Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/28/robinhood-plays-sheriff-for-wall-street-blocking-users-from-buying-popular-stocks.html
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The “free” market: “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it” (RIP George).
It’ll be fun seeing Libertarians trying to justify this on behalf of their beloved corporations and billionaires.
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Yeah, this was great. For fun I bought 37 shares at $14 yesterday. This morning I executed a pre-market-opening sell order at $19.50. But then RH held everything, and executed my order later on, at $13.
And there’s the lesson, once again: the 1% has way more tools at its disposal than the rest of us ever will.
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The common folk will never hold the levers of commerce, our only chance is through regulation and representation, which equates to voter participation. Get The Vote Out!
BTW: In the early 70’s min. wage was $1.10 [I started working and paying taxes], it’s $7.25 in 2021. In close to 50 years it’s gone up six f#cking dollars and fifteen f#cking cents. We are slaves, they [1%] are the masters. We must organize, and we must act as a unit, or we face another 50 years on shit wages, and outright slavery to the 1%. Stay focused my friends, the 1% ain’t going down without a fight.
Papasan
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Wow, you nailed it with this one. Nicely put.
And, a belated welcome back; you’ve been quite missed!
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Yep, it’s the temple capitalists vs the bazaar anarchists (mostly accidental).
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I make music, think about some things, and once in awhile cook and eat.
We have somethings in common. Thank you and hope you and loved ones are safe.
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Yeah, they LITERALLY control the markets for the sales of stocks. If they don’t like what you are doing as you compete with them on pricing shares, they’ll shut you out.
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I wish I was a hedge fund, that way I can get trading platforms and politicians to do my bidding when the market doesn’t go my way.
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Sooooooo not to get in the way of the mob—may I compliment you all on the sharpness of your pitchforks, very nice!—but Robinhood might very well be terrified it’s gonna get sued if it doesn’t pump the brakes here a little on meme stonks.
Some redditors are going to make real money on this, and good for them. And lots are going to lose money and be perfectly satisfied with the entertainment value they got out of it. But there are also going to be a ton of genuine n00bs who are going to be shocked and angry when the bubble bursts, and that’s when the plaintiffs’ lawyers are going to start calling. If there’s so much as one interoffice Robinhood e-mail remarking with pleasure on how much money this dumbass stunt is making them as idiots throw money at a guaranteed loser stock (and there will be hundreds of e-mails like that!) then it’s just a question of how big the inevitable settlement will be.
Now that’s not to say they’re not ALSO motivated by the conspiratorial plottings of their corporate liege lords, yadda yadda. But bubbles make a mess when they burst, and Robinhood is way too close to this not to think they might get splashed.
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I resemble that remark.
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If someone wanted to dabble on their own, what service would be better than Robinhood? Or is there one?
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Robinhood is just as likely to get sued by people like @anon33932455 (see above) who bought far more than 37 shares and lost a lot more money when the company suddenly put the hold in place. And their making money on any stock run is understood as part of their retail brokerage/surveillance business model, so a gloating e-mail is beside he point.
Those things considered, it’s clear Robinhood took this action mainly at the behest of Wall Street incumbents, especially Citadel (“we’re not only an investor, we’re also a customer!”).
Robinhood is betting that individual lawsuits by the peons will be easier to fight than lawsuits by the short-sellers, but I’m sure an costly class action by the redditors is already in the works (though I have a suspicion the EULA will shield Robinhood). In addition, their brand goodwill (already damaged by the publicity over their UI/UX) just went into the toilet. If Robinhood was a publicly traded stock there would be good reason to short it right now.
It’s wild, seeing this relatively small company’s founders and board throwing themselves under the bus to benefit their far larger and wealthier industry colleagues. 2021 is really shaping up to be the Year of the Conservative Death Cult.
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Interactive Brokers is having some serious problems. I cannot log into my IRA account for trading (only viewing reports). Thus, I cannot trade at all. My non-IRA account is slow, some of the pages and charts are not loading. And this is not owning any of the stocks in question.
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I am, to paraphrase a wise sage, working for shit wages right now!
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what a bunch of FUD… as if Robinhood T&C don’t have long tirades on how investing is a risky, and markets go up and down, and losses are expected… any lawsuit would be laughed out of court.
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