I’m sure that information will be forthcoming in depositions and expert testimony. This isn’t something that Robinhood or the Family would want to make public at this time. My guess is that Robinhood didn’t put in the time or expert resources required in order to accommodate spread trading and margin offsets. I doubt it even crossed their minds because they just wanted to promote an App to young hipsters in order to sell as much order flow as they could harvest to Wall Street. The allure of “commission-free”. Robinhood hired influencers from all over social media and the tech websites. Free commissions, open an account with a couple thousand bucks, phone App, lots of promoted media buzz. What could go wrong? https://www.tradingtechnologies.com/trading/tt-platform/tt-mobile/
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The TTMobile Instruments and Settings Screen look strangely like the IBKR mobile app. Anybody know what gives it this look?
A 20 year old knows nothing. I take your point - but I’m not sure his emotional state was such that he would have started a thread in the Options forum and waited for three days and sorted through the vitriol in order to glean the honest sincere responses. I really lay all of this at Robinhood’s doorstep. If you’re going to sell options order flow to the highest bidder - at least embrace the responsibility to have an accurate real time P&L for those clients whom you are exploiting, which clearly was not the case. How Robinhood can offer Options and not be able to assign real-time credit offsets is just gross negligence IMO. This isn’t new technology - other trading platforms have been doing it for decades.
This is not the first time you mention PFOF as though it has anything to do with what happened. Selling order flow does not automatically mean the customer is disadvantaged. While I do believe brokers should be held to higher standards, it’s not their responsibility to make judgement calls on mental stability of their clients.
Would you hold Robinhood harmless for their shitty App that doesn’t calculate P&L correctly if that is borne out in discovery?
Yes, there are no laws, that I am aware of, that prevents making and selling shitty software. Even Boeing is allowed to outsource their software to the lowest bidder. As a US software developer, I am disgusted with the state of the industry, but it’s reality. I think should not mix software quality with risks inherent in market speculation. Sh*t happens all the time and no software is capable of gracefully handling all situations. I assume that any mentally stable person can recognize that loosing money is not the worst thing that can happen in life and there are always options available.
Hah. The average American of ANY age doesn't have $25k in accessible and liquid savings. A lot of gainfully employed people don't have a savings account at all, and have a bigger balance on their credit cards than their checking account. But nobody vets them for suitability to enter a casino with everything they got, do they? The first totally honest and legit offshore brokerage to offer zero commission stock trades and no fees to American account holders, even with no margin trading and no shorting on small accounts, is going to clean up. They will open thousand accounts under $5k in the first four hours. Any American should be allowed to buy stock with his own honestly acquired money. Any American should be allowed to sell stock that he has bought. If I can short a stock or scalp it a half dozen times before lunch then the guy who mows my yard or shoves daiquiris out the drive thru window at me should be able to, as well. Nobody should have the right to prevent trading except the broker or a judge. Nor should anybody be able to dictate the number of trades in a day or week. I can buy a painting, or a rare coin, and sell it 10 minutes later. My Granddaughter can even do it. And not once, or three times in 5 days, but multiple times a day. Stocks should be no different. The PDT rule is about as American as outlawing alcohol or confiscating guns or telling people who are not educated or "financially responsible" that they cannot vote. It is not the government's business to protect an adult in full posession of his mental faculties from his own financial decisions even though the motive might well be a compassionate one. I has spoken.