{"id":43375,"date":"2020-08-09T06:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era\/"},"modified":"2020-08-09T06:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T03:20:00","slug":"robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era\/","title":{"rendered":"#Robinhood app luring and robbing amateurs \u2014 like in the dot-com era"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af4905b58225\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af4905b58225\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era\/#Many_eye_%E2%80%98Tiking_a_chance\" >Many eye \u2018Tik\u2019ing a chance<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Robinhood <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a> luring and robbing amateurs \u2014 like in the dot-com era<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n                        The 1990s were simpler times. The <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> was dominated by Bill Clinton\u2019s various sexual escapades, but also a bubble in internet-related stocks that was partly fueled by the democratization of stock trading.<\/p>\n<p>The latter inflated the stock market <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly, and if you\u2019re old enough to remember, pretty much crashed it. Newbie investors took the brunt of the crash, with some losing their lifesavings, well after professional traders had sold their positions.<\/p>\n<p>Now history may be repeating itself in the form of Robinhood, a stock-trading app that has become something of a cultural phenomenon during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Robinhood now boasts 13 million users and growing \u2014 about 3 million of those joined since COVID-19 hit. Bars and gyms are closed, people are in lockdown, but Robinhood gives you a chance to make money \u2014 and a way to alleviate boredom.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s aided and abetted by the massive government economic-relief effort that appears to make trading a no-lose proposition, enticing retail investors to flip stocks just like they did two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>During the dot-com era, there was a famous commercial of an office clerk teaching a C-suite executive how to trade online. Meanwhile, Robinhood is so easy to use that even a Luddite like me can set up an account and start trading stocks, options or cryptocurrencies in a matter of minutes, as I did in preparation for this story.<\/p>\n<p>Plus it\u2019s free, or at least that\u2019s the impression the company wants to give (there are no commissions, but I\u2019ll explain how the company makes money later).<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot to like about Robinhood. It\u2019s a clean, easy-to-use interface. You can even get a free stock for signing up. I received a free share of a company called Agenus, trading under the symbol of AGEN for $3.28, a company described in my Robinhood portfolio as a \u201cclinical-stage immuno-oncology company.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16108429\"><img alt=\"'Robinhood' users have none of the resources, insights or knowledge like professional traders do.\" data- data- height=\"441\" width=\"662\"><\/img><figcaption><span>Robinhood users have none of the resources, insights or knowledge professional traders do.<\/span><span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the lure of Robinhood is also the lure of the roulette wheel \u2014 you can make a lot of money, but you can also lose a lot because trading isn\u2019t easy. It\u2019s something that is honed and perfected and even the best go through periods of \u00adlosing money.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, I found none of this on Robinhood\u2019s website. Nowhere does it tell me that my free share of stock is described by Wall Street pros as a speculative \u201cpenny stock\u201d because it trades \u00adbelow $5 a share.<\/p>\n<p>And that gets to the problem with Robinhood \u2014 it\u2019s built for the person who doesn\u2019t know a lot about the markets and doesn\u2019t ask a lot of questions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also built for people who think they can trade like the big guys, people like Steve Cohen, Dan Loeb, Ken Griffin. To arm you against the professional, Robinhood gives users access to research and reporting in its news feed, but again, when much of this type of news hits the tape, the pros have already traded on it.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not insider information, but the way the Wall Street information mill works. The big guys who pay the biggest commissions get the best info, not some guy trading a few shares of AGEN.<\/p>\n<p>Robinhood is now valued at around $8 billion given its recent success, meaning it\u2019s heading for a big IPO payday itself. You might ask how it makes money without charging brokerage commissions, and the simple answer is that it sells its trading-order flow to third parties that match buyers and sellers, a practice known as payment for order flow.<\/p>\n<p>Big brokers pay Robinhood for order flow because they can trade out of these orders at huge profits, and given all the action on Robinhood, brokerages are clamoring for this business. In other words, nothing comes for free, and Robinhood users are the product, just like they are on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not a Robinhood hater. Founders Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev come from immigrant families and met at Stanford and created a great business designed to \u201cbring in those who\u2019ve been left out of the system by making investing more approachable,\u201d a company spokesman tells me. Moreover investing is a worthwhile pursuit, and that\u2019s why there are mutual funds and index funds for the masses.<\/p>\n<p>But there is a learning curve to buying and selling individual stocks, which isn\u2019t investing but the profession of trading. That\u2019s how Steve Cohen makes $1 billion a year and can afford to buy the Mets.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Many_eye_%E2%80%98Tiking_a_chance\"><\/span>Many eye \u2018Tik\u2019ing a chance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Microsoft bid to buy controversial social-media app TikTok is far from over, but already the tech giant is receiving interest from outside investors to join its bidding group, sources tell me.<\/p>\n<p>These potential co-investors include General Atlantic Partners and Sequoia Capital, both current investors in TikTok\u2019s Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, sources with knowledge of the matter say. In addition, don\u2019t be surprised if a big private-equity firm jumps into the group.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind, a lot can happen between now and the time that Microsoft actually makes a bid. It is currently focused on TikTok\u2019s US operations \u2014 around 100 million monthly users, mainly Gen-Zers and social-media influencers in this country who use the short-video app to post everything from dance videos to commentary to political satire. But TikTok\u2019s audience is expected to expand; sports franchises are said to be interested in posting.<\/p>\n<p>That said, a Microsoft bid is far from a done deal. The company has looked at whether buying just the US portion makes sense since TikTok has 800 million \u00adusers globally. Moreover, it will have to convince President Trump that the app is secure from Chinese influence.<\/p>\n<p>While all this plays out, TikTok\u2019s future in the US is ticking away.\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Business News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>if you want to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">watch Movies<\/a> or Tv Shows go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/dizi.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/08\/08\/robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Robinhood app luring and robbing amateurs \u2014 like in the dot-com era&#8221; The 1990s were simpler times. The news was dominated by Bill Clinton\u2019s various sexual escapades, but also a bubble in internet-related stocks that was partly fueled by the democratization of stock trading. The latter inflated the stock market generally, and if you\u2019re old&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50907],"class_list":["post-43375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-robinhood-app-luring-and-robbing-amateurs-like-in-the-dot-com-era"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}