfied, then you go after the rare hard to get high value exclusive money drain this is human nature. For your specific example what that 50m might make difference it maybe a bigger jet that flies further or a second jet for the family or a yatch…

Imagine if I was visiting Laos and told someone I met in the countryside that I spent, say $2,000 on a racing bicycle -- which would be considered "normal" in bike racing culture in many parts of the US. Imagine what that person would think! My central point is this: People are quick to "normalize" their behavior relative to their perceived peer group. So, yes, multinational CEO compensation is hard to comprehend. (I…

There was a podcast episode on the psychology behind this. Radio Lab? Summary: people only look up, never down.

Ask someone who makes $100, and they'll explain they don't have a lot because someone makes $500.

Ask someone who makes $100,000, and they'll explain they don't have a lot because someone makes $500,000.

Ask someone who makes $100,000,000, and they'll explain they don't have a lot because someone makes $500,000,000.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#245

Post by UncleMeat »

paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

It is worth repeating this.

800M is more money in a single day than a very large number of people make in an entire lifetime.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#246

Post by fullshark »

ab_testing wrote: post #234
niyazpk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but also, none of my (investing) friends use Tastyworks, and almost all of them are using RH as their primary investing platform! Companies in hyper-growth stages may hire/fire differently than others.

Does that matter with brokerages. I don’t know if Robinhood has a chat feature that lets you chat with your friends while trading.

Customers matter for businesses, and they matter for businesses in winner take all marketplaces which has been the focus of VCs the last 10 years.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#247

Post by adrr »

paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

Vlad Tenev received $800m for taking the company public per an RSU agreement the board gave him in 2019 and $800m was when the stock price was $50+. Nows its only worth $130m. Banking is standard with discount brokers, you have a sweep account that is probably on an FDIC insured bank. GME issue was a lack of capital to settle GME trades. They owed $3 billion to NSCC. Robinhood was insolvent but people always flock to conspiracy theories on why Robinhood pulled GME trades. I am curious what would be the better decision for robinhood with the GME issue?

I don't use Robinhood but do benefit that my trades at other discount brokers are now free.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#248

Post by radicaldreamer »

bostonpete wrote: post #108
radicaldreamer wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs famously took a $1 salary and everything else was in stock.

That's not really true, at least not in the same way being discussed above. Jobs already owned millions of shares in Apple stock, so yes, he profited from the stock but AFAIK that was only from the appreciation of existing stock, not from new grants.

There's a whole options backdating scandal associated with his comp, so no, it wasn't just existing stock.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#249

Post by tjr225 »

paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

And giving a million bux to every one of the saps that got laid off. He's a crook.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#250

Post by groby_b »

BeetleB wrote: post #188
jonas21 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about the ~$800M in stock-based compensation described here [1]? Nearly all of that only vests if Robinhood stock hits price targets between $120 and $300 per share. The remainder requires a price of $50.75 to be sustained for 60 days. Since none of these goals have been met, Vlad has not received any of it. And unless the company turns around dramatically - it's currently around $9/share - it's likel…

Exactly - all these articles about CEO compensation are misleading. Case in point: Intel's CEO's 2021 salary was reported as almost $180M. In reality, he got only about $10M. He hit literally none of the targets that would allow him to get the rest of the compensation (although in theory he has a few years to hit those targets).

To be fair, if I could get paid $10M for not hitting any of my goals, I sure wouldn't complain.
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