IDK what to think about today's events. Honestly, I'm appalled. I don't agree with halting trading but I get why it's done. That wasn't what happened today though.
Instead of halting trading I witnessed a trading app, one of the largest being used as far a I know, NOT HALT trading but close trading on the buy side while leaving the sell side open.
I suppose if you had a trade open and you suddenly began seeing the price drop you'd be thankful that sell side was an option for you. However, when you close the buy side and only allow selling, the price tends to drop! This is how markets work.
In my humble opinion, they literally balanced the order books. They had to know people would panic sell when the price started dropping, and by leaving the sell side open they gave emotional traders an opportunity to "balance" the order book.
With the buy side closed there was no way for buyers to help prop up the price of the selloff.
I can't imagine this was legal. This is market manipulation of the highest order. If this isn't considered market manipulation, I don't know what would be. On top of that I'd like to know what their motivation was. They had to know a move like this would hurt their reputation immensely.
For the record, this isn't sour grapes on my part. I only held one stock that they "manipulated" on the sell side. SNDL is a cannabis stock bought under 50 cents. I had a small position and even after this shitshow I'm still in the profit zone on this trade.
I'd really like to know the motivating factor in what went down today. The little guy finally got one over on Wall St. and they showed us just how rigged the game is. Nobody tries to balance the order books when our 401K's get wipped out. If you're leverage trading, you're never given the opportunity to readjust your position. There are no do-overs in the trading game! Yet, pure and simple this was the boldest form of market manipulation I've ever witnessed. It wasn't even hidden. Close the buy side and crash this albatross on the sell side.
Anybody who trades on any platform that took part in this should be very vocal about their disapproval of these shenanigans. I think it's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out now. Will regulators step in? Was their criminal activity? Who profited? Why? Who gave the orders?
I'm fairly new to the stock market but I've never heard of them closing the buy side while keeping the sell side open. There would only be one reason to do that and that would be to dump the price.
As Davey Daytrader said today, they changed the rules in the middle of the game. This was a slap in the face to retail investors. I personally see this as a massive rug pull on the average joe-trader.
Anyway, I just wanted to vent. Here's a lovely letter Robinhood sent. I already took half the money out of my trading account, and I'm honestly considering whether or not I want to continue trading there.
Letter
Final Thoughts
I honestly don't think there was any excuse for what they did. I would have been OK with halting ALL trading. But leaving the sell side open to crash the price is unacceptable. I'm not sure I can feel confidant trading there after all that transpired today. It just felt like a slap in the face, and excuse my language but this was a massive FUCK YOU to the average trader.
That's my take on it. All parties are innocent until proven guilty, but I hope regulators step in and I hope we find out the truth about what actually transpired today. I can't believe this type of activity is legal or anyone could find this acceptable behavior.