Interesting that some of the stolen money went through RevolutâŠ
Why donât we?
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One of the victims said to have 2FA enabled. If your banking app and email have 2FA the risks are low if I am not missing something. It is a nice to have feature still
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Customer Service is a must especially when a product malfunctions often.
AJ Bell just sent me a cheque for ÂŁ250 off the back of one polite email I sent, due to not being able to access the account around October 28th when the market dipped and shifted into value stocks.
To send one polite short paragraph email to a company and have them understand and make a gesture that helps is a real relief in life.
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From Ian King at Sky News. âŠand Freetrade gets a brief mention.
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Itâs a pretty chunky fine! Whilst they can afford it and will have already raised capital to cover, it canât help their reputation:
âDeprived customers of $34.1mâ
âThe trading app repeatedly failed to disclose that it receives payments from trading firms for routing its customersâ orders, the SEC said. The regulator said that Robinhood had made these âfalse and misleading statementsâ during a period of rapid growth. Robinhood did not admit or deny the SEC findings.â
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I thought it was common knowledge that Robinhood sold their order flow. Is there anyone who actually didnât know this?
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If I remember correctly a US journalist investigated and exposed RH back in early/mid 2019 after finding evidence their numbers didnât stack up i.e. they couldnât have been making the kind of money they were, through the ways they claimed at the time. It is now common knowledge.
(Anyone correct if thatâs slightly off)
The other part of the fine was for gamification of stocks, not acting in the clients best interest and providing complex financial products to people they shouldnât have:
â The enforcement office found that large portions of the The enforcement office found that large portions of the Massachusetts public that Robinhood had approved to trade options had little or no investment knowledge, and that it had given the green light to some new traders even in violation of the companyâs own policies.â
Brokers have to disclose their payments for order flow in the US, itâs normally buried deep but finding Robinhoodâs wasnât that hard. Google Robinhood Disclosure Library.
Robinhood had approved to trade options had little or no investment knowledge
Is this illegal, then?
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I wouldnât use the word illegal (in this case), more that theyâve fallen foul of regulations. Itâs a conflict of interest as Robinhood is making money selling a complex financial product which is unsuitable for the consumer who will inevitably lose money. RH wasnât acting in the best interests of the client and so the regulator is acting to protect the consumer.
Freetrade published how they handle conflicts of interests very early on, in order to build trust:
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Who decides whatâs unsuitable for a consumer? Itâs up to the investor themselves to learn about options and decide whether or not theyâll have anything to do with them.
one does not always know what is best for themselves
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If you sign up for options with degiro, they make you do a test. Not saying its rigorous but the first question is âhow much experience do you haveâ and theyâve got you legally, sort of. Not sure what RH have.
Be careful, thatâs a slippery slope. At the end of the day, theyâre adults, and should be treated as such.
National regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.
Thatâs not contested. But the regulator is there to ensure financial services firms do not misrepresent risk or suitability of a product or access to market or instrument which ultimately benefits a business at the detriment of consumers - key word, as a consumer is not typically a professional working within or has experience of the financial services sector.
A couple of obvious examples of firms acting in a way that would attract the attention of regulators would be the gamification of risk in financial markets and allowing customers access to trading derivatives, which for the most part are complex instruments with the potential for downside risk being many multiples of any initial capital outlay.
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Thatâs not contested
It seems to be, as people are being treated as if they canât make their own decisions and canât be responsible for them.
gamification
Meaning?
Regardless, itâs up to the customer to do their own research and decide what theyâll trade/invest in. Risk is just part of life, thatâs never gonna change.