My friend is. He is ballz deep in options as we speak. Sat on the sidelines since march. Dipped his toes in penny stocks from april till last week. scared to put his funded money to work for him....Since last week, its grabbed him.... He was just telling me he wanted to a $138 call option on TSLA for a $1640 strike on i think jul 30th. Shorted HTZ for $1 strike (i don't see the upside to shorting a Stock on a month long grind at $1.50 at .50 OTM) He is shorted the SPY, long optioned on a couple tech companies besides tsla... Im (ultra fanboy, i think u know) telling him he needs to cool his jets!
Interesting. Every time you read something about RobinHood, it points out amateur traders making mistakes. Robin Hood looks great with it 's fee free trading. I don't need to have a 2nd brokerage account.
It's the most popular name for new traders. Based on what I've seen, they usually look for greener pastures after a few platform issues. M1 Finance is the new brokerage of choice now apparently
Interesting. Another brokerage. I don't think I will close out my account, to start over. But some will.
To be fair, i dont believe robinhood would steal anyone’s money, either. But they seem to prey on the uneducated. Maybe it was A55? If not, sorry. I saw someone post an article saying they send u reminders with emojis, to make sure to remind you to trade. Almost making it like an endorphin induced game. They also apparently have extremely relaxed standards for offering margin, or any other high risk activity. Legit? sure. Morally questionable, is my soapbox.
I use RH for instant funds, fractions and real slick options GUI. Cons - PM hours start @ 6AM PST and weak DT feature. Overall one of my favorite tools in the box.
I use E*Trade. I am in San Francisco. They started in Palo Alto, which is 20 minutes down the highway. Back in those days, there was a good local buzz about the new brokerage....eyes rolling......You Trade on AOL. as I recall, Schwab was the popular game back then. Major banks had a scrolling symbol ticker with select quotes and news headlines. Maybe it only showed Dow Jones. It was called, "Silent Radio" Grocery stores had a "Muzak" system. I did a lot of Quaaludes. AOL? Robin Hood traders weren't even born yet.
They identified a market. They sold to that market. Nobody with 7 figures to play with. No inherited wealth managed by professionals. A younger clientele lacking the benefits of passed on knowledge. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robin Hood. In the old days, they were cold calling from boiler rooms. Unfortunately, the lack of basic understanding of how the financial world works, has caused volatility. Stupid stuff like buying companies in bankruptcy. Hertz. Whisper down the line, forward momentum, fear of missing out, pump and dump. GNUS. Pharmaceutical companies which never made a drug, claiming to have produced a vaccine in 3 hours...Inovio......That's just being stupid, like buying the Empire State Building. ESRT. Greek shipping companies. Brazilian beverages. Pakistani Airlines. Thai LadyBoys. Does the Robin Hood platform, app, or company steer a trader into bad decisions? ? Are the flashing lights, bells, and whistles just good marketing? What's the binding ingredient to less savvy traders all choosing 1 broker?
Without digging too deep in, my initial guess is the free platform. Advertising for it on click bait, stock videos on youtube or the likes. Any social media channel. Fine. they advertise to new traders with low money in their accounts. fine. i will not dig deeper because i am happy with my setup. I look at charts on TOS, make my purchases on tastyworks. But all the rhetoric i see with robinhood, points to greedy money grabbing, predator/prey mentality. investing is NOT a game. And should not be treated as such. Anyone savvy enough to build a trading platform should know this. But they make it like a game anyway. Because more trades equal more commission FOR THEM! Not the trader. so u have a target audience. (Young/new money) You have a platform ( i believe u can even buy fractional shares? That may be wrong, but if so, raises my eyebrow). Because if u can, that makes it a realm in which i am not familiar with brokerages being in, but only funds managers 401k and the likes....again, i may be wrong on that.....But... if i am at work, and see a text come in on my phone from my broker, i want to see shaking news. I want to see that GIGA Berlin just approved got approved for some whatever to speed the factory building process. I do NOT want to see a happy face emoji, reminding me to make my daily trade or i may miss some credits.... Or hrly trade, or what the f*** ever is prompting me to trade? This goes back to another couple posts i saw i think it was in the long term investor thread....about investing in (or in this case WITH) shady owners. I dont agree with their tactics. Plain and simple. We all know brokerages ONLY make money when a trade is placed. That is the ONLY time, they profit. Robinhood exploits this by encouraging bad trades to new investors......seems to be the picture i am gathering. I am all about a company making money. But i DO, look at management. I have been a (bet the CEO) kind of guy for a decade. I look at their business plan, and and target audience. Robinhood is a shark swimming among guppies. And feeding on them.... that is my less than researched take on it..... good platform? Im sure it is. Will u ever see me on it? Doubtful. Because i dont support their tactics. Not to say they will burn me. Only to say, i think there are better morally guided brokerages out there.
And to your rich dad poor dad reference. I was corporate, knocking down 100k per yr. i read that book. That is the book that started me on my path that also led me here. About a decade ago. Maybe more by a couple yrs. great book. Thought provoking to say the least.
Investing is a game when the government gives you $1200 in free cash. Also same story for tax refund time.
My dad taught me what he knew in life. Rich dads teach their children what they know. Rich dad lessons did not trickle down to people buying bad investment. Rich dad. Poor dad. No dad. Some people got zero guidance. It seems like people buying on RobinHood either reject conventional guidance, or they really do know something that they don't get enough credit for. Is it guts or stupidity to buy bankrupt companies?
Stupidity if unresearched, i would say? Guts if super savvy and u know the terms of the bankruptcy, and the asset/vs debt. What happens to said assets? Are they old jcp buildings about to be used for amazon storage? Or old htz cars about to be sold on car mart lots? Is it a pharma company that never got a single drug to market? Or a tech company that has never the same? I however, do not classify myself as savvy, so i will stay away from bankrupt companies. Haha
Icahn lost $2Billion on Hertz. RobinHood traders taught him a lesson when 1200 shares purchased for $1, went up to $2.
Man, i had a text written but wasnt sure if that was in reference to my above post. my reference to him (my friend) shorting hertz was he is using options (good so he doesnt lose his hose if hertz miraculously goes to the moon). Bad because in my (unresearched scope) it has been on a 50¢ grind around the $1.50 range for the past month. He is 50+¢ out of the money. His option is i think august 21 expiry? He can only gain $1.5ish. per option IF he is right and it goes to zero by august. Most of the value of a put was dollars higher than this price, for my interest. At a quick glance, i am skipping it. Unless there is expected news between now and then. I dont know. Im not on this stock. He told me he bought it, asked me if it was a good trade. I took a look at the chart and would have passed based on that. Asked why he made the trade. He said it just has to drop. They filed bankruptcy. All i said was god speed. He may be right. But it was a reckless lotto move when HE did it. He waited till after the news. Unless there is more. Again. It may pay off. I dont know. But i know i used him as a robinhooder example.
Bankruptcy court is not a speedy trial. So shares will not cancel to zero by August 21. Nobody is stepping in to bail out Hertz. If it were fiscally sensible to pay off the debt, then operate the company debt free and turn a profit, it would not be in bankruptcy. Icahn would not have taken the loss. Hordes of Investors would be trying to buy it right now. The only value would be the legacy of the brand name. Someone will bid for the name, and operate a new Hertz. Current shareholders will not get anything if a new Hertz emerges. It will be a completely different owner. Maybe not even be a public company.
