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Some of the biggest online brokerage apps have begun to respond to the insane surge of market trading after a group of Reddit users banded together to drive up stock prices of certain companies to stick it to traditional hedge funds that get rich off shorting stocks.
On Thursday morning Robinhood and TD Ameritrade took steps to restrict the trading in GameStop, AMC, and other “meme stocks” in an effort to “mitigate risks” for companies and clients.
BREAKING: Robinhood has restricted users from buying GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia stock. This is VERY CRAZY, I do not see how RobinHood survives screwing its users like thishttps://t.co/mUujOjoUu8
— Jason Koebler (@jason_koebler) January 28, 2021
Statement from Robinhood
In light of current market volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC and $GME. Read more here.https://t.co/CdJMjGAeFH
— Robinhood (@RobinhoodApp) January 28, 2021
We continuously monitor the markets and make changes where necessary. In light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD and $NOK. We also raised margin requirements for certain securities.”
Statement from TD Ameritrade
“In the interest of mitigating risk for our company and clients, we have put in place several restrictions on some transactions in $GME, $AMC and other securities,” a spokeswoman for TD Ameritrade told MarketWatch, referring to the ticker symbols of the companies. “We made these decisions out of an abundance of caution amid unprecedented market conditions and other factors.”
The reaction to Robinhood and other apps restricting trades for meme stocks was universally panned by social media users who crushed them for pandering to Wall Street with these moves.
after delisting GameStop and AMC, Robinhood has gotten over 100,000 1 star reviews in one hour on the app store, now set with a 1 rating. they deserve it pic.twitter.com/eDNDuPrj8r
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 28, 2021
Individual investors are being stripped of their ability to trade on @RobinhoodApp
Meanwhile hedge funds and institutional investors can continue to trade as normal.
What do you call a market that removes retail investors ability to buy to save institutional investors shorts? https://t.co/G0hQFJDaG4
— Mod (@wsbmod) January 28, 2021
https://twitter.com/redditinvestors/status/1354795061653942276
https://twitter.com/dakotaz/status/1354800683300646916
So are @robinhoodapp and @IBKR ending trading in #wallstreetbets stocks because they are losing their ass on these trades ? Or maybe they dont have the cash to enable the trades at this scale ? Anyone have any insight on their economics ?
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 28, 2021
There is no reason you should be using Robinhood after today.
— Chairman (@WSBChairman) January 28, 2021
They want to remove $GME and $AMC from Robinhood? We will remove them from our phone. #DeleteRobinhood
— Chairman (@WSBChairman) January 28, 2021
Robinhood, Interactive Brokers restrict trading in $NOK, $AMC, $GME, $BB, $NAKD, and other stock and options in an effort to scare retail investors into selling.
The 'free market' isn't so free after all. #wallstreetbets https://t.co/1QPVLno2ps
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) January 28, 2021
Robinhood is no longer allowing users to do anything but close out their #GME or #AMC positions. Hard to put into words how outrageous that is. This is, much more acutely, the definition of manipulating the market.
— Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul) January 28, 2021