This is a good read, but the most important bit is this: Robinhood is able to offer commission free trading because they essentially skim money off of every trade you make. This is called frontrunning. It's complicated, but essentially they (via third party market makers) will execute your trades at a little above (or below) the best price and then pocket the difference.
This is a crime, and they've been caught and fined in the past, but how else are they going to make money?
Since many people here are excited about the Gamestop fiasco (everyone is making money now, but even more people will be badly hurt when this is all over) I thought it would be good to emphasize this.
To reiterate ROBINHOOD STEALS FROM THE POOR AND GIVES TO THE RICH
The wealthy hedge fund investors that Re getting pwned right now are getting multibillion dollar bailouts, that's not going to happen to unlucky retail investors when this is all over.
Thanks for this. Think it’s definitely important for people not to get carried away with the “trading stocks is praxis” meme rn.
Strongly agree, I've come around to seeing the humor in it all but there's definitely some gold rush vibes going on here.
What these people have done in a week is more than the effect of all of Occupy.
To play off forcibly costing hedge funds actual billions to the point of insolvency as "a meme" to disparage it (relative to literally what, the posts on this site? reading theory?) is delusional.
Robinhood is not good, but it's a tool to doing more 'praxis' than a huge movement, or this site, could achieve in a decade and that deserves actual credit, not deflection in defense of ego.
To play off forcibly costing hedge funds actual billions to the point of insolvency
I don’t disagree in principle, but surely other hedge funds are gaining while some lose big time. Isn’t that just the stock market functioning within relatively normal parameters? I’ve read this whole thing represents 0.025% of the market. It’s nice that some people will be able to pay off their student debt or whatever, but the machine will just keep churning after this week unabated, right?
Hedge funds usually win off of normal people losing. There are definitely hedge funds leveraging this to go up now, but this was started by people and those people are making money off of the losses and way over-leveraging into shorts of shitty scum racket hedge funds.
Any dollar a normal person makes on WSB being ripped from the account of a suit is a good thing.
Jfc this isn't the storming of the Bastille. It's putting the screws to one small hedge fund in a sea of them. It's the equivalent of forcing the largest car dealership in Dayton, OH to close.
It's literally more effective than any movement you've been a part of in your lifetime and likely will go on to be a part of, so let's not downplay it as if our movements have done something.
I'm gonna assume you are not including rhe BLM protests in there, right? Because... that would really be something to suggest this is more effective than the BLM protests. And Occupy was 100X more impactful than this is going to be. If you can't recognize the broader effects that came from Occupy - framing economic issues as the 99% vs the 1%, a concept Americans did not think of before then; if we don't have Occupy we don't have Bernie or AOC - then I think you're really missing some perspective here.
The "I Trade With Robinhood, How Do I Protect Myself?" section was really helpful. Thanks for the post.
everyone is making money now, but even more people will be badly hurt when this is all over
That depends on how the short squeeze plays out. It is entirely possible that the GME short squeezers end up walking away with a profit, given the degree to which short sellers over-played their hand. They are on the hook for every GME stock bought thus far.
The last short squeeze of this magnitude was with Porsche in 2008, and the short squeezers walked away with a bounty.
The last short squeeze of this magnitude was with Porsche in 2008
It was Volkswagen I think.
Look. I have no idea what is going on right now. I'm going to pretend this post is about the most recent(-ish) Robin Hood movie and wholeheartedly agree. Gimme your best Robin Hood adaptations.
Almost signed up this morning, but didn't after I couldn't figure out how they were making money. Bullet dodged, I guess.
A traditional brokerage with a commission based system would at least make it clear what you’re paying. For some people dealing with the shit that Robinhood pulls might be worth it depending on your specific trading behavior. Short answer: do your research.
Charging a fee for the service they provide? This company is evil you guys!
They make trading more accessible to us, and thus also make fucking over massive hedge funds more accessible to us.
I think that might be a case to go "yeah, fair deal" for now.
The problem is that they "charge a fee". They mislead you into thinking the service is free, while surreptitiously extracting money from you in amounts and ways that are never made clear.
They only barely make trading more accessible anyway, they just have a slicker app.
Robinhood massively impacted accessibility to the stock market for normal people, who are you trying to fool here?
Sincerely asking: what did Robinhood do to make the stock market more accessible for normal people?
I can't even read that link without a giant pop-up bllockiing the entire screen LLOL
Here, this is another (possibly better) article on the same subject: https://www.tradersmagazine.com/am/the-hidden-costs-of-robinhood/
