The Robinhood Reckoning
For better or for worse, the no-fee investment app has now become synonymous with Main Street trading
Welcome to Buy/Sell/Hold, Marker’s weekly newsletter that’s 100% business intelligence and 0% investment advice. Each week, our writers Steve LeVine and Rob Walker will make sense of the most important developments in business and why they matter.
We know you’re busy, so think of our Buy/Sell/Hold labels as shorthand metaphor: a Buy if we view it as a positive trend or clever move; a Sell if it’s a disastrous mistake or a missed opportunity; or a Hold if it’s noteworthy but too early to call.
The Robinhood Reckoning
The Buy/Sell/Hold Analysis
“It is not lost upon us that our company and our service have become synonymous with retail investing in America,” the founders of the no-fee stock-trading app Robinhood declared last Friday. It sounded like a boast. But in fact, it was quite the opposite: The context was an official response to the apparent suicide of a 20-year-old reportedly distraught because he believed that some risky options trades he placed through the app had left him $730,000 in the red. While the specifics are unclear, the event vaulted Robinhood into the spotlight so dramatically, the unicorn startup now…