The GameStop story you think you know is wrong
First, are the Reddit revolutionaries new populists descended from the radicals of Occupy Wall Street? No. They’re basically a bunch of dudes upvoting memes with cash. Or, to be more generous, they represent an extremely online evolution of Big Finance itself, a kind of decentralized hedge fund duking it out with other hedge funds. The typical day trader is a pretty well-off man in his 30s, and various reports so far show that some of the Reddit group’s leading members are current and former finance workers, some of whom make enough money to live in gated communities. By using a message board to move markets and cream billionaires, they’ve done something truly fascinating. But while some Redditors made millions recently, the largest holders of GameStop stock, like the giant asset manager BlackRock, made billions. None of this has anything to do with “the little guy” a moniker that, by any reasonable definition, refers to the r
Robinhood’s CEO is not licensed by a powerful Wall Street regulator
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is not licensed by FINRA, Wall Street’s powerful self-regulator, even though he presides over one of the nation’s largest and most powerful online brokers.
Tenev has emerged as the public face of Robinhood as the startup has come under fire for its decision, on one of the market’s most volatile days, to suspend buying of GameStop, AMC and other stocks boosted by an army of traders on Reddit.
Last week, Robinhood says it was blindsided by surging capital requirements from its clearinghouse. To meet those requirements, the app announced that it had raised $3.4 billion within four days to fund its explosive growth.
The Atlantic
Reddit investors are not new populists descended from the radicals of Occupy Wall Street.
February 3, 2021
Updated at 11:02 a.m. ET on February 3, 2021.
The story you might have heard goes like this: A group of regular-Joe traders on Reddit took down a hedge fund by bidding up the stock price of the sleepy video-game store GameStop. Their righteous revolution was briefly thwarted last week when Robinhood, the popular brokerage app, restricted trading because it was secretly in cahoots with the hedge funds. This was an outrage: It was as if, in the matchup between David and Goliath, the magical slingshot stopped firing because it was secretly controlled by the giant. So, right-thinking people on TV and social media hailed the common day traders, demanded prison for various Robinhood executives, and generally extolled the salutary populism of stock speculation and day-trading.
One of the more overused adages about business on the internet is that “if you aren’t paying, you are the product.” It’s always been true, but it’s become acute lately. Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon
mostly sell you things like phones, computers, web-hosting services, and Instant Pots. On the other hand, Google, Facebook, and Visa largely sell
you.
You don’t need to pay for a Visa card, but Visa sells its cardholders to companies all over the world. Those vendors must accept Visa as payment, and give Visa a cut, or lose business. You don’t need to pay for most Google products, but Google converts your information into a lucrative advertising business. Facebook is free and makes its money off highly targeted, personalized ads. These companies offer things you
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is reportedly expected to testify as part of a House hearing on GameStop and short sellers msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.