Retail investors belittle hedge fund moguls

Robinhood, between a rock and a hard place
Charlie Richardson
18 March 2021
Retail investors belittle hedge fund moguls

What happened and why? r/wallstreetbets VS Wall Street war saga continues. And Robinhood app is caught up in the middle of it, after joining Interactive Brokers, Webull and other trading platforms in restricting their customers from buying shares in GameStop and similar “memestocks” like Blackberry, Nokia and AMC. ⏪ Rewind... In a true Robin Hood spirit, an army of Reddit-inspired upstart investors went on a mission to stick it to the rich man - aka Wall Street - after noticing that hedge funds had bet that some struggling companies, including GameStop, would tank. Taking matters into thousands of hands, the Reddit army went on a coordinated shopping spree, blasting GameStop’s share price up + 1800% and looting almost $1bn from the pockets of hedge funds’ in the process. ⏩ Fast forward... The decision taken by Robinhood, to limit trading based on market volatility fears, angered a dangerous triad. Customers, politicians and celebrities alike, kicked off both in an online/offline rage against the machine. Customers took to social media platforms like Twitter to accuse Robinhood of failing their mission to “democratize finance for all”, while bombarding their App Store and Google Play with one star reviews. Most striking of all... the class action lawsuit they’ve filed against the trading platform on Thursday.The incoming chair of the Senate Banking and Housing Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, also tweeted: “It’s time for SEC and Congress to make the economy work for everyone, not just Wall Street”.Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez classed it as “unacceptable”, showing her support for the hearing. The ever-present Elon Musk replied to the Congresswoman's statement, with an approvingly “Absolutely”. 📸 No such thing as bad publicity...? The only silver lining for Robinhood in this messy situation was the surge in the number of downloads, the investment platform ranking #1 in the US App Store, followed closely by... you guessed it, Reddit. Robinhood did finally reopen limited access to investments in GameStop on Friday after being accused of intentionally tipping the scales against small investors. Is the backlash reasonable?... Robinhood is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The trading platform was under a burdening financial pressure in various quarters. Having to appeal to banks for millions of dollars in credit lines and turn to investors like Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital to form an emergency cushion so it could comply with capital necessities for meeting customer trades. The company managed to raise a sharp $1bn from investors late Thursday evening but the return to trading doesn’t seem to have calmed the waters for the raging customers that want Wall St blood. The takeaway A new generation of investors… Looking past Robinhood and GameStop, the real protagonists of this story are the people, the new line of investors whose power lies in the many. In the long run, retail investors can have an incredible impact on the hierarchical structure of the stock market business, prompting the financial moguls to think twice before taking action. There’s a clear necessity for hedge funds to become more conscious of their ethical stance and more aware of their public image. Meanwhile, regulators are fearing the readjustment of Gamestop to previous levels. If investors start to take profits, thousands of retail investors could quickly be left in a nasty financial hole as the stock plummets.