bar1080
6 months ago
..Gamestop, Reddit, and The Fleecing of Small Investors. (Scroll Down)
"The book, which will be released on January 25, is essential reading for anyone who wants to make sense of the GameStop saga, especially the story of Keith Gill who at one point had made over $50 million on the stock. Although Gill was originally motivated by conviction derived from fundamental analysis, many of the speculators on Reddit were more motivated by βsticking it to the manβ β meaning Wall Street billionaires and others who had short positions in GameStop.
"The very notion of a buying stock more out of a motivation to harm short sellers than to actually make money is something that I found truly baffling when the crazy GameStop situation unfolded in early 2021. Speculators and investors have little in common in terms of how they operate but Iβve always regarded the ultimate goal of actually making money to be an area of common ground. However, as Jakab documents in some detail, a group of individuals congregating on the wallstreetbets subreddit were so enthralled with the idea of costing billionaires money that they often put that goal above a simple profit motive. Make no mistake about it, individuals such as Keith Gill who made a killing on the stock were revered among the wallstreetbets crowd, but the ability to have βdiamond handsβ and to keep buying to squeeze the shorts was clearly the paramount objective for many in the community. Solidarity with the goal of screwing over the shorts was the governing ethos of wallstreetbets."
"Using the Robinhood app was an eye-opening experience. I received a βfree stockβ which was worth about $5. To test the trading platform, I sold that stock and used the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin which I parlayed into $6.22 before closing my account in disgust.
https://rationalwalk.com/the-revolution-that-wasnt/
Monksdream
11 months ago
HOOD has declined a couple bucks after its earnings report
Not helping matters is the sale of large blocks of 144 stock by founder and CEO Viad Tenev
And stock by the CFO
What other challenges does Viad Tenev face
Robinhood was an innovative disrupter in the style of Kathie Wood who continues buying shares
Now there is competition from brokers like Webull and moomoo and whatever else is out there that opens its trading platforms at 4am Eastern US time
Viad has begun 24 hour trading in select issues I cant see how that is so disruptive since the instruments would appeal mostly to institutions and the number is minute compared to the thousands of issues
That in part could explain why Robinhood is losing accounts per this Jones Boys article
Robinhood Needs to Steal More Users -- Heard on the Street -- WSJ
7:30 am ET August 3, 2023 (Dow Jones) Print
By Telis Demos
Robinhood Markets turned a surprise profit in the second quarter. But that may not be enough to nab back its momentum just yet.
What originally got the world so excited about Robinhood -- explosive growth in active users -- is a thing of the past. Monthly active users declined by about a million over the course of the second quarter, to 10.8 million. That is around half the level of two years ago, when Robinhood was in the midst of 2021's wild trading surge. Transaction-based revenue from equities, options and crypto trading is also falling, dropping 8% quarter over quarter.
However, where Robinhood is growing is in customers bringing more money into the brokerage, even if they aren't trading as much: Net deposits grew at an annualized 21% rate in the quarter, and the company's Gold cash sweep accounts -- which now pay a 4.9% yield -- have more than doubled since the start of the year, to $11 billion. Interest-based revenue is continuing to grow.
There is also growing revenue from non-trading activity. Between fully paid securities lending, in which investors can lend out their shares to earn passive income, and transaction revenue from instant withdrawals and debit cards, the company generated $24 million in revenue -- just a million dollars shy of the revenue generated by equities trading in the quarter.
All of this helped average revenue per user grow from $77 in the first quarter to $84 in the second quarter, the fifth straight quarter of growth. And thanks in part to the company's founders canceling some of their stock awards, as well as other cost controls such as layoffs, Robinhood was able to generate $25 million in net income in the second quarter, versus the continuing loss analysts were anticipating, according to Visible Alpha. This is the first quarter of net profit since it became a publicly traded company.
Yet while this is certainly a milestone, there should only be limited fanfare in Sherwood Forest. Average user revenue of $84 remains well behind what other online brokerages have historically generated, by hundreds of dollars. It is also getting harder, not easier, to make money from cash: Robinhood's annualized yield on earning assets fell from 3.68% in the first quarter to 3.51% in the second.
A rise in interest revenue helped the stock jump nearly 60% this year through Wednesday. Now the bar is getting higher, though, with investors initially evidently disappointed by the quarter, despite the profit milestone: Shares were down about 6% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
The bright side is that Robinhood is at least bringing in raw materials. While monthly active users are declining, the number of net cumulative funded accounts is up to 23.2 million, about 700,000 more than it had two years ago. The key is enticing customers into becoming even more active, and thus more lucrative.
"Over time as we broaden our product selection, and deepen our relationships with customers, you're going to see a more consistent relationship between [monthly active users] and total funded accounts," Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick told analysts on Wednesday.
Of course, expectations need to be adjusted right now, since it is such a fallow time for trading. The number of customers placing trades was down quarter over quarter in equity, options and crypto. And only options saw an increase by notional volume, or contracts in the case of options, per trader.
Robinhood told analysts that, even at today's relatively lethargic levels, it believes it is taking market share in equities and options trading. Still, the merry band may have to steal a lot more share if it wants to thrill the market once again.
Write to Telis Demos at Telis.Demos@wsj.com