The last three days have been a whirlwind for the US Stock exchange after a Reddit trading thread managed to cause chaos for the Wall Street hedgefunds when retail traders online sent share prices for Gamestop to a record high for the company. The American video game store’s value hit $30bn (£22bn) at one stage – more than 100 times what it was worth in August.
Robinhood made the decision to limit the buying on certain stocks to protect the firm and its users, their CEO revealed to CNBC. This saw a 44% drop in the price. However, fellow crypto-to-crypto trading platform Bittrex Global has just announced that they’ll be listing the delisted stocks from Robinhood.
“We intend to list every stock that gets delisted from platforms like Robinhood, so that even small investors have the same opportunities afforded to multibillion-dollar financial institutions,’ said Bittrex Global CEO Tom Albright.
“The current situation feeds into the narrative that the financial system is rigged against the little guy.”
The debate is ongoing on whether retail traders, like those on the trending Reddit page, should be allowed to continue to move the markets in the way they do with little regulation in comparison to those on Wall Street.
This is unacceptable.
We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.
As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary. https://t.co/4Qyrolgzyt
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021
Former trader Amarjit Bhati said: “Free markets should be free and available for everyone to invest in but the problem is these are highly regulated markets and as a trader you need to earn certain qualifications and abide by compliance laws.
“For example, if a number of professional traders were to say to each other ‘let’s all go for this certain stock’, like the people on Reddit have, it would be highly illegal.”
Bittrex Global’s newly listed stocks include:
● GameStop (GME)
● AMC Entertainment (AMC)
● BlackBerry (BB)
● Nokia Corporation (NOK)
● iShares Silver Trust (SLV)